Hello,

A couple of months ago I attempted to have an Alpine 9856 installed in my 2004 Toyota 4Runner SE

http://www.alpine-usa.com/en/product...model=CDA-9856

It was a pretty sweet radio, but I had two major problems. I ended up having it pulled out.

The main issue is that the steering wheel control interface did not work as advertised. Instead of changing from preset to preset (like the normal steering wheel control does); it would just change to the next channel......ie from channel 21 to channel 22.....

That was something that I really wanted, and was a deal breaker for me.

The second issue was the blue lights were too bright at night when compared to the other lighting in my 4runner. I tried to dim it, but it was still excessively bright.

I want to try again with a different unit, so my question is..........Is there a way to get a new radio installed in my dash that has the following capabilities:

1. Interfaces with the steering wheel controls just like the normal stock radio (ie. preset to preset)

2. XM capable

3. Ipod/ Bluetooth capable (that would be nice to have, but it is not a deal breaker.

If not is there a navigation system that has the above capability?

Thanks in advance!!

Eclipse

Have you looked at the Avic-Z1 from Pioneer? It does all the things you are asking. I have one an love it. There are a bunch of threads on this site about it. Check it out and let me know if you have any more questions. Good Luck....

I like that a lot. I looked on Amazon.com and it is very well reviewed. I would get the bluetooth as well. I've never used a navigation system when driving, is it really worth it?

Can you recomend a regular pioneer radio (single din) as well? I may not have the money for the Avic-Z1

Thanks a lot!

Hi arouth,

Pioneer makes another great unit
(see address below) that is a very nice unit that has both bluetooth built in and is XM capable. It has a 5v preout which is very clean when wanting to connect additional amplifiers and components to the unit. It has the pioneer supertuner.....well i guess i will let you check out all the specs at the link. Good luck.....Direct Link to Deck


PS Navi is good for people who take many trips, live in big cities, are bad with directions, or like to drive around a lot I like it for my wife because she is bad with directions, or whenever we take trips to SanFran/LA or places i am not familar with. Oh, it is also great because it stores all the phone numbers of all the businesses that are registered there and its almost like having a phone book built into your unit.

Wow, that is a cool looking radio. I did some reading online and it is also very well reviewed.

Well I did some research about the steering wheel. I called a few people and finally found out about the steering wheel controls.

The steering wheel control interface is a new technology and is very limited right now, so no matter what I got it would not be able to change from preset to preset like I want. Unfortunately, that means I am going to wait until they come out with what I want.

It sucks though b/c I really really want to put a new radio in

The steering wheel interface is going to be pretty universal between all radios... there is different programming steps that you can do to get it to go from preset to preset. If you use the peripheral piece, they even have it listed as a preset up and preset down feature. If you had it installed, you're installer just did it wrong. The peripheral piece for alpine is PESWIAKJ. Click the link below and scroll to the last page and you can see they give you preset up and down as programable options.



http://peripheralelectronics.com/per...WIAKJ%20V3.pdf

Ok, I've printed out the instructions for both Alpine and Pioneer. The Pioneer is actually on ebay for $380 which seems like a very good deal.

I'm going to go ask another installer if he can do it.

Thanks!

Just one quick question about the Pioneer. I read the reviews and nobody didn't seem to talk about this, but.....why don't they have preset buttons on the cd player? Are you just supposed to use the remote?

which pioneer are you looking at?

Well after doing a lot of research I'm probably going to get this Pioneer Model.

http://www.pioneerelectronics.com/pn...093650,00.html

I decided to not get the more upscale model (DEH-P9800BT) with bluetooth mainly b/c of the cost. That and I have some concerns about call quality, and I kind of think that I would spend all my time twisting that dial at the front and not looking at the road

I looked around for a while and I like the Pioneer DEH-P580MP. I had some issues with the previous head unit b/c it was too bright. This one is a redish color that I'm hoping that will blend in with the orange dash.

Wish me luck! Thanks for all the advice.

One that would blend in with the dash is the Pioneer DEH-P880PRS... in my opinion anyway... it lights up clear so it def. wouldn't stand out or clash with other dash colors. Plus it is bad ass when it comes to adjusting your audio.

Thanks, i'll look at that one too before I do the install. Oh, one more thing.

I think the Pioneer DEH-P580MP will solve my steering wheel preset problem too. I called crutchfield and found out that the Alpine 9856 does not have a wired remote that can plug into the back of the unit. They had to splice some wires or something like that.

The Pioneer DEH-P580MP does have an optional wired remote, so hopefully that fixes it.

Do you guys know anything about the IPOD adaptors out there? Crutchfield has the Pioneer CD-iB100ii which has mixed reviews.

Thanks again

You have to splice wires regardless of having the wired remote control or not... the difference is in the steering wheel control interface. Basically peripheral makes a few different modules that are radio specific and universal. The one for alpine is the PESWIAKJ, one for pioneer is PESWIPS, and the universal is PESWIX. Both the one for pioneer and alpine require the unit to have external wired remote control, while the PESWIX only requires the radio to have an IR remote control. On the harness (some at the steering column) is a wire that controls all of your audio steering wheel controls. Each interface hooks into this wire so that when you press one of the controls, the interface can then tell the radio to do what you just pressed. The difference in the universal and the radio specific is that the universal has an IR transmitter that duplicates the controls of the remote that came with the radio. Programming of the universal interface requires pushing a steering wheel control, then pressing the button on the remote that you want to duplicate...interface learns the command and can then control the radio. The radio specific ones basically just plug into the radio and thats it, although there still is some programming involved.