Advice on CoastalETech Mods

I ordered the Coastal EV mod last Thursday afternoon, and it was waiting for me when I got home this [Tuesday] afternoon, delivered by UPS Ground as requested(5 days, one better than UPS predicted). I read the instructions twice, gathered the recommended tools, went to the car and started the stopwatch. 12+ minutes later I was ready to button up the two panels I'd removed and re-install the lower glove box.

I took the car on a test spin. First time I tried EV Mode, I got three beeps and a message across the top of the MFD that said "Unable to enter EV Mode," or similar. Two minutes later I tried again. No beeps, but the orange lines went away, the car got a lot quieter, and I was all-electric with all but the top blue bars showing!

About 0.8 miles later, driving up my steep driveway, the bottom two purple bars appeared and the ICE cut back in.

Button-up was just under three minutes. Total time less than 16 minutes.

The mod kit was exactly as I expected, the instructions were well-done and clear, with crisp color photos, and the plugs looked like the pictures.

I have moderately large fingers and hands, and used an 8" screwdriver to [gently] release the connector tab at the beginning, and to steer it into the socket and seat it as the last step before replacing the trim.

There was plenty of slack wire that allowed me to pull the connector away from the wire bundles and work on it "comfortably" while sitting in the passenger's seat.

While removing the air vent panel is done by pulling from the bottom first, I found it much easier to replace it by lining up the top and pushing the entire assembly back into the panel using a horizontal motion.

 

GREAT NEWS- Kelley at CoastalETech sent me an e-mail confirming my kit had been shipped- I hope to receive it and install it soon. I will still keep everyone posted on the progress. Can't wait...

 

<div class='quotetop'>QUOTE(cairo94507 @ Aug 8 2006, 06:00 AM) [snapback]299565[/snapback]</div>

Apparently, they reserve the right to refuse service any customer. I still haven't received mine, which is not surprising given the silly little UPS games they seem to like playing. Maybe I'm on some sort of black-list because I had the audacity to expect them to act professionally. Sheesh. How hard could it be to send out an email saying the item is back-ordered? Apparently, Paula, who handles their "service" is to busy to be bothered by a pesky little thing like a customer.

 

<div class='quotetop'>QUOTE(bobeast @ Aug 11 2006, 11:23 PM) [snapback]301964[/snapback]</div>

Well I have receivedUPS confirmation that my parts are on the way to me. Due to arrive on 8/17. I will keep all advised.

 

<div class='quotetop'>QUOTE(cairo94507 @ Aug 14 2006, 05:45 AM) [snapback]302955[/snapback]</div>

That's great news. I'm sure you will enjoy it as they do make great products. For myself, I just learned through a conversation with them that I am indeed NOT someone with whom they wish to do business. The riff stems from an order last year for the nav-enhancement kit. They had initially charged my credit card and got me all excited about receiving the part. A few days later the cc charge was reversed and MANY emails seeking an explanation went unsatisfied. I then filed a complaint with the BBB and used the unfortunate term "playing games with my credit card". This seems to be what got me blacklisted. Of course had they simply responded to one of my many querys with a "sorry the charge was a mistake and the part is still on back-order" the escalation never would have happened, but still, I can see where it is all my fault.

We went back and forth on the phone ad-nauseum and I guess the net result was their conclusion that they are a great company with very few complainers "such as myself" who like spewing unfounded claims for no apparent reason. Further, that all of my claims and complaining are completely inappropriate. The impass will remain in place until I provide a public apology.

 

Ordered an Ultimate Lockpick last thursday. Arrived on Tuesday (8/15). Installed easily, works great. Attached an iPod dock to the audio/video inputs. Can now watch video off in iPod while moving (totally illegal, I know). Curiously enough, the Prius thinks I've installed a Toyota DVD player. It adds another input option to the Audio menu (FM1, FM2, AM, Tape, CD, DVD). Then you press track up on the steering wheel to turn on the video and track down to turn it off. Turning on the video overrides all other video inputs. For example, if I play music through the iPod and turn on video, the screen is black (iPod not outputting any video). If I then switch to Info or Map (using steering wheel buttons) the screen remains black because the video input is still active. I have to press the track down button to turn off the video input.

The Bluetooth unlock also works. But it only seems to work if you press the "Call" button on the steering wheel. If you press Info on the dashboard then press Telephone, the BT unlock doesn't seem to kick in.

The Nav unlock just automates the service menu override procedure documented earlier. But the override is not automatic. You have to press the Bullseye icon to activate it. Then you can see it is go through the button press process to turn on the service mode.

So far, it's never failed to press the I Agree button when first going into Nav mode.

All in all, a great product. It's so good, I'm thinking of getting another one for my 2004 Sienna.

Hope this helps everyone.

Btw, install was no biggie. But I was unable to totally remove my radio. Had to squeeze my had around back and do some feeling around to plug in the audio input cable. The master override cable and the video input cable were easy to plug into behind the LCD monitor.

 

<div class='quotetop'>QUOTE(roundy @ Aug 17 2006, 02:59 AM) [snapback]304545[/snapback]</div>

Nice to hear it's working well for you, thanks for the review - what year Prius do you have? I'm assuming it's not a 2006? Thanks.

 

<div class='quotetop'>QUOTE(ZenCruiser @ Aug 17 2006, 06:23 AM) [snapback]304578[/snapback]</div>

I have a 2004 model. Cleaned up the install a bit yesterday. Hooked up an iPod Video Dock to the inputs. One caveat, any 4:3 video you send to the monitor will be stretched to 16:9. If you use the iPod to send a 16:9 formatted show, it will display correctly. There are no adjustments on the LCD itself. The LCD depends on the source to output the correct format video. I'm assuming that the real Toyota DVD player outputs 4:3 stuff in 16:9 but with black bars on the side so it shows up correctly.

I ended up putting the iPod dock on the carpet right below the center console. Ran the wires under the bottom of the grey panel. Works ok for now.

 

My daughter ordered the nav "I Agree" override from them for her '05 and heard nothing for a month. She called them and it shipped in 2 days. Their procedure for taking and processing orders needs a revamp, but the product quality is A#1. Took literally seconds to install and works as advertised. I will be ordering just about everything they sell for my '05 as soon as I get a chance...

Chuck

 

Did you have a factory dvd player and/or NAV?

I am looking to do basically the same thing in my '04, and am leaning to the ultimate lockpick. I want to be able to play video out of an iPhone or iTouch, onto the factory MFD, but I do NOT have jbl/nav/cam, etc..... from what I have figured out, the ULTIMATE LOCKPICK is the way to go. Will the touchscreen MFD work with the iPhone's audio functions? What about the factory steering wheel controls?

Thank you everyone in advance for a great forum!