Pioneer 4200NEX installed in 5th gen Legacy Premium

The car is the 2011 Subaru Legacy 2.5i Premium. It had a factory non HK PE645U1 unit w. Subaru Media Hub, under seat subwoofer, XM radio / antenna and Subaru Blue Connect. USB / Aux were present in the arm rest due to Media Hub.

 

I installed the Pioneer AVH-4200NEX unit (Car Play and Android Auto on board) w. Pioneer ND-BC8 Universal Rear-View Camera. I wanted to keep the subwoofer under seat, steering wheel controls and USB / AUX in the armrest.

 

Things I needed:

 

Metra 95-8903S Dash Kit

Subaru POCKET ASSEMBLY. Part Number: 66120AJ03A

20-pin "forward" harness - this is for the power, speaker, and SWC connections

24-pin aux retention harness - I needed the variation with a male 3.5mm plug, to fit the aux socket on the rear of Pioneer + I needed the subwoofer connection on it.

ASWC-1 - steering wheel interface

Subaru antenna adapter

3-wire parking brake bypass from Amazon or Ebay

 

There is a great related thread that gives you some great tips, but I wanted to share some more details about the install as it could help.

 

I got the harnesses from ae64 site. Therefore, related and relevant installation pages there:

 

Parts Needed to install an after-market Head Unit

Axxess ASWC Steering Wheel Interface Module Installation with Subaru 20-pin Harness

Installation Instructions for Aftermarket Head Unit with Subaru 20-pin Radio Harness

Also this AVIC NEX installation manual is helpful

 

Here are my tips:

 

You want to know how to remove various pieces of trim? Search for vacation pictures. Exterior-Interior Trim > 19. Instrument Panel Assembly is what you want. When talking about that, you WANT to buy a set of Auto trim removal tools. Scratches trim pieces and broken clips are not worth it.

 

The camera and head unit need a reverse gear signal. If your unit does not have built-in navigation (like mine does not) you do not need a VSS (Vehicle Speed Sensor) signal. There is some confusion about that. I got the reverse signal from passenger footwell. This is the wire (brown/yellow) and you see which socket it came out of. When car is in reverse, the voltage between that wire and ground should be 12V. I carefully stripped the insulation and soldered my connection here and then took that connection to the head unit area:

 

 

This is all the crap I pulled out; media hub and it's CRAZY harness (the one with 5 connectors on it). Stock HU with satellite (mounted under the HU, note I left the antenna in place). Blue Connect unit and it's harness. I cut off the connection to the Blue Connect microphone as it was a dealer installed accessory and if I removed it I would have a hole on top of the steering column. I decided to route the Pioneer microphone above the rearview mirror (clipped on the little pocket for sunglasses). I just tucked the cable in everywhere and did not need to remove the driver A-pillar trim.

 

 

One thing that I did not realize is that the OEM antenna and aftermarket antenna are quite different. Not sure why that is, OEM has more connections (it is one on top here). But it all works.

 

 

This is the ASWC-1 steering wheel button control module with it's harness:

 

 

This is a 24 pin AUX retention harness with AUX plug as well as the subwoofer green connector:

 

 

This is a 20 pin harness to car:

 

 

This is the Pioneer HU harness:

 

 

This is the result; all harnesses are soldered together and parking brake bypass is added. You do all this inside and take your time. I used liquid electrical tape to insulate the connections. Take your time to understand what connects to what. as64 site explains it all, but you need to be careful and get over that overwhelming feeling you will get when you unpack it all. Doing all this inside meant that I needed to make only 4 connections in the car (camera red, tap into rear signal, connect rear to HU and camera as well as connect red from camera to the rest of the reds)

 

 

After taking most all things out and am ready to start adding things:

 

 

My testing setup. Make sure to test everything before putting it all back in!

 

 

After testing, I wrapped bunches of wires as well as ASWC-1 into thin foam, tied it with zip ties and electrical tape so things don't rattle back there.

 

Action shot, after all was done; pocket assembly has a wire for the iPhone so when Car Play will be active this is where phone will be. I since changed the color of button glow and changed the lean angle of the HU (all in options). Also, you need to go into options and turn on the subwoofer output.

 

 

Let me know if any questions while I still remember it all!

I'd just like to add this is the first car I've pulled trim and such off without a trim removal kit. The hardest plastic I've pulled from it was behind the backseat when I was dampening some vibrations from the sub. The center consol can be pulled off very easily by opening the cubby hole and pulling on the door. I've puled that off well over 20 times between adding lights, routing radar detector cables, pulling out the entire dash to wrap ducts and stuff with quilt stuffing to get rid of al rattles...all kinds of stuff.

 

Anyway, I did want to ask though, are you an iphone user or Android, and if you're an android user, I wanted to know what your experience with Android Auto has been like on this unit.

...

Anyway, I did want to ask though, are you an iphone user or Android, and if you're an android user, I wanted to know what your experience with Android Auto has been like on this unit.

 

Nope. Fruit phone user here, and it has been flawless so far with CarPlay. Wife loves it (her car) but it worked flawlessly for me also. And I do not do screen mirroring but CarPlay.

Hey man, another quick question for you. Got mine in, and I realize there might be a slight difference between your system and mine because mine is HK. I'd imagine thou that since you still have a subwoofer under the seat that the wiring is for the most part the same. Did you have to run the pink wire that was the remote amp turn on from the 24-pin to the HU harnessQuestion is did you find that the 4200NEX wasn't putting out enough power to get it to hit the same? Weaker? If you did, did you find a solution?

Hey man, another quick question for you. Got mine in, and I realize there might be a slight difference between your system and mine because mine is HK. I'd imagine thou that since you still have a subwoofer under the seat that the wiring is for the most part the same. Did you have to run the pink wire that was the remote amp turn on from the 24-pin to the HU harnessQuestion is did you find that the 4200NEX wasn't putting out enough power to get it to hit the same? Weaker? If you did, did you find a solution?

 

Nope. I did not run any additional wire from 24 pin harness to remote because my system did not have the remote amp. I think the thing you refer to is under "Speaker wires on cars with h/k system" on this page?

 

Sorry not much help on this. All I did was plug in the green connector into one of Pioneer sub outputs (I think I picked R) and then went into the Pioneer menu and turned on the bass output. It was off by default.

Ok, thanks. I ended up installing the two subs and amp I've had sitting in my garage and storages since like 2007. I wrecked a car back then and the first thing I did was pull the subs and amp out lol. Just never put it in a new car, and the HK sub was "sufficient" so never really cared to take up the trunk space. Was cheaper to get the kit to install that, than any of two maybe the solutions I found. Now I'm like "oh my God, I can't believe I went this long on a factory sub"lol.