ChrisB

I have 2 mates who live in Australia and they cant believe how cheap cars are in the UK. Over there they pay a small fortune for a pile of scrap.

+1 with that. If we ever relocate to Oz, we're taking our cars with us (1 private car allowed per person) as its cheaper to RORO them for a grand than sell and buy again. An equivalent 03 zed like mine is AU$25k compared to the £6.2k I paid 18months ago. Second hand cars are cheap here - just petrol and running cost is tragic in comparison.

They polish up like this too

These boxes are so funny

If only they were 18"... I'd buy them in a shot.. I only discovered the recent sale (quickly sold out) of Ian's 18" lmgt4's today

OMG, I see what you mean about the special effects... and the acting!

 

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=BbIPpQ0BrE8

Oh god, you can tell its a wet saturday morning in bed. I just watched the clip and want to know what happens next

Got Avon ZZ3 on mine - lovely tyres IMHO.

JWT received and fitted (between downpours) - cheers Tarmac

Adds a nice mmmwoaaarrr edge to the sound under load (and tempts you into playing so before you now it you're doing -ahem- naughty speeds), but its virtually mute at low revs.

Subtle - Me likey!

I'd go beyond great work and say outstanding work!

I bet you HATE the scratch on your rear bumper though

I think we've got most of a thread here

..and its appropriately titled SAT NAV

My install parts were an Arkon stick mount (requires a slight sanding down to fit) plus a spare dash sticker disc, a waterproof cig lighter socket, some spade terminals, a short length of wire, PVC tape and cable protector sheath. £10. Everything else was standard garmin sat nav kit. Good luck with yours, mines been great.

In my case I've draped (see above) the whole lot (RF antenna and power) from the cubby down and along the transmission tunnel centre console*, ie from the back of the cubby, past the HU, down past the heater controls, past the gear changer and along the centre console buried behind all plastics - which is how the wire gets stretched out to the back.

Its best to spread the aerial around though, keeping as much of it straight as possible. RF can travel through plastic and glass, but the metal body absorbs signal - so as long as light can fall on a radio transparent surface it can potentially receive RF too (radio is a long wavelength version of visible light). I'm not sure where the transmitters are positioned -roadside? (or what their polarization is) - in order to 'shine' the RF, through. I might move my aerial towards the triple gauges direction, when I install my wooferization hardware.

Traffic reception can be patchy where I have it - but its often patchy when its suckered to the window too. It usually gets a strong signal when you are already heading for into a jam but relies on the quality of (free) transmission. We've all seen overhead gantries saying completely the opposite of whats going on I bet - same with traffic reception. Good reception on the M25 though.

* The electronic service manual page IP-10 calls the big bit of plastic up the middle of the car the centre console. The centre dash is called cluster lid C of all things - what you called the centre console assembly - and what I referred to as dash.

31. Whilst drunk on eBay, you cause this lot to appear in the post - but as you've got a job interview tomorrow, you realise you can't fit it yet and that kills you!

Jez knows his onions. He'll no doubt be able to transform your car

This is what I hate about insurance. THEY take the risk and I pay a premium, yet I ended up paying for the damage and NOT the insurance company.

 

Insurance sucks, and I hope you get a resolution with minimal pain

+20million. Over 28 years of motoring I've learnt to never claim for things you can afford to fix yourself: insurance is there for the things you can't afford.

Small claims just add to the insurance companies eventual profits (along with their foodchain of garages which inflate repair costs to make immediate profit). The motorist is the grass at the bottom of that food chain unfortunately, and even if you do have a policy that lets you fix something at 'no extra charge' - it will get you back on renewal - or you have to stay with the same insurance company and whatever premium escalator they have for 'loyal customers'. Sucks.

That is a work of art - not just a great car

I've always had a soft spot for supras

Why use the rear lighter socket and not the front one

Errm.. us JDMs dont have a front ciggy lighter socket ..there is only the rear one.

edit to add: and in any case the garmin lead needs to be stretched out for best traffic reception.

Personally I wouldn't run anything from the white heater control box, I have seen people try that before and have big problems, not sure the voltage is that well controlled as the ciggy lighter sockets

Yup - prefer jumping dedicated power connections myself too.

Likely the latter. You'd never manage to thread the cable up to the cubby without pulling it out (dimensions are quite tight). But if you've got heater controls / gear shift finisher off, its only a small step when unscrewing / (and unclipping - depending on how you HU has been installed) and rotating the centre dash off.

That does indeed suck majorly. (I've previously been there too). However, on the plus side - as said above, a bit if research and eBay and that probably wont add up to more than a low few hundred to fix. Insurance would mean you'd really be bent over, and your premiums would rocket. Just take the hit by fixing it yourself with the help of choice traders, and grow a large chip on your shoulder regarding chav behaviour.

I installed mine from scratch - so I guess you'd only really know whats already there by pulling the dash off... Its easier than you'd think btw - start with a gear knob upgrade then zeditis into a HU swap, and bury/install the sat nav cable at the same time. My power comes from the garmin cable which is terminated by a mini usb.

Gear finisher pops off, revealing 2 screws (IIRC) for the dash. Whole thing rotates off. You have to be careful with all the attached cables and ribbons of course.

I did this

Then went via this

I drilled a hole in my cubby, then laid cables down the centre console and added this connector jumping off the rear cig lighter,

And after a bit of tidying cables etc, to get this

I can't speak for Navman specifically, but later sat navs perform a lot better generally than older types. GPS chips are way improved over the last 5 years. My garmin works perfectly in the cubby and the FM traffic radio antenna, which I've buried behind the plastic, appears to work too. If the older Navman doesnt quite cut it, a new sat nav with added gadgets like bluetooth, traffic and uptodate maps certainly will. Amazing what you can get for around £140

Am I the only one that talks to my Zed?

No, mine talks back to me too.

16. Your computer's desktop and iPad/iPod home screens all have pictures of your zed.

You can mount and wire in a non modified garmin 1490T in the empty cubby box for about £10 of additional mounts and connectors too. Its not as plush and OEM looking as SMD's intall, but it has the advantage of being removable. Works for me..

Aftermarket ftw.

I have four left in stock at £125

 

Correction... 3 left...

Like it smooth, myself..

I have the same sort of thing - a garmin nuvii 1490T fits perfectly. I mounted mine on a sticky mount (admittedly I imported this $5 part from the states), attached to the cubby back wall on top of 2 circular dash mounts to get the forward dimension fit.

I drilled a hole in the cubby to lay the usb power lead through it and laid it behind the stereo and down and along the transmission tunnel (along with the traffic antenna). I then installed a second hidden cigarette lighter socket which draws power from the rear accessories socket (I have a jdm).

This means all cables are preserved, and can be deinstalled/re-used if needed. Cubby works fine, garmin comes on and charges with the car running (and automatically goes off at the end of a journey), and I can rotate the nuvii out for updates via usb (or removal for use out of the car). I did ponder a fixed/finished facia in front of the nuvii, but decided I like being able to easily remove it more. Apart from the nuvii, install cost came to about £10.

If it helps, getting the dash off is dead easy, as is the gear change finisher and transmission tunnel plastics - or at least moved enough to thread or lay cables.

I've been fiddling with my stereo in order to think about increasing the bass (dedicated sub channel ) recently so have become intimate with my car's plastics