Completed my double din conversion and Pioneer 8100NEX installation!

Last night I wrapped up a long three days of work on the roadster, swapping in all of the double-din interior pieces, and installing a Pioneer 8100NEX with all the bells and whistles. I must say that the double din conversion is DEFINITELY not for the faint of heart. There's quite a lot of cutting and trimming involved including cutting the aluminum dash rail, cutting/fitting the new vents into the dash pad, drilling/riveting the new top brace inside the dash, and finally trimming the double din dash panel to sit flush once it's clipped into the dash.

Ultimately though, I'm happy with the outcome. The 8100NEX supports both Apple CarPlay and Android Auto, has two USB and one HDMI inputs routed below the center console, a rear view camera, and SirusXM via a radio module I installed.

Some helpful tips that come to mind at the moment:

• There's no reverse signal wire in the dashboard area from what I've seen in the wiring diagrams and confirmed by my local service center. I had to tap the taillight wire with the brown stripe and run that wire through the wheel well area full of electronics, fish it through the door sill, and then up into the dash. This is the signal needed by the head unit to know when to display the rear view camera automatically.
• The stock JVC head unit has a truckload of modules attached to it and they are all tucked down to the left of the driver's feet. Pull off the door sill trim and waterfall, and you'll see a cavern full of wires. Those ALL come out and happily go into the trash lol.
• When removing the SiriusXM module from that area, leave the antenna wire in place. You can plug it into your new SiriusXM module for the new head unit and it will work just fine. It's a great location for the antenna, and would be a royal pain to remove anyway.
• It's quite easy to route USB/HDMI cables down to the center console. Just remove the center console and then remove the HVAC panel right above it. The HVAC panel just has a few screws along the bottom edge and then pulls straight out towards you. You'll see an opening inside on the left side, that goes right up into the area you need it to. Wrap your cables though since there are sharp edges in there.
• Dont bother re-using the stock microphone location down by your right knee. I did, and it's a useless location for voice commands while driving. I either need to relocate it, or wait and see if some sound insulation in the car helps matters.
• ADT-VA133 - 2DIN Installation Kit | Pioneer Electronics USA This kit is essential, and provides the frame that your new double din head unit will slide into. It protrudes a few millimeters further forward than some others, so you'll need to trim the new double din dash panel from tesla (the one that looks like a frog face with the vents), so that it sits flush when installed.
• The Tesla wiring harness for the JVC is horrible since it uses the same color wire for many different signals. Be careful and re-wire one wire at a time or you'll screw yourself.
• Trimming the dash pad sucks. If I had to do it over again I'd probably pay Tesla the ~$1000 they wanted for a pre-cut one. I chose to add a bit of glue to mine, in order to seal up some areas where cold air would have just leaked inside the dash. Be conservative here, since I had a tiny bit leak onto the visible surface on top of the dash and now it will forever bug me (even though most people probably won't even notice).
• The new hex bolt you use to bolt down the dash pad onto the new cross brace (the one you rivet), is way too long. You'll need to trim it down by about 30% using a dremel or some other means.
• When riveting in the cross brace, it's nearly impossible to drill the rivet holes vertically into the top surface. You'd need a right angle drill or something. I just drilled the two horizontal holes into the front surface, and riveted those. It's plenty of support and IMO the top rivets aren't necessary. This isn't a structural piece by any stretch of the imagination.

Feel free to ask any questions if this is something you're interested in doing. Just don't expect it to be a one evening job.



- - - Updated - - -

Forgot to add one thing. Here's a listing of the parts I ordered, all of which are required for the conversion EXCEPT for the last line item. Those are clips for the fabric wheel well liners that I also needed. You won't need those for a stereo installation.

7racer said:

NICE!

I couldn't figure a way to get the wires to the center console, and didn't see the screws to remove the HVAC panel! DOH! Good to know.

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I did battle with that area of the car for many hours haha. At first I almost broke the HVAC panel into a million pieces trying to remove it before removing the center console. Then I sliced the hell out of my fingers a few times while fishing the wires through the hole I mentioned. Next time I'm definitely wearing a pair of mechanic's gloves.

Jaff said:

Nice job, well done!

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Thanks!

Vip said:

Great job! Can you show a picture of the double din with the back up camera on?
Also does the back up camera turn on automatically when you put it in reverse or do you have to manually turn it on?
I am a little hesitant doing this myself. May have to get an installer to do this for me unless you are willing to come out to Columbus Ohio!!

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Hey I've been to Columbus! I stayed at that cool historic Westin hotel downtown. If you're unsure about it, I'd say get someone else to do the work since it's really quite a lot. If you bought the pre-cut dash pad from Tesla it would significantly reduce the amount of work though.

For the rear view camera, each head unit will operate in its own fashion. My 8100NEX does automatically show the camera as soon as you hit the R button to shift into reverse. This of course requires you to run a wire from the reverse light circuit in the tail light, all the way up to the head unit.

You also have to install a Zener Diode in that wire. The head units typically want to see either 0V or 12V on that wire, and for some reason the roadster still sends a few volts through the reverse light even when you're not in reverse. The Zener diode will gate this lower voltage and make it appear as either 0V or 12V to the head unit. I used a 5.1V 1W Zener based on some posts I had read, but I've had a couple of instances of the reverse camera coming on when I was driving down the road. This tells me the voltage must have momentarily exceeded 5.1V and made it through the Zener, so I have a new 6.2V 1W Zener here that I've been meaning to swap in when I have some time. I saw someone from Tesla mention using a 6.2V Zener on Facebook recently too, so this should do the trick.

I'll work on posting some photos of the rear view display soon. It's not too useful for judging parking distance since most cars have the camera looking down at the bumper, and the roadster is so low that accomplishing that would require mounting the camera in the rear spoiler. So the camera pretty much looks straight back, and is mostly useful for looking for obstacles or parking lot cross traffic.

Which bunch of wires are you referring to? Are you talking about the rats next of JVC modules that were stashed down in the side-kick-panel just forward of the driver door? That's where my JVC iPod adapter and some other stuff was. I don't believe I took and pics of it, I just unplugged it all and removed it. The iPod cable runs from that area and under the driver's seat to the center console. I just ended up cutting that one, and figured I'd remove the cable if I ever have the seat out.

There wasn't any wiring diagram needed really. I just looked up the pinout from the existing JVC connector and then translated that over to the Pioneer wiring harness.