Fitted the sat nav
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Joined: Nov 2009
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Fitted the sat nav
Just before I bought the S2000 I bought a Snooper S7000 sat nav http://www.snoopers.co.uk/snooper_s7000_sy...ne_european.asp as it was the biggest screen available. I need glasses for reading but always forgot them while driving and struggled to see the screen on the regular sized ones. After getting the S2000 I read on here about people fitting their own and after looking at the measurements of the JDM bezels I thought my S7000 would fit perfect. It was not until I got the bezel from Go Tuning in the States that I realised it was not as easy as I thought.
I measured the bezel and then cut a hole in the centre to see if my JDM car had the fittings behind the dash to clip the bezel into but no such look.
I then cut the hole out with a dremmel and had to cut through plastic arms that supported the dash this was a bit of a heart in the mouth procedure as every time the blade hit the plastic it grabbed the blade and tried to send it off in another direction plus I could not see these reinforcements through the hole I made so was concerned at what I was cutting through. On hindsight removing a lot more trim especially the stereo would have given me better access but I am too lazy by half.
When I placed the bezel in the hole it fitted but stood proud without being pushed back quite firmly. In this pic it looks ok but from the side there is a slight gap.
Then I stuck the S7000 to the back of the bezel it was ok in height but only left me a few mill in overhang at the top and bottom of the bezel to hide the dash hole and it was a few mill short in width to fill the aperture in the bezel. This made cutting the hole the right size imperative as there was no room for error. I also bought a direct power cable and remote sat nav antenna which clip into the back of the unit. The S7000 is Bluetooth for music and phones plus it has a built in digital tv tuner and came with a remote antenna for that as well.
Once all fitted I ended up taking ages to trim the opening to fit as the sat nav unit was slightly bigger than the hole and was catching on the plastic arms that I had originally cut into. If I had bought a screen to fit the bezel properly it would have been a lot easier. Once all the connections were made the bezel would fit when pushed back firmly so I could have glued the bezel to the dash which in my opinion would have needed some serious glue but as my unit only has the UK media card in the back at some time I will need access to it to the unit to install one for Europe and for any future upgrades. It is nearly impossible to get round the back of the bezel to fasten it to anything so I decided to screw it from the sides into the dash which has plastic immediately behind which gives a solid fixing. Not ideal I agree but at the end of the day I need to be able to remove the bezel to get to the media card and if it goes faulty.
I took these pics with a flash before I cleaned and tidied up so a few grease marks etc it won't look as bad or the bezel as shiny once cleaned. One final bonus is that I ran a lead from the headphones socket on the unit to the aux in on the back of my Kenwood stereo that I can use from the controls on the dash. This has muted the sound that was coming from the tiny speaker on the back and now comes through my speakers in the car. Not as good as a factory system for sure but when I get near my destination I will just press the mode button for aux and get all the directions nice and clear.
I measured the bezel and then cut a hole in the centre to see if my JDM car had the fittings behind the dash to clip the bezel into but no such look.
I then cut the hole out with a dremmel and had to cut through plastic arms that supported the dash this was a bit of a heart in the mouth procedure as every time the blade hit the plastic it grabbed the blade and tried to send it off in another direction plus I could not see these reinforcements through the hole I made so was concerned at what I was cutting through. On hindsight removing a lot more trim especially the stereo would have given me better access but I am too lazy by half.
When I placed the bezel in the hole it fitted but stood proud without being pushed back quite firmly. In this pic it looks ok but from the side there is a slight gap.
Then I stuck the S7000 to the back of the bezel it was ok in height but only left me a few mill in overhang at the top and bottom of the bezel to hide the dash hole and it was a few mill short in width to fill the aperture in the bezel. This made cutting the hole the right size imperative as there was no room for error. I also bought a direct power cable and remote sat nav antenna which clip into the back of the unit. The S7000 is Bluetooth for music and phones plus it has a built in digital tv tuner and came with a remote antenna for that as well.
Once all fitted I ended up taking ages to trim the opening to fit as the sat nav unit was slightly bigger than the hole and was catching on the plastic arms that I had originally cut into. If I had bought a screen to fit the bezel properly it would have been a lot easier. Once all the connections were made the bezel would fit when pushed back firmly so I could have glued the bezel to the dash which in my opinion would have needed some serious glue but as my unit only has the UK media card in the back at some time I will need access to it to the unit to install one for Europe and for any future upgrades. It is nearly impossible to get round the back of the bezel to fasten it to anything so I decided to screw it from the sides into the dash which has plastic immediately behind which gives a solid fixing. Not ideal I agree but at the end of the day I need to be able to remove the bezel to get to the media card and if it goes faulty.
I took these pics with a flash before I cleaned and tidied up so a few grease marks etc it won't look as bad or the bezel as shiny once cleaned. One final bonus is that I ran a lead from the headphones socket on the unit to the aux in on the back of my Kenwood stereo that I can use from the controls on the dash. This has muted the sound that was coming from the tiny speaker on the back and now comes through my speakers in the car. Not as good as a factory system for sure but when I get near my destination I will just press the mode button for aux and get all the directions nice and clear.
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The bezel would just not sit flush because of the size of the sat nav and I was not prepared to take anymore dash away as I was so close to the edge as I said a screen that fitted inside the bezel opening would have been a doddle. It took a lot of force to get it to sit flush no glue or velcro would have worked even if I had wanted it permanent. Flash made everything stand out a bit in daylight it looks a bit better. I can live with it but if I did it again I would buy a screen to fit then velcro or whatever would be an option but like everything else it costs and as I had the S7000 it had to be used.
