mdmellott wrote: ↑

Thu Apr 15, 2021 7:26 pm

I picked up better reception with my Pioneer radio by getting the windshield antenna active again. The Metra 40-NI11 adapter I am using can simply be made to jump both antennas together (windshield and fender) by using a short piece of 18 gauge stranded wire. Take the wire with the insulation removed and twist the strands together. Cut off a piece about a half inch long and then fold it in half to form a u-shape. Unplug the Nissan antenna harness from the adapter and insert the wire piece into the two plug connection holes within the adapter receptacle using needle nose pliers. When you plug the Nissan antenna harness back in, the two antenna pins in the Nissan plug will be jumped together and now both of your antennas will be actively receiving signals for your radio. It helped my reception so well that I got rid of my fender mast antenna and installed a 6" billet aluminum antenna instead. The 6" antenna alone is worthless as an adequate antenna but it looks better than the old mast and with my windshield antenna now actively working for me, my radio reception is just fine.

A1218 wrote: ↑

Fri Apr 16, 2021 6:04 pm

So I tried this and it actually got worse.

mdmellott wrote: ↑

Fri Apr 16, 2021 7:45 pm

A1218 wrote: ↑

Fri Apr 16, 2021 6:04 pm

So I tried this and it actually got worse.

That should not have happened. I even did something similar to my Kia Soul monopole antenna by creating a dipole antenna within a large shark fine antenna body I used to cover the Kia's roof antenna base. Jumping the window and fender antenna connections together basically turns the monopole antenna setup into a dipole antenna. Not a proper one, but it worked for me, twice. In any event, I'm no audio tech but I know the kind of RFI or EMI you're describing has to come from a wiring or component issue. I looked at the manual for your Pioneer system and see that it has a boat load more features than the Pioneer I put in my '02. The only thing that stood out to me was that your Pioneer manual indicates its ground wire must be directly connected to a body ground on your vehicle, not through your harness like it was before. My Pioneer installation instructions did not require that. With any luck, perhaps that's all it is and hopefully nothing weird is going on with the PAC adapter or the system itself. Disconnect your Pioneer ground wire from the harness and fasten it to a good body ground.

A1218 wrote: ↑

Fri Apr 16, 2021 7:59 pm

mdmellott wrote: ↑

Fri Apr 16, 2021 7:45 pm

The only thing that stood out to me was that your Pioneer manual indicates its ground wire must be directly connected to a body ground on your vehicle, not through your harness like it was before. My Pioneer installation instructions did not require that.

Yeah I did see that in the manual also but I thought it would have been better to use the original ground wire.

mdmellott wrote: ↑

Sat Apr 17, 2021 5:45 am

Double check your wiring on the PAC adapter you installed. Last year we were discussing your speaker wiring in another topic. 97-pathfinder-tweeters-not-working-t628090.html Prior to installing the PAC adapter to get your Bose system properly integrated after you initially bypassed it, you made a comment in that thread that was not right, although I didn't realize it at the time. ("The wire you’re speaking of is a blue white wire that connects with the blue white and blue wire on the PAC integration.") These two wires are the amp trigger and power antenna wires in the PAC adapter which should not be linked together or mixed up in any way with the associated wires from your Nissan harness or your Pioneer system.

mdmellott wrote: ↑

Sat Apr 17, 2021 8:52 am

I took another look at my setup and now I'm scratching my head. On the body side of the PAC adapter I have the blue/white and blue wires going to the proper Nissan harness connections for the amp and the power antenna. I don't actually have a power antenna but the wiring is there so I could install one if I ever wanted to. On the Pioneer side of the Pac adapter, the blue/white wires on the Pioneer and PAC are connected but I did not connect the blue wire on the PAC. I left it unterminated. The Pioneer manual states that the blue/white lead connects to an external power amp's system remote control terminal, the auto-antenna relay control terminal, or the antenna booster power control terminal (max. 300mA 12 VDC). At this point I am not sure if or means one or the other and not more than one of them. With the Nissan audio system, these were powered by separate circuits and switches in the Nissan audio system. With the Pioneer, it's the same circuit so maybe they can be connected together but maybe a line filter is also needed on the power antenna side to prevent EMI from feeding back from the power antenna motor to the Bose audio amp. Here again, I'm no audio tech so I'm only speculating. However, it should be possible for you to test this theory by disconnecting power to your power antenna to see if your static issue goes away. If you hardwired everything like I did, there is a power antenna connection you could unplug instead, behind an interior side body panel on the front passenger side below the dashboard near the floor. Of course, by doing this, your power antenna will not extend out of the fender so your reception will be lousy unless you but back that jumper, I suggested, into the Metra antenna adapter so your windshield antenna is active. This is also assuming the PAC adapter can deal with both circuits connected together so you may have to disconnect the blue wire from the blue/white wire to be sure it's not the PAC having an issue with this.

A1218 wrote: ↑

Sat Apr 17, 2021 4:57 pm

Is the windshield antenna stronger in terms of receiving signal better than the mast alone in your opinion?

Also I don’t think I mentioned this but I have a backup camera installed to the unit and it’s wired to the reverse lamp as a trigger. I could have the radio off and the antenna is down but then when I put the truck in reverse and the camera comes on, the antenna goes up as well.

mdmellott wrote: ↑

Sun Apr 18, 2021 10:51 am

After one last look at my setup, I realized how absent minded I can be. There were a few custom built plugs I made from Nissan factory ones that I think came from my old head unit. I did this so I would not have to splice or hardwire too many connections in order to make my end result plug and play. It made perfect sense at the time, I'm sure, and the wiring logic functions flawlessly but I can't honestly say at this time exactly how I wired everything since I did not document the new wiring schematic. I also have a remote steering wheel control module from PAC so that adds to my spaghetti mess of wires and meatball plugs I created. However, the basics of what I did is still clear to me. My rear view camera is powered up whenever the ignition is on. The rear view display is triggered to turn on when I put the vehicle in reverse, by virtue of tapping into a positive lead on one of the reverse lamps, or at anytime I turn the camera view on from the Pioneer display menu.

You may not actually have two leads going to your power antenna like I suspiciously mentioned in my previous post. That would be kind of hard miss to achieve. However, that blue/white lead from your Pioneer is not functioning as it should either due to something amiss with your wiring setup or misfunction with the Pioneer system itself. I can only suggest you try resetting the Pioneer system to its factory defaults which should have been done when you first installed everything. There is a pinhole in the upper left front corner of the display bezel. Using the tip of a pen or a toothpick, the reset button can be pressed to reset the system to its factory defaults. If that doesn't resolve the issues with your fender antenna being deployed when you put the vehicle in reverse and the HD radio dropping out erroneously and all the other radio static problems including that which happens when jumping the antenna adapter as I did, a complete rethink and examination of your wiring is in order. Otherwise, it may actually be a Pioneer system defect that needs to be serviced. Good luck.