Couple quick questions about Pioneer install in B7 w/Connects2 adapters & what not

[Jer]

I've got all my parts here & am getting ready to wire stuff together. I have the Connects2 adapter & am looking for a couple of answers before I start cutting/splicing wires. Instructions were included if you consider four lousy pictures that don't match up to anything you have instructions so I'm trying to find more details in searches and am not returning the results I'm looking for. I'll number them for ease of response.

1) I don't have a Metra 70-178 (would have ordered it had I known) so I assume I just need to cut the smaller harness off and hard wire all of these wires to the Pioneer wires to plug into the harness, correct?

2) Do I then connect the front RCAs to the front RCA outs on the deck and the rear RCAs to the rear RCA outs on the deck? I assume these will feed the Bose amp the proper signals but I thought I read somewhere I need to connect only the rears and I also read something about a line driver so I want to make sure all I need to do is plug these four RCAs together to get my audio.

3) If I'm getting all the audio via RCAs does this mean I don't need to connect all the speaker wires together? That would save me 8 connections and a few minutes in connecting. I would think that all I shouldn't need to connect all the speaker wires (purple, gray, white & green) from the Pioneer to the wiring harness but maybe I do?

4) Remote turn-on antenna wires... do I just connect all of them together? I have a blue off of the Pioneer, one for the antenna (connects2 CT27AA56... I was told by Enfig that this one works best) and one for the wiring harness (Bose amp?) so I assume I just need to connect all three of these wires together, correct? The Pioneer then sends a signal to the antenna adapter and Bose amps to turn on, correct?

5) Parking brake: I can simply splice this into the ground a few wires over in the harness, correct? This is all I need to allow me to use it while in motion? I think I read something about moving the yellow 'Mute' wire one PIN over in the white Pioneer harness and then grounding both that AND the parking brake wire to the black wire. Not sure why that is but I wanted to confirm that this is indeed how you bypass a Pioneer unit.

6) Mic, I'm going to assume I still need to run the Pioneer mic for bluetooth, right? Just making sure in all it's magic the Connects2 doesn't somehow utilize the factory mic.

7) Do I need to do anything with VAG-COM to make this work properly? Do I need to disable the factory BT module or something like that so it's not trying to pair with my mobile phone instead of the Pioneer? I assume I can just delete the factory BT out of mt phone and all issues will be avoided between these two devices. I also read something about making a change so that the steering wheel control for mode change works properly on the Pioneer deck but am unsure if this applies to me or not.

8) I bought the Connects2 'touch of rubber' dash kit as well as the Pioneer installation kit. I assume I just use the can from the Pioneer kit to attach to the Pioneer and then snap the center bar out of the Connects2 dash kit, right? Do I need to use that trim ring in the Pioneer kit along with the Connects2 dash kit?

I think that's about all I have now and on a couple of the questions I have a good idea but would just like confirmation and on some others I'm really not sure and don't want to screw anything up. If you have for sure answers for just a couple of these feel free to answer what you know for sure. No need to know every single one to reply. Thanks!

[Jer]

Answered most of my own questions and will add below for anyone else who may find this thread since this section seems to be filled with people who say to search even though the answers aren't found by a search. I don't know if it's a poor search system, lack of specific answers for individual applications or both so hopefully some will find this thread if they have the same answers I did.

I've got all my parts here & am getting ready to wire stuff together. I have the Connects2 adapter & am looking for a couple of answers before I start cutting/splicing wires. Instructions were included if you consider four lousy pictures that don't match up to anything you have instructions so I'm trying to find more details in searches and am not returning the results I'm looking for. I'll number them for ease of response.

1) I don't have a Metra 70-178 (would have ordered it had I known) so I assume I just need to cut the smaller harness off and hard wire all of these wires to the Pioneer wires to plug into the harness, correct? Yes, if you don't order the Metra adapter you just cut the smaller black harness and splice into the loose wire ends. Leave plenty of room on the harness in case you need to add it back down the road for some reason.

2) Do I then connect the front RCAs to the front RCA outs on the deck and the rear RCAs to the rear RCA outs on the deck? I assume these will feed the Bose amp the proper signals but I thought I read somewhere I need to connect only the rears and I also read something about a line driver so I want to make sure all I need to do is plug these four RCAs together to get my audio. Yes, just connect the RCA's to the RCA outs on the new deck. These will send the low voltage necessary to power the factory Bose amps. Not sure yet if I will need any sort of port booster as I read in some threads but I will know soon enough.

3) If I'm getting all the audio via RCAs does this mean I don't need to connect all the speaker wires together? That would save me 8 connections and a few minutes in connecting. I would think that all I shouldn't need to connect all the speaker wires (purple, gray, white & green) from the Pioneer to the wiring harness but maybe I do? (Update: the following is INCORRECT for my particular car so I'm trying to find the correct answers) Correct, no need to connect the individual speaker wires since all of the audio will be handled via RCAs. If you have a car that has just fronts or rears powered by external amps you will need to connect the individual speaker wires for whatever isn't externally powered. You will find out for sure when you pull the factory deck and see which are powered from the deck as some older Audis have deck powered fronts. I don't think it will hurt anything connecting all the speaker wires since they will just dead-end somewhere within the harness but it saves some time/effort.

4) Remote turn-on antenna wires... do I just connect all of them together? I have a blue off of the Pioneer, one for the antenna (connects2 CT27AA56... I was told by Enfig that this one works best) and one for the wiring harness (Bose amp?) so I assume I just need to connect all three of these wires together, correct? The Pioneer then sends a signal to the antenna adapter and Bose amps to turn on, correct? Yes, connect all three wires as the one from the deck sends the signal that the antenna lead (if you have this style adapter) and the Bose amp will need to power on.

5) Parking brake: I can simply splice this into the ground a few wires over in the harness, correct? This is all I need to allow me to use it while in motion? I think I read something about moving the yellow 'Mute' wire one PIN over in the white Pioneer harness and then grounding both that AND the parking brake wire to the black wire. Not sure why that is but I wanted to confirm that this is indeed how you bypass a Pioneer unit. On the Pioneer units you move the Mute wire (since most don't use the Mute wire these days) one over to ground out another pin out off of the deck which overrides the error message you get about the park brake wire being grounded... which is what you do on the other end. Light green to the black wire which is where all your grounds tie together. Individual units use different methods but on my particular Pioneer unit this is how you bypass the motion override safety feature.

6) Mic, I'm going to assume I still need to run the Pioneer mic for bluetooth, right? Just making sure in all it's magic the Connects2 doesn't somehow utilize the factory mic. Pretty sure that the aftermarket mic will need to be used since there's nothing plugging into the MIC port on the deck from the Connects2 harness. Would be nice if they could integrate this as well for those who already have a mic mounted from the factory. Would make for a much quicker install since most everything else you need is right there in the empty bay and you're not running wires for illumination and power and what not.

7) Do I need to do anything with VAG-COM to make this work properly? Do I need to disable the factory BT module or something like that so it's not trying to pair with my mobile phone instead of the Pioneer? I assume I can just delete the factory BT out of mt phone and all issues will be avoided between these two devices. I also read something about making a change so that the steering wheel control for mode change works properly on the Pioneer deck but am unsure if this applies to me or not. Still no answer here. Guess I will know when I try to use it.

8) I bought the Connects2 'touch of rubber' dash kit as well as the Pioneer installation kit. I assume I just use the can from the Pioneer kit to attach to the Pioneer and then snap the center bar out of the Connects2 dash kit, right? Do I need to use that trim ring in the Pioneer kit along with the Connects2 dash kit? The answers here are yes. Remove the center bar, sand down to be smooth (careful of the face so you don't scratch it) and then slide the Pioneer cage in place to hold the unit solid. Fix the tabs to hold it and then once you place the unit in and put four screws in to hold it in place you snap the trim ring in place to cover the gap. Pro tip: Pay attention to where your side brackets mount to your unit to get the proper depth once it's all said and done. I finally chose a location further forward than what the crappy picture instructions showed to mount them to in order to get the deck to sit closer to flush which looks better. It still sticks out, just not as much.

I think that's about all I have now and on a couple of the questions I have a good idea but would just like confirmation and on some others I'm really not sure and don't want to screw anything up. If you have for sure answers for just a couple of these feel free to answer what you know for sure. No need to know every single one to reply. Thanks!

Hopefully that helps someone else since it seems nobody has time to help anyone in this section. I could have just as easily installed my deck and moved on with my life but chose to take the time to update this thread to help others out. Some people could take an example from this instead of telling people to search all the time. Search doesn't always yield answers which is why we have a DISCUSSION forum for things like this.

[8520]

To answer your question about vag-com, no you will not need to do anything there.

Also, you did order the pioneer double-din kit, right? The adtva133 I think?

One last thing, you never mentioned which unit you were installing so one note on question #4 about remote turn ons. Ideally you want to connect the blue and the blue white on the connects2/antenna adapters to the blue-white on the pioneer, because if you connect them to the regular blue wire you might only get sound on fm/am radio. The reason for this is because the blue wire, by default on most pioneers is "antenna turn on" not "amp turn on"; most of the pioneer navs, however, will allow you to change the blue wire to amp control if you go in to the av settings.

[Jer]

To answer your question about vag-com, no you will not need to do anything there.

Also, you did order the pioneer double-din kit, right? The adtva133 I think?

One last thing, you never mentioned which unit you were installing so one note on question #4 about remote turn ons. Ideally you want to connect the blue and the blue white on the connects2/antenna adapters to the blue-white on the pioneer, because if you connect them to the regular blue wire you might only get sound on fm/am radio. The reason for this is because the blue wire, by default on most pioneers is "antenna turn on" not "amp turn on"; most of the pioneer navs, however, will allow you to change the blue wire to amp control if you go in to the av settings.

Yeah, the Pioneer double din kit is what I have. Basically a cage for mounting and a small trim ring for the faceplate. I then got the Connects2 dash kit to attach it all to and finish it off.

I'm installing a X920BT. As for two (blue & blue/white) wires coming from the Connects2 harness there is only one. Solid blue. I connected it to the remote turn on from the Pioneer and the antenna adapter I bought also has a remote turn on wire so I tied that in with the same remote wire connector. I see what you're saying about the turn on lead and if I have no audio on anything but FM/AM radio I'll look for that setting. The only deal there is that the FM/AM power adapter will be on even when not in use. I assume this won't cause any issues either by background noise or to the hardware long-term, right?

[8520]

No, that won't cause any issues. The connects2 harness's blue wire should be the amp turn on (blue-white on the pioneer) while the blue on your antenna adapter (should be a 40vw54 or the equivalent iirc) should go to the blue on the pioneer harness. As long as the amp is powered up on all sources, you're good to go.

I used the pioneer double din cage in my a6 and it came out looking pretty decent.

[Jer]

Well, turns out that the one bit of information I got from a phone call to Enfig was wrong. I connected the RCAs (front and rear) from the deck to the harness and when I was all done I only had sound in the rear. Wonderful. So I pulled it all back out and, in the heat of my garage, wired the front speaker wires (gray & white) to the harness and put it all back together. Tested it and what do you know... now only the fronts work but now rears at all. So I tried unplugging the front RCAs and it didn't help. I then wired the rear speaker wires (green & purple) into the harness as well so basically everything is now wired together and no wires are left out. Still no rear audio no matter what I do. Tried disconnecting the rear RCAs and the fronts and a combination of the two w/o any luck. I finally put it all back together and gave up for the time being. This is quite frustrating.

[8520]

What you should need is front speaker level hooked up and rear rca outputs, as well as the amp turn on connected.

So in this harness for example -

http://enfigcarstereo.com/shopsite_s...RA_70_1787.jpg

You hook up the white, white-black, grey and grey-black to their corresponding colors on the pioneer harness and the purple and green rcas to the rear rca outputs on the pioneer deck.

Make sense?

[Jer]

What you should need is front speaker level hooked up and rear rca outputs, as well as the amp turn on connected.

So in this harness for example -

http://enfigcarstereo.com/shopsite_s...RA_70_1787.jpg

You hook up the white, white-black, grey and grey-black to their corresponding colors on the pioneer harness and the purple and green rcas to the rear rca outputs on the pioneer deck.

Make sense?

Yeah, it makes sense and that's exactly what I did. Still no rear audio. I wonder if I'm plagued with the lack of rear RCA output voltage that some have claimed. I guess a line driver tends to solve the issue but there HAS to be another fix. This Pioneer is putting out WAY more than the 2 volts that the factory setup was sending to the rear amp. But the end result is properly wired and no rear audio. I found it interesting though that I could disconnect all speaker wires and the rears/sub worked fine. Doesn't make sense that with the deck feeding/amping the front speakers at about 20 watts RMS it would draw too much power to send a few volts to the RCAs.

[8520]

I have to think that something is wired incorrectly, because even if there is low voltage coming out of the rca's, you would still hear something out of the rears.

[Jer]

I have to think that something is wired incorrectly, because even if there is low voltage coming out of the rca's, you would still hear something out of the rears.

Nope, I double checked today and everything is connected properly. After reading some stuff before I started and on a hunch I tried the balance all the way to the read and sure enough... audio. I figured out if I fade it a couple clicks to full rear it's about balanced. The problem is that normal listening volume is about 35 and it's maxed out at 40. While this is fairly loud I know there's a lot left in it. That and it doesn't sound quite right... hard to explain other than that. I have a feeling if I installed a line driver it would help things and that's what I read before I installed it. So, looks like I'm gong to be out another $40 plus pulling the deck again to get it installed. I also have a feeling that this may introduce some noise to the RCAs so I may also have to add a ground loop isolator. Ugh. This just keeps getting more and more expensive.

[8520]

There shouldn't be that much of a volume difference, weird. A line driver will certainly help though.

[Jer]

There shouldn't be that much of a volume difference, weird. A line driver will certainly help though.

Shouldn't... but there is. I read where others used line drivers so I'm guessing I'm not the only one.

[jimrobbington]

I will be hooking up my Pioneer with the connects2 next week. I want to run all new wires to the door speakers, though. Do you guys reccommend keeping the stock amp hooked up and running the new rear speaker wires from that? Also, what is the best way to tap the new front speaker wires into the harness? Solder them in? Splice them in? Or just cut the harness apart?

[davis449]

Shouldn't... but there is. I read where others used line drivers so I'm guessing I'm not the only one.

No you're not. My rear volume is significantly lower than my front.

[Jer]

I will be hooking up my Pioneer with the connects2 next week. I want to run all new wires to the door speakers, though. Do you guys reccommend keeping the stock amp hooked up and running the new rear speaker wires from that? Also, what is the best way to tap the new front speaker wires into the harness? Solder them in? Splice them in? Or just cut the harness apart?

Since I'm having issues with my audio and sounds like lots of others did as well I would suggest running the speakers straight to the deck speaker outputs. Bypass the harnesses and connectors altogether. Ideally you would get a 4ch amp and run RCAs to that and then speaker wires to your speakers but the next best thing would be to run the factory speakers off of deck power directly. The harness/adapter is a band-aid fix for those who want to work with the wires behind the deck.

[Jer]

No you're not. My rear volume is significantly lower than my front.

Not only is the volume lower but the sound overall when you adjust your fade is just awful. I'm not happy with this at all.

[jimrobbington]

Since I'm having issues with my audio and sounds like lots of others did as well I would suggest running the speakers straight to the deck speaker outputs. Bypass the harnesses and connectors altogether. Ideally you would get a 4ch amp and run RCAs to that and then speaker wires to your speakers but the next best thing would be to run the factory speakers off of deck power directly. The harness/adapter is a band-aid fix for those who want to work with the wires behind the deck.

Ok, good to know. I will just remove the factory amp all together (from the equation, not necessarily from the car), and just run all speakers straight from the deck.

edit: I can't wait to see what kind of speed bumps I will come across when I dive into this project!

[bmc333]

This might be a stupid question but does this apply to NON-Bose systems? I'm about to install the Z120BT on my non-bose set up and wondering what I'm getting myself into...

[Jer]

This might be a stupid question but does this apply to NON-Bose systems? I'm about to install the Z120BT on my non-bose set up and wondering what I'm getting myself into...

Should be simple for you because your speakers are already running off of deck power. You're just replacing the deck that's powering them so when you connect the speaker wires all together you'll be set. The issue comes when you have factory external amps powering the speakers becuase you can't just wire a deck to the amps because that's high power (since they're already amplified by the deck) and the amps need low level inputs that they then amplify. These harnesses supply the amps with the low level outputs (RCAs) from the deck that would normally power an external amp. They supply clean low power that the amp then amplifies (see where they get the name... creative, right?) that signal to a power level that will drive speakers.

That's probably more complex than it needs to be but just remember that aftermarket decks are amplified (unless you buy a high end deck that is made specifically for external amplifiers to supply cleaner power) so if you have external amps in your vehicle you make the install substantially more difficult than just connecting colored wires to colored wires.

[bmc333]

Thanks Jer - that's what I thought and just wanted to confirm

[davis449]

Should be simple for you because your speakers are already running off of deck power. You're just replacing the deck that's powering them so when you connect the speaker wires all together you'll be set. The issue comes when you have factory external amps powering the speakers becuase you can't just wire a deck to the amps because that's high power (since they're already amplified by the deck) and the amps need low level inputs that they then amplify. These harnesses supply the amps with the low level outputs (RCAs) from the deck that would normally power an external amp. They supply clean low power that the amp then amplifies (see where they get the name... creative, right?) that signal to a power level that will drive speakers.

That's probably more complex than it needs to be but just remember that aftermarket decks are amplified (unless you buy a high end deck that is made specifically for external amplifiers to supply cleaner power) so if you have external amps in your vehicle you make the install substantially more difficult than just connecting colored wires to colored wires.

I won't dispute a lot of what you say here, but there are some things to be aware of when it comes to our cars and Pioneer head units. First off, the amp in the trunk runs the rear speakers, passive radiator in the rear deck, and the center channel speaker. The front speakers are run from the head unit, even stock. Also, all of the Pioneer double DIN's are NOT high power. The AVIC series across the board only do like 19 watts per channel RMS. If I'm to understand 8520 correctly, the problem with the low sound in the rear is more due to the fact that the pre-outs on all the AVIC series head units (except the Z series) are for shit (like 2V, as opposed to 4V on most aftermarket head units). Finally, I have low volume in the rear in my car, but the sound quality hasn't suffered on those speakers with or without my Connects2.

[bmc333]

Ok, so I would still need to connect the rear RCA lines since there IS an amp feeding those other speakers...

EDIT: ....using the connects2 harness...

[Jer]

I won't dispute a lot of what you say here, but there are some things to be aware of when it comes to our cars and Pioneer head units. First off, the amp in the trunk runs the rear speakers, passive radiator in the rear deck, and the center channel speaker. The front speakers are run from the head unit, even stock. Also, all of the Pioneer double DIN's are NOT high power. The AVIC series across the board only do like 19 watts per channel RMS. If I'm to understand 8520 correctly, the problem with the low sound in the rear is more due to the fact that the pre-outs on all the AVIC series head units (except the Z series) are for shit (like 2V, as opposed to 4V on most aftermarket head units). Finally, I have low volume in the rear in my car, but the sound quality hasn't suffered on those speakers with or without my Connects2.

To clear a few things up in this post: Believe it or not 19 watts RMS is indeed 'high power' when compared to RCA pre-outs (or preamp) which are low power. It's more of an industry standard description of the two versus the marketing that is happening these days where a 50x4 is HIGH POWER! Rest assured that I know for a fact the amp section on most all in deck units is garbage so I'm not trying to tout one over the other... high power is just that... enough power to run speakers at an audible level. You can't power speakers with low power RCAs. That's what that phrase meant as it was used.

As to the power level on the RCAs it's not just the AVIC units. Most Kenwoods also are 2v unless you get into the more expensive stuff then it jumps to 5v. The fact that my rears sounded decent before I connected the front speakers to the deck leads me to believe that the 2v RCAs would be fine if that were the case. I'm guessing Pioneer sends a lowered power over the RCAs once it switches on the amp section of the deck to run speakers. It probably can't create enough power to send a full 2v through the RCAs AND run the amp section in the unit for the speakers. I'm also going to go out on a bit of a limb here and say that most units will behave in a similar manner and i do recall some decks of years past that wouldn't run the amp AND RCAs... it was one or the other. I'm pretty sure I'm seeing some of this in my install and I ran strictly external amps or powered four speakers off of the deck's power it would be just fine.

[davis449]

Ok, so I would still need to connect the rear RCA lines since there IS an amp feeding those other speakers...

EDIT: ....using the connects2 harness...

Yes.

[bmc333]

Ok, so then I'll be wiring up the front speakers directly (splicing color coded front speaker wires on both harnesses) and JUST do the RCA connections for the rear - do I have that right? Hooking up the rear speakers using the speaker wires sounds like a fail since they are amped...

[davis449]

Ok, so then I'll be wiring up the front speakers directly (splicing color coded front speaker wires on both harnesses) and JUST do the RCA connections for the rear - do I have that right? Hooking up the rear speakers using the speaker wires sounds like a fail since they are amped...

Yes. You'll connect them color for color for the front ones and the backs are via the RCA connectors on the Connects2 into the preout RCA's from the AVIC harness for the rears\center channel. Be sure to connect that blue remote wire on the Connects2 to a switched 12V somewhere so the amp knows to turn on with the car.

[bmc333]

Thanks Davis - I'll be all set whenever my harnesses and dash kit show up...

[mnkyA4]

Anyone know what would happen if the green(parking brake sensor) wire wasn't hooked up at all?

[davis449]

You have to ground it to something. Just go to avic411 forums and follow the instructions you'll find sticky'd to do the bypass. It's not that hard.

[bmc333]

Be sure to connect that blue remote wire on the Connects2 to a switched 12V somewhere so the amp knows to turn on with the car.

Where's a good spot to hook up that blue remote wire? Is there a corresponding wire on the factory harness I should use? Can I connect the blue connects 2 wire and the blue antenna wire both together to the blue wire on the factory and AVIC harnesses?

[Jer]

Can I connect the blue connects 2 wire and the blue antenna wire both together to the blue wire on the factory and AVIC harnesses?

Yes.

[bmc333]

I guess the real unknown here is what kind of sound I'll be getting out of my non-bose rear speakers after the Z120 is all set up...I'll post up about that tomorrow...

[SLeal]

Looks like things got alot more complicated for me aswell. I have an 04 Bose A4 and was going to run the same x920bt with my pdx2.150 amp for the fronts (alpine type x comps) and the rears and sub running off the factory amp...looks like this might not work...any objections or suggestions?

[8520]

Looks like things got alot more complicated for me aswell. I have an 04 Bose A4 and was going to run the same x920bt with my pdx2.150 amp for the fronts (alpine type x comps) and the rears and sub running off the factory amp...looks like this might not work...any objections or suggestions?

As long as it is installed correctly, you shouldn't have any problems.

[bmc333]

As long as it is installed correctly, you shouldn't have any problems.

So the head unit will know to run both the line out and hard wired speakers at equal levels or we'll just be able to get sound from both? That was the big question I think - getting equal sound output from both the RCA out to the factory amp and the front speakers being directly wired from the head unit. (non-bose set up)

[bmc333]

^ Anyone?

[rollerton]

I wondered that too...I sort of wanted to bypass the front channel from the AMP directly from the head unit. I have BOSE, and turns out the line-outs worked great.
Just wanted to mention there are 3 system files that you can install that edit out ALL the Avic *NAG* screens, ebrake, warning and all. And you can edit the speed_brake file to eliminate the Ebrake warning forever. And the units boots about 30% faster... ;) but this isn't an Avic forum.

[8520]

So the head unit will know to run both the line out and hard wired speakers at equal levels or we'll just be able to get sound from both? That was the big question I think - getting equal sound output from both the RCA out to the factory amp and the front speakers being directly wired from the head unit. (non-bose set up)

You can get sound from both, you'll just have to dick around with the gain a bit.

[bmc333]

Ok - so today I attempted to get this thing put in the dash and connected up. Got sound from the rear speakers fine, NO sound from the front speakers at all, even messed with the fader. I hard wired the front speakers as instructed - so what's the deal? Why no sound in front?
Also - that Pioneer cage seems too tall to fit in the dash - my unit won't fit in that opening with the cage on - anyone else have that issue?

Edit: Going to look at my speaker wiring again tonight to make sure all the connections are solid

[bmc333]

Here's a stupid question: do I hard wire the fronts speaker to the factory harness instead of the connects2 adaptor?