Monday, October 27, 2008 - 01:56 pm, by: Allan Sutherland(Ajohn)
This may have been answered in another thread, but I haven't found any yet. I've a '92 Soarer TT with original stereo that works fine except this is Canada and not Japan; I need to install a FM expander to receive local stations. Where is the best location to install an Expander? Are there any 'How-To' instructions to do so?
Monday, October 27, 2008 - 09:51 pm, by: Allan Sutherland(Ajohn)
I'm assuming the first link with the instructions for a Celsior would be the one to follow? I've already read the second link regarding an EMV-equipped Soarer but my Soarer is not EMV! There is no box beneath the rear seat to connect an expander to... Any further thoughts?
Wednesday, October 29, 2008 - 03:35 pm, by: Joshua Irvin(Liquid_silk)
Hey everyone I am living in QLD and need to see someone competent to install a band expander in a custom head unit. This is because the under seat radio box is not in the back where it is supposed to be "assuming behind the head unit in the front"
I don’t have the tools to pull the unit out to get the band expander and probably not the skills either
Any recommendations are welcome.
Andrew Stewart TryHard Queensland Manual GT-T VVT-i Single Turbo
Wednesday, October 29, 2008 - 04:03 pm, by: Andrew Stewart(Daboom)
josh; if you have a custom head unit i.e. not the original toyota unit, and you purchased it in australia, you don't need a band expander. a band expander is only used for Japanese radios. a band expander allows you to recieve signals outside the designated maxium band of the stereo system. i.e. a japanese radio's frequency is from 70mhz to 90mhz. a band expander will still only utilise those 20mhz of frequency but will shift the band.
for example you want to listen to frequency 100mhz. you then shift the frequency by 10 MHZ. therefore you will be able to recieve radio stations in australia from 80 - 100mhz.
so if your stereo is a japanese one, but not toyota, i would advise you to look at getting an australian spec model, especially for the stuffing around a band expander really is, plus you can't recieve all the stations that we have here in QLD
hope it helps
Mike Triggs Goo Roo Western Australia 3.0GT G-Pack
Thursday, October 30, 2008 - 06:02 pm, by: Mike Triggs(Mikeandimah)
Allan, if you don't have an EMV you should fit the band expander near the stereo unit in the front. There's a tutorial somewhere about how to get to the stereo, it's not hard. (You don't need to remove stereo to fit an expander, just the surround). You'll need to put the expander on the larger of the two aerial leads, and find power somewhere, usually from the cigarette lighter which is close by.
I had an expander on my Soarer but took it off, as it weakens the signal and while you can pick up a lot more stations, if they aren't powerful they drop out quickly. I've given up on FM where I live as even in my car with Australian spec radio, FM stations drop out 30km from town, so I stick to AM anyway, for which no expander is needed.
Eventually I'm going to fit a single DIN Au-spec CD tuner with Bluetooth and a USB slot, as I've found changing CDs at speed on our crappy roads while trying to look out for stock animals and wildlife is not a good idea. Just waiting to find the right unit, and the 1.5 DIN pocket to fill the resulting hole, and maybe a better external aerial which doesn't need a hole to be drilled as well (Blaupunkt make an interesting looking unit which sticks to the rear glass).
Mike Triggs Goo Roo Western Australia 3.0GT G-Pack
Tuesday, March 03, 2009 - 01:42 pm, by: Jason Lenz(Zaczac)
I have a V8 with EMV and followed the tuitoral in common fixes, (even using 2 fm expanders for both large and small aerial) and I am still only getting the jap freq on the screen. Any ideas? It has all been wired properly and checked power etc do you have to re-tune the head unit somehow? thanks j
Tuesday, March 03, 2009 - 03:15 pm, by: Jason Lenz(Zaczac)
disregard my last post as I later discovered it picks up the good chanels but they are on the wrong station numbers...they still come up as say 88.6fm instead of 105.3fm but same chanel, cool jas