Alpine Stereo - ida-X001

I was lucky enough to get an Alpine stereo that my brother-in-law was not using any more.  Thanks to him I now can play my iPhone through my car without any problems.  It came with the XM unit but since I don't pay to listen to radio I'm not installing it.

Installation:

Installation was a breeze.  It was one of the easiest installs yet on the Ridgeline.  I ordered the wiring harness and the antenna adapter from Crutchfield and found a really cheap site that sold the Metra dash kit.  The harness and adapter came first as expected.  I soldered all the wires using the directions from the stereo and the wiring harness.  It was fairly simple since the wires were all color coded exactly the same.  It even had a dimmer control wire which I hooked up.  It also needed an antenna adapter since the Ridgeline doesn't use the standard antenna plug but a plastic connector instead.  Once all the wiring was soldered, I wrapped each wire individually with electrical tape and then wrapped the whole bundle of wires with the tape.

So now came the 5 day wait for the Metra kit.  It finally came today and I started that install.  It came with some plastic brackets that needed to be bolted to the upper part of the kit.  This was for the lower part that contains the hazard light switch and the flip down storage area.  One thing that I noticed was that the storage area door that flips down actually has a lock that engages with a weight that is pushed when the car is braking.  Pretty cool.  So after getting the cage that came with the stereo into the kit and putting on the brackets, I used the dremmel tool to cut a hole in the compartment below the stereo so that I could pass the USB cable that came with the stereo.  This is where the iPhone will be hooked up to play music.

Next was the taking off of the dashboard.  This was much easier than I expected.  You start at the bottom of the steering wheel on the right and left where there is a notch.  You place a small screwdriver in there and pop the clips.  Once those are taken off you can use your hand to go around and take off the remaining clips.  After this you have to take the slew of connectors for the buttons off the back.  Another thing to note is that the dash trim will not come off unless you have the shifter all the way down and the steering wheel all the way down as well.  This was hard to do since I had already disconnected the battery and couldn't shift down.  So I connected the battery and put the car in low with the key in and disconnected the battery again.  Then the dash trim came off easily.

Pic of slots on the bottom of steering wheel

The stereo came out after taking off the 5 bolts and disconnecting the two harnesses - radio and antenna.  Then I installed the stereo in the dash kit, passed the USB through the hole I cut, and connected the radio harness, antenna plug, and hazard light plug.  Once the whole thing was screwed in, it was just a matter of putting all the connectors back on the dash trim and clipping back in.  I recommend hooking up the battery before clipping the trim and testing all the buttons.  I forgot to plug in the dome light switch and had to unclip the trim again.

Dash trim off and all plugs disconnected

Stock stereo w/ trim removed

                            

Stock stereo out

                         

Aftermarket stereo with Metra kit installed

                            

Hole cut with rotary tool to pass USB/iPod cable through

                                            

Dash trim off and going back on

                            

And finally - installed and working!

After it was installed I checked that the front/rear fade and right/left speakers worked by using the stereo to isolate the speakers.  Everything checked out and the nicest part was when I turned on the lights and the display dimmed automatically. 

Tint

Got the front windows tinted to legal tint.  Looks even better now.  I've had tint on my last three cars and there is a noticeable difference in the amount of sunlight that goes through.  Especially in the mornings and evenings when the Sun is low and enters through the sides, hits your arm and warms it up.  It's great in the summertime and also protects your interior.

Yakima 23H mounts with bike rack

I decided to buy the roof rack since Yakima said that the 23H Mighty Mounts will fit on it.  Since I had them from the FJ I mounted the bike rack on top using them.  It was fairly easy to do so and now I have the option of mounting my bike on the roof, hitch, or bed.

Yakima Lockjaw with 23H Mighty mounts

Rear mighty mount w/ lock

Front mighty mount

All black '09 roof rack on '08

Decided to buy the black roof rack after looking at the installation directions for both the '08 and '09 roof racks.  The only difference between the two directions were the length of the roof strip.  Apparently the '09+ have a slightly longer strip.  The cuts are identical though.

So I bought the '09, put it together with 8 torx bolts on the crossbars and 12 torx bolts on the side rails.  Mounting was a breeze.  The cutting of the roof strips took the longest but it was easy enough with the rotary tool.  I made sure to measure my marks at least 3-4 times on both sides.  I almost made a mistake but caught it in time.  Once you cut the strips you just place them in the rail and then put the assembled rack on top.  You can adjust the strip to make it fit since the cuts give you some leeway to do so.  Once everything was bolted to the roof the Ridgeline looked a little more manly.

Nice looking all black rack

OEM Fog switch for auxiliary lights

Bought an OEM Ridgeline fog switch that I'm planning on using with the aftermarket lights.  I took it apart to see where the 5 connectors go but I might just have to use a voltmeter to test for conductivity and figure out which connectors do what.  No help whatsoever on the Ridgeline forum.  ?

Hitch and wiring harness

Ordered a hitch and wiring harness which came in today.  The hitch is extremely beefy.  I was expecting a smaller diameter tubing but I guess a class III hitch has to be fairly strong.

The "beefy" hitch was one pain to install.  It took close to 3 hours to put on 8 bolts.  The easy part was taking the exhaust off the hangers and unscrewing the heat shield.  Next was lifting the hitch.  I had it supported by two jack stands on the end and a hydraulic jack in the middle.  First I bolted the passenger side.  Big mistake.  Once I did that, the driver's side kept banging into the tow hook.  After I took off the bolt on the other side, I was able to lift it past the tow hook and secure it with one bolt.  ANOTHER mistake.  The bolts on the other side were so hard to align that it took me most of the time just to do this.  I finally bolted the middle first, then took off the bolt on the driver's side, and started to mess around with the alignment of the bolts.  Finally I was able to push the unbolted side and force a screw in.  After this, all the other bolts went into place.

I torqued the middle bolts first, and then started torquing the 3 bolts on both sides.  If I would have had someone to help me I think it would have been harder.  This hitch weighs about 40 lbs and would be a nightmare for someone to hold up while I tried to get the bolts in the holes.

So scrap the Honda instructions and do the following:
1. Lift the driver's side first in place
2. Lift the passenger side over the exhaust next
3. Bolt the middle section first
4. Place one bolt loosely on one side
5. Place a second bolt on the other side
6. Start tightening the two side bolts and then place remaining bolts into it.

Now that I know how it's done, I'm sure it would have taken less than an hour to install.

In box

Out of box

Hitch pin and ball receiver

Finally INSTALLED!

The wiring harness was next.  This would have been an easy task if it wasn't for the rear wiring harness that was tucked away and was taped in TWO areas.  The front install was extremely easy.  First I disconnected the battery and then started to take off the two panels - one on the drivers side and the other  below the steering wheel.  Finding the hole underneath the dash was the only hard part.  Once that was finished I was able to hook up all the connectors and relay blocks.  Then I went to the rear driver's side and saw the plug tucked away.  I was able to pull it through after I released the driver's side bolts and middle bolts of the hitch.  This should have been done before the hitch was mounted but I didn't want a dangling wiring harness before the hitch was installed.  So after releasing the first set of green tape, I could not pull the harness far enough.  Eventually I put my fingers through and followed the harness back.  Apparently there was ANOTHER tape wrap!  This one was very difficult and I finally got a good hold of it and pulled until it broke.  After that the remaining clips and harness were easy to install under the bumper.

The last step involved putting in all the fuses in the fuse box in the engine bay and then reconnecting the battery.

Wheel Locks

Got a set of wheel locks and it took 15 mins to put all 4 on.  They even come with a bag that holds the key.

Bull Bar Installation

After an exhaustive search for an all black bull bar I finally found one. The installation should have taken nothing more than an hour but the cutting of the splash guard was really hard. In all it took me over 4 hours with the repositioning of the splash guard and cutting it to fit the brackets. The installation procedures come with a template but it only makes a cut for the area where the bolts for the bracket are. It does NOT cut into the area where the bracket sticks out beyond the splash guard.

Once the splash guard is cut and fitted, all it took was tightening six bolts for the bracket under the Ridgeline and four bolts to attach the bull bar to the brackets. The driver side of the bull bar was bent a little. I think this was done on purpose to be able to fit the bull bar without being flush against the bracket. After tightening the right side with the supplied bolts, that side was bent inwards and became flush against the bracket.

Next was the positioning of the bar. I eyeballed it and used a jack stand with a towel on top, so as not to scratch the paint, to hold the position while I tightened. It looks like I didn't center it too well since it is slightly drooping on the passenger side. This should be an easy fix of loosening the two bolts, positioning up a little, and tightening again.

I had a couple of auxiliary lights from the FJ brush guard that I bolted on there PRIOR to the installation.

Next will be the wiring up of the lights. Hopefully the Honda switch/button will work well and I will have a clean look. If not, I'll probably cut one of the covers and have the Tacoma switch on top of it.

FJ is gone

I decided to purchase a Honda Ridgeline after the FJ. It's a nice truck with many possibilities.

Step 1 - Sell all FJ parts for the Ridgeline accessories.