Ok, so I seem to have a common problem with the '03 G35 sedan. My car was part of a recall for a new head unit and it was replaced by the original owner in 2003. However, lately 3 issues cropped up in the following order:

1. My OEM CD changer stopped working a couple months ago (I didn't care but was ticked my CD's were stuck)
2. My climate / HVAC control and radio buttons stopped working one day (and A/C would come on full blast). After a couple of good whacks (by pushing down on my stock Navi), all seemed fine again. I continued this whacking whenever the issue cropped up.
3. Cold air would start blowing out while I was idling even though heat was supposed to be on.

I recently did a coolant flush and the local shop (non-infiniti dealer) said their pressure tests indicated everything was fine prior to the flush. I did a flush regardlesss because I haven't done one in 60k miles. The techs think that a new head unit would fix the climate control and cold air issues. Does this sound right?

Also, is there a DD kit that will go with my stock navi system (the metra doesn't seem to work and I can't find anything about JDM)?

Thanks.

 

They didn't remove the air bubbles from the coolant lines when they did the flush!

 

+1 on the air in the coolant system causing cold air at idle.

A DD kit will fix the problems with the radio & climate control you're having.

The stock navi system sends a mono output to the stock head unit in addition to a +12v signal wire to swap to the voice prompts.

It doesn't have anything to do with the Metra vs. JDM kit.

To keep voice prompts, you can:

• Find a stereo that supports the 12v signal switching to an audio or audio/video source. (Many support 12v trigger to switch to reverse camera, but I can't say that I know which ones include audio with rear view.)
• Hook up a small amplifier and speaker to output from the stock navi. (Stock radio won't mute or anything for the prompts, and you'll have to use a remote to control the volume.)
• Use a 12v DPDT relay to switch the front left speaker from the head unit output to that speaker to the factory nav's output. The head unit audio output goes to the two normally closed terminals, while the output from the nav unit goes to the normally open terminals. The 12v signal powers the relay. Of course, the signal from the nav is just line-out, so it'll need to be amplified after the relay, just like the output from the HU should.
• Hook the output from the stock navi to an auxiliary input on the new stereo and switch to it when you want to listen to nav prompts.
• Or - my recommended route - just get a good stereo with navigation.
  • You'll have updated maps.
  • You'll be able to update them in the future.
  • Most good DD units have navigation anyway, you might as well go all the
    way.

 

Wrathernaught,

I wasn't clear in my post. I see the metra dd kit (the casing/frame) won't fit around my stock navi. Click on images on the link:


I was wondering if the JDM kit would fit around my stock navi.

 

Bump - I too was curious..
I'm looking to get a new pioneer DD HU and was concerned that there would be problems getting everything to fit nicely with my stock navi.... are there any conflicts here?

 

If you search the A/V forum, you'll see quite a few pictures of people with both DD and stock navi installed. On the 05/06 it's not a problem at all, since the design was changed.

 

Wrathernaut, thanks for the write-up... much appreciated and very well explained.