A
Anonymous
Guest
So after having my RCZ R for 2 years, I've had 2 amplifiers installed in the boot, new subs, new fronts, new rears. All running on the stock RT6 system (with the popout dash screen and GPS, no JBL upgrade) using a speaker > RCA adapter.
The result was alright I guess, the stereo functioned as you would expect, max vol of 30, at 25+ the audio would go fuzzy where the unit would just be pushed too hard. Still; not good enough so I started looking at getting rid of it. After a very long time of looking into replacements I ended up giving up on the idea for several reasons, some of which:
- Removing the old unit loses many functions locked within the onboard computer (DRL's, The clock, etc etc.)
- The removal would also lose the indash screen, this was the deciding faction. The screen was bad but, the ERROR SYSTEM!!!! Shit I can't belive I nearly lost that!!!
- The only way to retain these is to keep the old unit and mount it elsewhere, the problem is the AV cable from the screen to the unit is very short and you would have to risk cutting it to splice it and HOPE its even possible. Ive yet to find an RT6 who has successfully relocated the unit.
- Even then you have the steering controls and parking sensor stuff to worry about as well, but this is an even bigger problem ill get to in a second.
So there were a few reasons throwing away the old unit was bad, but also, what a waste of a screen So I came up with a new plan: a Pioneer AVH-X-7800BT single din unit with a fold-out screen.
The idea is now to have TWO headunits, the stock and it's screen for all my error codes and if I really want to GPS and menu configurations. With the new Pioneer running the audio outs.
My installation guy contacts his supplier incartec.co.uk who have cambuses, relays and other such doohickys for the RCZ. But this is where we hit the first hurdle, their cambus is not tested on the RT6, in fact no ones is. After contacting several different companies, no one can sell me a cambus for the RT6. The guys at ICT said it SHOULD work, but may take some experimentation. So I figure fuck it, £60 I'll risk it.
So I pick up all the gear and my guy gets to work. An hour in we are ready to test......not good.
After installing the cambus and other parts the result was:
- Steering controls do not work (on new unit)
- Parking beeps do not work (on new unit)
- !! Reverse lights do not work !!
1 and 2 are bad, but #3 holy crap that really bad lol. So out comes new cambus, old unit gets plugged back in, stalks controls and sensors back to stock. New unit goes in and is now live.
Result:
- Stock unit fully functional, zero audio out, stalk controlls working on old unit
- New unit fully functional, sounds increadible.
- Console USB rerouted to new unit
- Small speaker fitted behind dash connected to old units speakers (my new parking sensor beeper)
- Stock units speakers routed to new units Aux, if I want satnav or whatever I switch to Aux and have stalk volume controls etc
- Reverse lights work fine now since not using new cambus.
So yeah, I'd say 75% sucxessful, I'm still happy with the result (also looks baller). My engineer is going away to work on the new cambus and see if he can figure out how to get the stalk controls/parking beep properly routed without messing with the reverse lights but even if he cant, I'm kinda ok with this.
Total fitting was £235 including parts & labour.
The result was alright I guess, the stereo functioned as you would expect, max vol of 30, at 25+ the audio would go fuzzy where the unit would just be pushed too hard. Still; not good enough so I started looking at getting rid of it. After a very long time of looking into replacements I ended up giving up on the idea for several reasons, some of which:
- Removing the old unit loses many functions locked within the onboard computer (DRL's, The clock, etc etc.)
- The removal would also lose the indash screen, this was the deciding faction. The screen was bad but, the ERROR SYSTEM!!!! Shit I can't belive I nearly lost that!!!
- The only way to retain these is to keep the old unit and mount it elsewhere, the problem is the AV cable from the screen to the unit is very short and you would have to risk cutting it to splice it and HOPE its even possible. Ive yet to find an RT6 who has successfully relocated the unit.
- Even then you have the steering controls and parking sensor stuff to worry about as well, but this is an even bigger problem ill get to in a second.
So there were a few reasons throwing away the old unit was bad, but also, what a waste of a screen So I came up with a new plan: a Pioneer AVH-X-7800BT single din unit with a fold-out screen.
The idea is now to have TWO headunits, the stock and it's screen for all my error codes and if I really want to GPS and menu configurations. With the new Pioneer running the audio outs.
My installation guy contacts his supplier incartec.co.uk who have cambuses, relays and other such doohickys for the RCZ. But this is where we hit the first hurdle, their cambus is not tested on the RT6, in fact no ones is. After contacting several different companies, no one can sell me a cambus for the RT6. The guys at ICT said it SHOULD work, but may take some experimentation. So I figure fuck it, £60 I'll risk it.
So I pick up all the gear and my guy gets to work. An hour in we are ready to test......not good.
After installing the cambus and other parts the result was:
- Steering controls do not work (on new unit)
- Parking beeps do not work (on new unit)
- !! Reverse lights do not work !!
1 and 2 are bad, but #3 holy crap that really bad lol. So out comes new cambus, old unit gets plugged back in, stalks controls and sensors back to stock. New unit goes in and is now live.
Result:
- Stock unit fully functional, zero audio out, stalk controlls working on old unit
- New unit fully functional, sounds increadible.
- Console USB rerouted to new unit
- Small speaker fitted behind dash connected to old units speakers (my new parking sensor beeper)
- Stock units speakers routed to new units Aux, if I want satnav or whatever I switch to Aux and have stalk volume controls etc
- Reverse lights work fine now since not using new cambus.
So yeah, I'd say 75% sucxessful, I'm still happy with the result (also looks baller). My engineer is going away to work on the new cambus and see if he can figure out how to get the stalk controls/parking beep properly routed without messing with the reverse lights but even if he cant, I'm kinda ok with this.
Total fitting was £235 including parts & labour.