I did a search and didn't find any definitive responses.

I was wanting to know if anyone has had difficulty with their navigation systems after installing a metallic based tint, specifically, the Llumar brand.

I talked to several installers and their opinions varied from "no problems at all", to "we had a guy come back and get it removed because he could not use his nav or satellite radio."

Looking for some 1st hand experience comments.

Thanks.

 

Any opinions?

 

My friend had metallic tint installed on his and I never heard him complaining about his navi acting funny...i'll ask him what brand they used.

 

Both our TL and G35 have Metallic tints. The Navi and XM work just fine. Though I don't have Llumar. I have Suntek. I have solarguard metallic in my other car, but that car doesn't have navi.

 

I don't think metallic tint affect that much.

 

I have both...no probs...

 

Thanks for the input guys. I'm going metallic!

 

why not just go with a color safe dyed film, like Madico Charcool or a ceramic (though pricey) like Formula 1 Pinnacle or Huper Optik. As long as you get a color safe dyed film with a lifetime warrenty against fade, peeling, purpling, bubbling, etc, you're only giving up a little heat rejection while guarenteeing that you won't have any interference. The metallic tint won't matter if your signal is strong. If the signal drops from 90% to 70%, you won't really notice, but if you're in a fringe area and only have a 20% signal, the attenuation due to the tint will matter. If you're in a really hot area, I can see the need to have max heat rejection, but the color safe films are not more expensive than the metallics or hybrids, so imho that's the way to go.

Oh, and from what I've read, metallic tint mainly screws up AM reception, but not FM, but I don't have any solid source on this.

I don't have a navi, but I might want to get one in the future which is why I went with the Charcool line from Madico. One of the few color safe films with a lifetime warrenty.
Madico Proline:
http://www.prolinestyling.com/film.cfm

 

metallic film can totally screw up your radio's reception due to the fact that the antenna is in the rear window. i learned that the hard way on my last car and went with a non-metallic tint on the G.

 

The sat antenna is in the middle of the dash under the windshield.
So, unless you're doing the windshield, you'll be fine.

 

The sat radio antenna is usually outside the car on the roof, unless you get an aftermarket one. So tinting is not a factor ( with oem sat )

 

I have 4 cars with metallic tints, and all of them have window antennas. None of them have reception problems. If you think about it... The film on the rear glass only covers half the antenna, as they are not peeling off your antenna and tinting the glass. So your antenna still has an unobstructed view out the back.

But like I said, I have 4 cars with metallic tints, and have never had any reception problems, whether it be AM, FM, or even XM.

 

I am about to get an avic z2 installed in my 05 sedan. I was thinking of hiding the xm radio and gps antennas behind the clock and under the plastic finisher. the installer says everything should still work fine.. what do you guys think?

 

i got the huper optik tint which is non metallic and is guaranteed to not interfere with electronics. i'd like some day to do the windshield with a very light HO film for better heat reduction.