Hey Everyone! JDM 1999 S15 Spec-S Automatic - Pop-up Sat Nav

[Farlo]

Hey everyone! My Dad passed away in September last year, and since everyone in my family knows even less about cars than me, I've been tasked with looking after his vehicles.

One of these cars is a Japanese-imported 1999 S15 Spec-S (automatic). It's all original aside from the wheels and the Aero wing that Dad added to it.

The only thing bugging me about it is that the pop-up sat nav display stopped working a couple of years ago. I'm in New Zealand and those things are an absolute rarity here, so it's quite difficult to find anyone who knows anything about them. I know they're not much use as a sat-nav outside of Japan, but it does have a nice interface for CD track selection, plus I'm a bit of a nut for the OEM stuff.

I believe the issue lies solely with the sat-nav control unit, because when I hook it up to power all I get is an electrical "ticking" sound from the unit, and none of the buttons do anything. It doesn't receive CDs either. My problem would almost certainly be solved by just replacing the control unit with another identical OEM one, but those seem to be equally hard to find (let me know if anyone here is selling one though). The unit's model number is CCU-3751V.

Anyhow, it's great to be here! I'm sure I'll learn a lot from you guys reading through these forums. Thanks everyone.

 

[Joeh]

Apologies a bit late.. Welcome to the club!
Sorry to hear about your dad, I extend my deepest sympathies to you and your family. I hope you are all doing well.

The S15 looks immaculate, I don't think I've ever had the privilege to see one with the oem media systems still in place.

I saw you mentioned that the display isn't working, have you tried to disassemble it to see if there was any moisture related burnouts to the circuitry?

 

[Farlo]

Thanks Joeh, that means a lot! Yes the rest of the family and I are doing better than we were. It's been quite therapeutic sourcing OEM bits and pieces for Dad's cars over the last 8 months (he owned a Z31 300ZX as well that I've also been working on).

Regarding the media system, I actually managed to find an identical control unit from a Nissan R'nessa at a wrecking yard I visited at the end of last year. After that it was just plug and play! Good as new. You can see the results in the video below (making good use of these new forum features!). I've never seen another one of these in New Zealand, so some other users on here might find it interesting:

View attachment vid-20200516-160402_D7RuSgmt.compressed.mp4
View attachment vid-20200517-153413_duskWlhW.compressed.mp4

 

[Joeh]

That's great to hear

Wow, I've learned something new today, I never heard of a Nissan R'nessa until now and seeing it has a SR20DET makes me want to try one.

It's excellent news that you managed to replace the unit, and seeing it in action makes me wonder why more people didn't go for this option, it really looks the part and works very nicely from what I can see.

Is the navigation also in Japanese? i.e. Japanese maps?

 

[Farlo]

Yes, it's mostly in Japanese and the map+TV features definitely do not work in New Zealand haha. It works great for selecting CD tracks though! And it has a clock...

I probably wouldn't use it much but it's a nice party trick to show people who haven't seen them. Plus it adds some OEM value for collectors if I ever want to sell it or put it in a museum some day

There's a small crack in the front edge of the surround/frame for it unfortunately, which kinda annoys me every time I look at it, so if anyone is selling one or knows where to get them then feel free to get in touch. I may have a go at very carefully gluing it at some point so it's not as noticeable, now that I can open the lid to pop it out.

 

[Joeh]

Oh dear, I assume you could get a form of adapter to adjust the TV frequencies, and maybe there is a "rest of world" DVD update for the navigation, which you might not really use but would be cool to have.

I noticed the crack when looking at the photos as well, might be hard to hide it completely, but since the plastic is textured you might be able to lower its visibility quite a lot, worst case there might still be stock somewhere with Nissan if you wanted to enquire for a new one?

 

[Farlo]

Yeah that's not a bad idea. I guess if anyone has one it'd be Nissan. No big rush anyway. I'm just happy it works haha.

Regarding the map/language DVDs, I know that aftermarket ones used to exist in the mid 2000's, but I honestly doubt anyone would bother making new ones when most people would just swap out the head unit and use Google Maps/Android Auto instead haha. If there are newer options for these dash screens that I'm unaware of (with minimal soldering or custom fab involved) then I'd certainly consider them though

 

[Joeh]

Might be best to measure the screen dimensions and compare this to pioneer products for example or likewise, unless of course there is a video-in input on there and you don’t have to replace it.

With the maps I’m not really sure but I assume that the first place to start is Nissan, see if you can get any part numbers for their CDs and then start googling as you might find something related. Not sure if the cd is listed in the Nissan FAST application but it’s possible.

 

[tbizzy]

Yeah that's not a bad idea. I guess if anyone has one it'd be Nissan. No big rush anyway. I'm just happy it works haha.

Regarding the map/language DVDs, I know that aftermarket ones used to exist in the mid 2000's, but I honestly doubt anyone would bother making new ones when most people would just swap out the head unit and use Google Maps/Android Auto instead haha. If there are newer options for these dash screens that I'm unaware of (with minimal soldering or custom fab involved) then I'd certainly consider them though

Hey Farlo! Fellow Kiwi s15 owner with a functional nav-dash here, my pop up mechanism works flawlessly and I also have a small crack on the surround just like yours. The main issue I have is that my screen seems delaminated and the brightness is so low it’s barely visible during daytime. This is currently my daily and I’m thinking I’d benefit tremendously from installing a very small “portable wireless CarPlay screen” that would replace the OEM system which is completely useless to me.

My reasoning going this unusual route is that I love the look of s15 interiors and I’d like to keep it as oem and period correct as possible. However, I often find myself needing to use maps, making calls while driving, change music playlists and etc, which makes me miss having CarPlay. Installing a tiny CarPlay system would meet my needs for functionality as well as being able to hide the ugly screen with a press of a button.

I unfortunately have a very bad history with accidentally destroying old plastic JDM interior bits whilst trying to remove or put them back together and I’m absolutely terrified of making a mistake and ruining my extremely rare and beloved nav-dash. Are you able to provide any resources or information on how I should go about uninstalling the old nav unit? Would I need to remove the entire dash? I’ve been holding this job off for almost a year now as there is genuinely nothing anywhere on how to work with these Any help would be HUGELY appreciated

 

[Farlo]

Hey Farlo! Fellow Kiwi s15 owner with a functional nav-dash here, my pop up mechanism works flawlessly and I also have a small crack on the surround just like yours.

Hey there! Sorry to hear about the screen fade issue. Mine can be hard to read during the day as well, though I'm not sure if it's actually the screen failing, or just a normal characteristic of the older display technology. I didn't actually end up replacing my screen (I'm like you, and didn't want to risk ruining a screen/pop-up mechanism that still works). I'd consider installing some English/NZ map software if there was a way to do so, but I haven't been able to find any options for that.

This is where I got the replacement lid/surround to solve the cracked edge: https://www.efisolutions.com.au/navigation-cover-lid-s15

There are two screws just inside the front lip when the lid is open that you can take out to remove the broken one. The screen doesn't need to come out with it - the lid/surround kind of just sits on top, so it can be removed by itself.

If it's helpful to you, I used Google Translate to create + print-off a little guide for myself, so I know how to operate the AV unit and navigate through the different menus on the stock display:



As you can see, there's a brightness slider, which may help with your issue. There's even a dark mode! Which is togglable with the "switch display" option after pressing the "DISP" button on the AV unit.

If you're dead-set on replacing the screen with something that has CarPlay, the wiring notes in this thread might be useful to you: https://www.silviaoc.com/discuss/threads/wiring-gps-audio-factory.6819 . As a layman it seemed quite scary to me, but maybe with some amount of 3D printing, a non-invasive mounting option could be made for a different screen. I'd be keen to hear what you end up with!