Horseshoe Help

[CabrioArtie]

I've done a number searches and can't find the exact details I'm looking for and was hoping someone could help me or make suggestions on the best way to accomplish this mission.

First, let me give you some background. Recently purchased '02 C4 Cab with an aftermarket (Pioneer AVIC-Z1) radio/nav. FM works, AM is total static. After playing around for a while and planning on opening up the A-pillar to test the antenna amp I realized this isn't my problem. One of the simple things I did was to reset the Pioneer and this caused a number of things to not to work. Ultimately, I found the reset changes the setting (back to default) for when the Pioneer powers the external antenna amp. But, this caused the speaker amplifier to not switch on in my case. So, after looking at the installation guide of the Pioneer I find there are two wires, one blue and the blue with a while stripe, one for the speaker amplifier and the other for the antenna, long story short, the Pioneer's antenna amp wire is connected to the speaker amplifier and I believe there is nothing connect to the antenna amp of the car.

So, I need to remove the Pioneer and trace the wiring. Now to my question, I need to pull the horseshoe off and disconnect the plugs from the switches or remove the switches. I've quickly looked at this and before I start (tomorrow) I was wondering if anyone could provide me with detailed information on how you remove the connectors from the switches or the switches from the horseshoe. I saw something about releasing a tab on the connector, but I'm not sure I saw a tab on the connector.

Any help would be very appeciated.

Edited November 26, 2010 by CabrioArtie

[whall]

Artie,

The plugs just pull directly off the "tip switches". The plugs are relatively difficult to pull off. You may need to pry the plugs off. Use a plastic knife or some other non-conductive tool. The cigarette lighter and windshield wiper delay rheostat plugs do have small tabs you need to push in while pulling gently.

BTW, are you sure you need to pull the horseshoe off to remove the 'Z-1? I would think that removing the surrounding bezel would give you access to the mounting hardware.

Bill

Edited November 27, 2010 by whall

[CabrioArtie]

Artie,

The plugs just pull directly off the "tip switches". The plugs are relatively difficult to pull off. You may need to pry the plugs off. Use a plastic knife or some other non-conductive tool. The cigarette lighter and windshield wiper delay rheostat plugs do have small tabs you need to push in while pulling gently.

BTW, are you sure you need to pull the horseshoe off to remove the 'Z-1? I would think that removing the surrounding bezel would give you access to the mounting hardware.

Bill

Thanks for the information. And, to answer your question, I'm not sure I need to remove the Horseshoe. Let me ask, how do you remove the surrounding bezel and what would I find under it? According to the installation manual, it is screwed into side brackets.

Until I pull this apart, the only thing I'm sure of, is I need to get to the wiring behind the unit. Any suggestions on getting to the wiring is welcome.

[whall]

Artie,

I'm not sure how your AVIC-Z1 installation was accomplished. However, my AVIC-Z110BT bezel is held in with "industrial strength" double sided tape. The 2 DIN guru's (board member trieullionaire) bezels fit so tightly that he doesn't need any tape, glue, etc. Here is a photograph of my AVIC installation:

excuse the finger in the shot. There are four small machine screws holding the two side brackets in the installation frame. If you remove the four screws, you should be able to pull the unit directly out. You will then see how the side brackets are used in the installation.

Go to post #31 in the following thread to see how trieullionaire does the physical mounting of the unit:

If you have any trouble removing the bezel, I would suggest that you get expert help in removing it; not best buy or circuit city where your car might be a learning experience for the "technician".

Bill

[CabrioArtie]

whall, this was really helpfull.Thank you.

I did take it apart today, I would say whoever installed this unit knew what they were doing but they didn't care all that much.

The bezel is held on with double sided tape and under it only 2 screws at the top of the AVIC frame hold the unit in place. Nothing on the bottom and the back bottom of the AVIC just rests on the DIN frame. The car originally had a PCM, so I assume the was the PCM frame. I will need to secure this a little better.

I did get my AM problem fixed, but I am a little confused about the output of the AVIC going into the original BOSE amplifier. As far as I can tell, the wrong AVIC outputs (not the pre-outs) are going to the amplifier, but this shouldn't be working and I know the amplifier is being used.

A little more research will be required.