January 2006 - Pimp my Prius - page 2
 I hit the Internet and started to research whether there were any aftermarket solutions to my Sirius-less problem other than the cheesy cassette adapter/cigarette lighter set-up that I had in my old car. Typing “Toyota Prius, Sirius” into Google I found the appropriately-named product “Sirius Prius” from Factory Interactive. After reading the literature on the piece, I found that this $395 product would seemingly do everything that I had dreamed of and more. Based in New Jersey, Factory Interactive offers installation of the Sirius Prius kit for $100, a seemingly fair amount for the amount of labor and risk of damaging or losing parts of the car, but being a few thousand miles away, I opted to be a weekend warrior and dismantle my Prius dashboard and rear seat and install the system myself. A DVD that walks you through the entire process is included and, despite its low production value, hand-held video camera look, it spells out the process very well and gave me the confidence to be able to start popping pieces of my new car apart.
 As I was waiting for the right lazy weekend to get into the idea of ripping my dashboard apart, I came across another toy that I wanted to put into my Prius. BMW and many other manufacturers are starting to include Apple iPod adapters in their cars, so I thought this would be a perfect opportunity to research and find a way to integrate an iPod into my car as well. The simple option would be to get a cigarette lighter power adapter and a cassette tape adapter, but again, like the lower-end Sirius models, this was not the set-up I wanted for my ultimate commuter mobile. A company called Vais Technology offers an iPod interface that works quite nicely with most modern Toyota navigation systems and allows you to see what songs are playing via the touch screen panel in the middle of the Prius’ dashboard. VaisTech is currently working on an interface that has a video input for the new iPod video, so you can watch TV shows on your screen. I don’t recommend this piece for driving, but it would be pretty cool to be able to wow your friends with the ability to play videos on your navigation screen from the iPod. I ordered up my standard iPod kit from VaisTech for $279 and eagerly awaited its arrival.
Before touching one dashboard panel or even picking up a screwdriver, I read through every single piece of literature for both components and even set them up on my kitchen table to be sure that they would clip together correctly. The idea of tearing most of my car apart only to find out that the cables weren’t quite manufactured right was something I wanted to avoid at all costs, as this G-ride is my only source of transportation other than a pair of Nikes or a bus pass. I even went so far as to email both of the companies with a few concerns that I had over how they should be configured, as there are several options for both. With all of my questions answered, and the products finally in hand, it was time to get to pimpin' my Prius.
Installation
 New cars, especially hybrids, are now basically rolling computers with a steering wheels and seats. Carefully popping the panels off of my dashboard and disassembling the radio and navigation components, I was blown away by the number of wires and sensitive electrical components behind the scenes in the Prius. The basic set-up for the Sirius portion of this install is to put an antenna on the roof, then run the wire from the antenna along the rubber seal in the hatchback area into the tuner that is hidden in the back storage area. From the tuner, a control cable is then run along the floorboard, under the kick panels along the rear and front driver’s side. It is then fed up and over the steering column and attaches to the back of an open port on the JBL six-disc CD changer unit. There are two open connections on the back of the JBL unit for extra components, such as external CD changers. The software in the Sirius Prius unit interfaces with the nav screen and provides a seamless way of accessing three banks of six Sirius presets. While installing the Sirius kit, I brought my laptop computer out to my garage so I could follow the instructional DVD step by step. I was missing two tools and, rather than try to rig something up that would substitute for the incorrect tools, I ran over to Home Depot and purchased the ratchet set and electrical fish tape I needed to do this job right. I highly recommend you take the extra time to make sure you have the right tools for the job before undertaking an endeavor of this nature. All it takes is one or two stripped screws or bolts from using the wrong tool and you’ll be wishing you took the extra time to get the right ones.
A few times, I was unsure as to where the control wire was supposed to be fed into above the steering column so having the laptop computer with the DVD sitting right on the front seat allowed me to rewind and rewatch the video, until I was completely sure where to run the wire. Running a coax cable in your home theater next to a power cable might cause some interference that makes the picture on your TV a little fuzzy, but if you make a mistake on your car’s electrical system that could cause you car to malfunction while driving. This could be a life-threatening issue, so take utmost care when doing anything on your car that involves the electrical system.
The navigation/info display screen for the Prius is very expensive and I can’t emphasize enough that you should put it in a safe, secure place when you remove it. Putting all of the screws and clips and bolts in a safe location is highly recommended of course, but if you lose a screw or part, it might cost you a few dollars. If your nav screen falls and cracks, you are looking in the neighborhood of a few thousand dollars, so the bottom line is to exercise precaution with every part that you remove.
Having a digital camera on hand during disassembly can be beneficial as well. As you unplug things from the back of your radio head unit, you can take snapshots with the time/date stamp on and then, as you reassemble the car, you will have a something to refer to in case you have brain fade and can’t remember which plug goes where. In most cases, every clip will have a different shape, so it should be foolproof. However, I can’t guarantee that, so a photo record of the installation process can be invaluable.
With the Sirius plugged in and working, it was time to install the iPod connector. The first and most important question was how and where the cable that attaches to the iPod is going to come out of the dashboard. In the Prius, I found the optimal place for the iPod cable to be in the plastic fold-down CD storage tray under the cassette deck. If your car doesn’t have a storage area like this, the glove box is another viable option. This would most likely require some more disassembly of your dashboard and you’ll want to make sure that the motion of the glove box opening and closing is not hindered by the cable.
Using a drill bit that was just smaller than the size of the clip on the end of the iPod cable, I drilled a hole in the back of the plastic CD holder and fed the cable through backwards. I then coiled up the slack and set it back behind the CD/tape player, plugged the iPod control cable into the mini-disc input on the head unit and ran some tests with my iPod connected. I was listening to my “recently played” play list in mini-disc emulation mode and the song title and artist names were listed on screen, so I knew I had it all hooked up right. I put everything back together and was ready to test out my new audio tour de force Prius.
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