Thanks to the folks that posted the link to the service manual I have just finished defeating the lockouts on my car. Most of the threads regarding this have dealt with the Nav equipped cars so I thought I would give some imformation to the cheap folks like myself.
My plan is to install the Garmin GVN-52 black box nav unit using the auxillary inputs. This will use a remote for setting and will output video and spoken directions through the cars screen and audio. I would have got the nav if I could have had Sirius but if it works, this should come pretty close for the few times I don't know where I'm going.

So, for the nitty gritty.
The wires you need to get to are in the back of the AV control unit.

a) Remove shift **** by pushing the boot down and removing the clip.
b) Pull up on shift cover until it comes loose, remove connectors and cover.
c) Remove two screws and gently pull on control panel, remove connectors and panel.
d) Remove two upper screws holding screen fascia and vents, pull gently and remove.
e) Remove upper two screws holding display, pull gently and remove connector. Remove display.
f) Remove two lower screws and pull out AV unit. This doesn't have to come out all the way, just far enough to get at the back.
g) Looking down at the back the connector you want is the 32 pin connector slightly to the right at the top. The two wires are pins 106 (parking brake) and 107 (VSS). Looking at the back of the connector these are the two on the top right. I didn't take photos, sorry, but it should be fairly obvious if you check out the service manual. The manual says they are Violet (106) and Red (107) but on my car they appeared light blue and pink. I cut the two wires and soldered a phone lead to all four ends in case I had to install a switch. This proved unnecessary but it did give me peace of mind in case I had to get at the wires again after I had put everything back together. It turns out that you only need to cut the VSS wire and ground the Brake wire going into the AV unit.
h) Reassemble in reverse order!

I was concerned that this would screw up the mpg calculations and the range for both displays but this is not the case. I would imagine that the only thing that will not work is the speed sensitive volume but I never use that anyway.

Just to be sure, I drove around for a few minutes and checked everything out. All the displays work as normal and I can watch video on the auxillary input at any time. I don't condone watching video while driving (why would you want to anyway?) but this seemed like a perfect way to add aftermarket nav and still utilise the screen in the car. I still have some questions for Garmin regarding placement of an antenna but I'm happy to have got around the video nanny for now.

Anyway, I hope this is of help to the brave few.

 

thanks for the writeup .... quick question for you ....

By cutting (or) grounding the parking brake wire, does it make the "brake" indicator to be always "on" in the dash ???
(you know the one that comes if you actually put the parking brake) ??

 

I have been wondering if there is a way to install a CF card reader to a Non-Nav G35 journey (with SOW). Do you think that something similar to what you did for the Garmin Nav unit might work for the CF reader?

Thanks.

 

The brake light on the dash is unaffected by cutting the wire. That would have been unacceptable to me.

As for installing the CF reader. I'm not sure how you would connect it to anything. The AV controller is different in the Nav car as is the display. I was checking to see if the stock backup camera could be installed but I really don't think it would be possible. If you wanted some sort of CF reader you would be best getting something like an IPOD or PDA and hooking it up to the Aux. The problem is finding something with composite video out. Most stuff these days is done with mini USB connectors.

 

hmm..i'm confused..so a bypass has been figured out for NAV models?? What is it? I must have missed it completely and cant seem to find a threat mentioning a confirmed way to do this...

 

Thanks NMG for the info. I suppose what you described was for the '07 AT model? Also about how far into the console or dash board are you talking about where this AV control unit is? Thanks again.

PF

 

This was for the AT but looking at the service manual the procedure is the same. I'm not sure about the shift **** itself, but other than that, identical.

The AV control unit is essentially the CD changer. The buttons on the front come off as a panel leaving a silver box with a slot in it. Everything is similar with the nav but the connectors and pinouts are different. For the nav hack there needs to be a switch for the VSS wire on the M. I don't know that anyone has tried it on the new G yet.

I'm not sure how to link but if you search for the service manual download everything is spelled out fairly well.

 

So - just to clarify - this process will not work for Nav equipped systems (as I don't think I ever saw a thread on scuccesful Aux lock-out defeated for Nav equipped cars).

 

Sorry - my message above was more a quesiton, and not a statement.

Will your method above work on Nav equipped cars?

 

Thanks for posting! Great info..

 

so the real question now is...whos going to be the first person to do this and take alot of pics for us noobs who have no idea what were doing

THANKS

 

No, if you do it this way your navigation won't work right because it uses the vehicle speed sensor (VSS).

 

So us Nav equipped owners still have no solution?

 

Nope, I don't think there will be a simple fix for us. I don't know for sure but I think we're either going to require a bypass module of some kind or a sofware hack.

 

I don't think that this will work for the Nav other than with a switch on the VSS wire. This would mean that when you wanted to watch video on the Aux you could break the VSS line with the switch and the Nav wouldn't work. As soon as you were done with Aux, you would connect VSS at the switch and the Nav would catch up again. I'm not sure that I would be happy with this solution. Looking at the diagrams, it is also possible that the G is different to the M, and that the Nav will still work with the VSS cut via the bus inputs. It depends how this particular AV unit uses the signal. Someone with Nav will just have to cut the wire to find out. There is enough slack in the loom to allow pretty easy testing of this. That is why I put the extra line in. This allows you to experiment while also giving you an easy path back to stock without removing everything again. The wires are small enough that I would recommend soldering over any sort of crimping for the long haul.