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Techracer

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  • Location
    New Zealand
  • Car
    2006 Outback 3.0R

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  1. After reading all the applicable threads on here and eventually deciding on a suitable head unit I've completed my install this afternoon. Thanks to everyone for their extremely useful information on here! The car is a 2006 Outback 3.0R - a JDM car imported into NZ as so many are, so here are my notes and lessons learned for any others from down under reading this. Lessons: 1) Before rushing off to order the replacement facia and climate control panel from Japan, check with your local dealers of importered vehicles if they can get it through their parts suppliers because I found out afterwards that they can probably get it for $100 cheaper. The import duty and fees was about another $150 once it landed in NZ so you're looking at $450 or more before you buy your new stereo! 2) Head units with built in Navigation are twice the price the next model down, similarly if you're looking at a separate built-in navi unit that plugs into your head unit then you still double the price. It is cheaper to contact an outfit in Christchurch which *may* be able to retro-fit an opensource NZ/AU GPS map in English if your model is roughly this age. Even that is still way more expensive than a decent current model Garmin/Navman/Tomtom portable device or GPS software on your smartphone. Car Audio brands doing navigation have lost the plot. 3) As some other people have mentioned, you don't need any other harness than an off the shelf Subaru-to-ISO adapter. Perhaps I should cover myself with "for this car". The existing air con i88 wiring works fine with the new dual zone module. I've tested the guages brightness dial and it behaves correctly. Notes: 1) Right hand drive cars don't need to hack out a space for the hazard switch as that is in the same position as before. 2) I've bought a basic reverse camera and added the RCA cable at the head unit now so I don't have to pull it out again later. Not that it is a big job but avoidable. 3) I've replace the door speakers with mid range Alpine 6.5" some weeks ago and I think that was more work than the head unit. 4) A set of plastic trim removal tools from Jaycar or an auto shop are about $20 -$30 dollars and make this sort of work much easier than using screwdrivers, tape and such. I chose this model Kenwood DDX-4031BT as it not only covered the A/V and bluetooth features I wanted but it claimed to work with OEM steering wheel controls No other adapter needed. They live up to that claim. There is functionality built in to the setup menus that lets you configure what each button press is for. So the original OEM 6-stack in dash unit: http://i67.photobucket.com/albums/h313/damwhee/Outback%20stereo/OEMstereo_zps859d1886.jpg The OEM Navigation/Media/AV unit is different from the US market in that the brains and the maps are in a unit the size of a computer DVD drive in the glove box. Yes the menus and button labels in the software are mostly in Japanese and the map is only of Japan. Aparently they don't consider the fact that a good propertion of their 2nd hand cars end up in New Zealand - an *English* speaking country! There is no option to switch it to English. http://i67.photobucket.com/albums/h313/damwhee/Outback%20stereo/DSCF2470_zps46207c6d.jpg Thankfully I know a few people who are reasonably fluent in Japanse and we'll translate some of it later. Also the time seems to be based on the GPS clock and there is no place to change it or the time zone. The clock in the dash cluster is linked to it too. So I always can tell what the time is in Japan. So here is the new install: http://i67.photobucket.com/albums/h313/damwhee/Outback%20stereo/Kenwoodinstalled_zps62e3e684.jpg The work was pretty simple. Splicing into the steering wheel control wiring was the only permenant change, everthing else is plugged and so is reversible when I eventually sell this car. Before installing I did one other thing. Updated the firmware. I put the latest firmware (downloaded from the Kenwood support web pages) on a USB stick and powered the head unit from a PC power supply on a bench as it needs uninterrupted power for just over 30 minutes while you do this, then a reset. One downside with this head unit I've just found is that it does seem to need an optional special cable to interface with some ipods. It will detect it if you plug it into the USB socket on the front and control it, but no sound. The special cable (KCA-iP22F) has a headphone plug as well as the USB which we thought was just if you were playing movies but aparently is needed for music too. Plugging a USB stick full of music in there works fine though so I'll probably just do that anyway.
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