Subaru B9 Tribeca SUV Forum banner

Aftermarket Double Din Nav Installed

71K views 82 replies 31 participants last post by  montalvo.adrianna  
#1 · (Edited)
I got to thinking about connecting my JDM legacy gt HVAC module into the tribeca. The plug is the same but the pinouts are different. This is a good start on exorcising the stock headunit for a double din unit. If I can get the HVAC to work, some cutting and bondo will fix the control panel trim. Then I can fit a proper headunit on there.

What do you guys think? Crazy or what? I need to check the electrical pinouts, but I think it's doable. The seat heaters need to be relocated and re-wired too.


**Because Imageshack has changed their policy and the pics are now all held in ransom for their new service fee, I've rehosted the pics in their own album. You can now look at all the pics from my camera.


---->>> http://imgur.com/a/nNGMG <<<----
 
Discussion starter · #2 ·
No one is interested in this?

Anyways, I got it to work but the illumination output is different. My 20 pin harness fails me. Now I gotta dig out my tester.

Anyone know which are the two wires for illumination?
 
Discussion starter · #3 ·
Update: Buttons all work, Auto, temp up/down, etc. I got the main illumination on, but cannot figure the lcd screen illumination out. The darn Tribecas have done away with illumination as typically done in the past. There's two illumination wires, one 12v switched and another that requires feedback. I don't have the Leggy anymore so I'm hoping someone on the lgt forum can take some readings on their meter for me.

There's still the matter of the seat heater buttons, but that should be more straight forward. I'll cut the off the pcb and tap straight into the seat harness.
 
Discussion starter · #6 ·
I got the illum issue figured out but it became a non-issue once I changed course and went with the stock hvac setup.

This is before paint matching, but you can see the hvac in use.



Uploaded with ImageShack.us

Night shot. It looks really great in person. The z130bt menu matches the subaru gauges/mfd perfectly.



Uploaded with ImageShack.us
 
Discussion starter · #8 ·
mstow42 said:
Great job. One question is how is the double din mounted? Or was the old radio mounts useable? Curious, but not enough to tear into mine quite yet :)
Thanks.

The stock mounting plates are used, but you have align the headunit for fitment. Basically get it pointed in the right direction depth and height wise and drill some new holes.
 
Discussion starter · #9 ·
I got all my trim pieces back room the paint shop and the steering wheel controls hooked up with a PAC unit. I had a Metra before and it was useless, so was their tech support, lol. I also installed a 11in rear overhead dvd player. This setup is officially completed for me. The wife is ecstatic with her B9, success! In hindsight, I only wish I didn't waste so much time with the ASWC, talk about a pita.
 
Discussion starter · #16 ·
kkomara said:
WOW - you did an AMAZING job !!! Does your new system integrate with the stock Tribeca - non-nav LCD screen too ? I.E. - when you use your new audio does the FM station for example display on the stock Tribeca LCD screen ? If so how did you do that ??? Did you connect into the MBus data stream to the screen ?
ALso - will the Tribeca HVAC system work if you remove the stock Clarion Tuner and Pansonic 6-CD changer ? Did you have to integrate the HVAC or did you just do it because you could ?
Thanks.

The system doesn't integrate with the LCD screen, but the Subaru screen still works like stock. I just figured out how to make it not display NO AUDIO all the time, or some such wording.

The stock HVAC is 100% operational. That was the goal, to get a real Navi unit in there and maintain the stock HVAC and make it look like it belonged in there. I completely removed the stock changer, except for the radios heatsink plate and tuner pcb which runs the HVAC electrics. You kinda have to keep the tuner board. Also, the tuner is not the same thing as the clarion sirrius tuner etc, that thing is long gone.

brandroid said:
This is freakin awesome! I've been planning in my head something like this for a while but never did it.

Any way you could make a list of parts used, and type up a step by step of what you did so I could replicate this. I really just need all of the wiring directions. I have installed tons of car stereos, but figuring out the wiring on my own is a little over my head.
I didn't do a writeup because of the nature of the install, and well it didn't look like there was much interest in it. Install wise, because there is a lack of proper replacement ribbon cables, the install ends up being a bit jury rigged. It works for me, but I couldn't put something like this out there and endorse it like a wiki step by step how to. If you want to do it, I've already written a general walkthrough in pm's for another member. I can see that it gets forwarded to you. The most important part is in securing a replacement HVAC panel off ebay and modifying the stock ribbon cables from failure. ;)
 
Discussion starter · #18 ·
kkomara said:
How did you get it to not display "Audio Off". Have you ever messed around with the MBus data bus between the Clarion Tuner and CD changer or between the tuner and the stock non-nav lcd ? I want to replace the LCD with a 7 "Andriod tablet but I want to integrate it with the tuner so I don't lose the ability to display the tuner/cd info. Looking for someone who has figured out how to tap into this data bus. Think I can do it with a device from GROM AUDIO - but I have not been able to confirm it will allow me to get to the MBUS data objects.
The MFD has two plugs that go into the tuner board, don't plug them both in. I forget which was which so try it out.
 
Discussion starter · #21 · (Edited)
where can i buy a Tribeca Faceplate. i really like this aftermarket navi
THANK YOU

You can't buy it because I made it. Man, damn that imageshack and their money grubbing changes. I'll have to dig thru my pics and re-host the pics since they're literally held ransom by imageshack.

What I did was order a replacement faceplate from ebay. When I did this in '11, there were a bunch of new faceplates around 130 bucks or so but these days it looks like units from crashed cars. Get whatever you can it doesn't need to be pretty. If you don't want to touch your stocker then get one with all the dials. Then from there I cut it, bondo'd, shaped the opening, sanded and finally paint.


http://www.ebay.com/sch/i.html?_odk...&_osacat=0&_from=R40&_trksid=m570.l1313&_nkw=subaru+tribeca+radio+face&_sacat=0
 
Discussion starter · #23 ·
Thanks. The electrical was the most difficult part but luckily after switching to the replacement stock faceplate it was just a matter of logistics. Removing and discarding all the stock stereo parts and then reconnecting the hvac was the hardest part, or should I say pain in my ass. :cool:
 
Discussion starter · #25 ·
you got anymore info on what is OK to remove from stock HU, I thus far thought of just keeping intact original HU in there but lower then the new stereo, if there is a way to make stock HU smaller then I'd like to try it. IF yoo still remember after all these years.

There's no room to keep the stock HU. Where would you put it in there if you replace it with a double DIN NAV unit? Thus I removed all non-essential stock parts, which left the hvac controller and the tuner board which supplies power to the hvac controller. Everything is modular in that it is connected by ribbon cables. I was able to remove stock HU, cd drive, satellite unit w/o issue. The hardest part was keeping the tuner board connected to the hvac controls. The ribbon cables that connect it are very short and finding a longer set of ribbons was near impossible. In the end I just reinforced the stock ribbons and jury rigged the tuner board to the hvac controller, duct tape to the rescue more or less. I also had to stuff the steering wheel control module in there, further taking up room.

I haven't had one issue with hvac operations since making this thread so it's been working. I have to open it up sometime as the steering wheel buttons are intermittent. I knew I should have soldered the connections instead of crimping.
 
Discussion starter · #28 · (Edited)
i was able to fit stock HU in there and a double din, and like you said i had problems with connecting tiny ribbon cables, while messing with all that I knocked on of the ribbon connectors off the PCB and at that point started to solder in longer wires instead of the ribbon cables, and that is where I kinda lost the motivation. all i need now is to finish something like 40 tiny (.76mm) solders and plug it in.

So what you are saying the cd player part can just be removed while keeping all the rest?

Yea, I removed everything or more like disassembled it all and only kept the tuner board (the pcb with the tuner dial), which supplies power to the hvac.

http://i.imgur.com/oTZIA6s.jpg


From this, I connected the tuner board which used the two ribbons. I wrapped the ribbons in tape and superglue to strengthen them. I also removed the dial from the tuner board (important later) and once connected via the ribbons the bare tuner board just folds over right on top of the hvac controls. Imagine in the above pic with the tuner board folded over and being taped to there. This is made easier by removing the dial. Normally the tuner board would sit in front of the stock HU in that main opening, and on the front of it is the dial knob. In short, I removed the HU and all the junk, kept the tuner board, removed the knob, connected the ribbons to the hvac knobs, folded the tuner board over, taped it together securely.

I'll have to open it up. It's been 5 years now, lol I've probably forgotten a lot of what I did.


Correct me if I'm wrong, but MY08-14 have a tuner board that is separate from the HU, no?
The tuner board is the front pcb on the actual stock HU. **Or maybe it was connected to the faceplate? Ya I think it was mounted to the faceplate, lol. The power runs thru that board then is sent to all the other boards. To run the hvac seamlessly, I had to keep that board and just that board from the stock HU. Thinking back, I believe the I had to keep the stock HU's powersupply, the amp section. The tuner gets it's power from the powersupply, then passes control of the hvac thru to the dials, knobs, etc. Maybe I will time to pull it apart tomorrow to solder the connections for the metra swc. And at thatt time I will refresh my memory and take some inside pics.
 
Discussion starter · #29 ·
Discussion starter · #31 ·
The ribbons are the biggest pita. Since I had two faceplates, I ended up using the ribbons that connect the knobs to the hvac controller. They are wider so I trimmed them down. Worst case I would buy the one faceplate on ebay going for 130. Oh btw, here's a pic for the steering wheel control. It's not detailed anywhere well that I could find. It's the brown wire here correlating with the green from the pac unit. I used a pac swi-ps, giving full access to the steering wheel buttons.

http://i.imgur.com/DvBQqoA.jpg
 
Discussion starter · #33 ·
I have the same PAC system, all connected and programmed, i also installed alpine rear camera,

Nice nice. Now you gotta finish man!


Btw, have you looked into the rear sub? I have a whole set of separates f and coaxes r (iirc). But I might just run the speakers off the pio nav unit and run a mono amp to the sub. The stocker is a puny 6" lol. Oh I also wired the center speaker bridged-stereo-center to the pio unit. This way it's not such a big deal, won't have to make a amp tray etc.
 
Discussion starter · #47 ·
so i was bored yesterday and came across this pic, 2015 legacy/outback hvac controls,

this is the first car subaru made that has all the functions of tribeca in a single panel, so you all already know what im thinking.
Does anyone have 2015+ to measure the width of the face?
im gonna go thru wiring to see how different it is from ours, but basically if this can be installed then the rest of the HU install will be mad simple.
You don't want to go that route, trust me. It's a lot more hassle, than just chopping up the existing HU. If you look at my pics in the OP, you'll see that I already went that route in 2011 and it lead no where because you have to get medieval on the electrics and that is above my pay grade.

If you check the posts date, it only took me one month to do this mod. I wasted a ton of time with the Legacy climate control unit. Most of my time was wasted figuring the electrics out and I even had some help on the LGT forums. But all that effort on the LGT forums was for naught, because it really led into a dead end

At that point on a whim I checked ebay for replacement Tribeca radio faceplates and light bulbs went off. Why reinvent the wheel when you don't have to? Once I figured out how to chop the Tribeca radio/HVAC control up it only took a few days to get it all together. The paint matching alone took over a week maybe two because it took a couple of trips to get the color just right. Thus iirc it only took around two weeks to do this mod. Bondo takes two days to mix/shape/cure.

Reading back it looks like your big issue is with the self inflicted damage to the ribbon connectors. I think it would have been better to just throw money at it and get a new radio plate. But it has been a year so I don't know where you are at, hopefully finished and done.

Btw, I saw a custom NAV unit posted on youtube last year by a shop. I assume they followed what was found here. Their aesthetic work on the trim is ugly imo though I could be biased hehe but imo they ruined the stock lines by blending the audio control trim and the radio trim.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=GS19PTQv3yY
 
Discussion starter · #50 ·
yeah i went with the original idea, was able to find longer ribbon cables and all is well for now. By the way thank you for all the info you provided, if it wasn't for this thread i probably wouldn't have done it

Image

That is awesome, congrats on a fine looking install. It looks just like mine does! :D

You're very welcome on the info. Actually I'm surprised no one else attempted the install. All in all I don't think it is actually that difficult if one is mechanically inclined. You've gotta know car stereos to some minor degree sure, but its not serious install work. I'd say its similar to building a serious computer rig with a watercooling loop but not as tedious.

Oh btw, what did you use for SWC control? I ended up switching to a PAC SWI but the track skipping doesn't work right on when playing mp3s. It keeps resetting the playlist to the first track, very annoying.

Image