[MCowher]

I only have about 3800 miles on my MO so far, but when I take it in to the dealer for the 7500 mile service, I'm a little worried about the mechanics messing with my custom stuff.

I have a switch so that I can turn the Navigation LCD back to normal display, and most of my accessories are in the bottom of the center console, with the exception of the XBox which is hidden under the front passenger seat, and the PAC AAI-NIS, which is in the dash, behind the radio. Oh, and my Infrared audo transmitter is right next to the front passenger map lights. Also, I replaced the headrests with the ones that have built-in monitors.

Have you guys ever gotten any flak for custom stuff, especially when your MO is still under warranty?

 

[EasternPA]

Nah, not a peep, and I've been there every 3,000 miles (about 20 visits, 16 for service, 4ish for repairs). Of course, my mods are very discrete. At most, they would have asked what the new remote control is for since that's about all you can plainly see from my install. Not without digging around under my seat. Search for "murano headrests are out" to see closeups of my tv mod.

How do you guys deal with heat jamming the xbox under the passenger seat and running it off an inverter? That would be my biggest concern.

Edit: Now I see your custom 12v xbox power suppy.. that's the biggest reason I've never considered running an xbox down there. Please tell us more about it!

 

[MCowher]

Down here in North Carolina, I haven't had to turn the heat on yet in my car, but I finally completely finished my XBox install yesterday morning. Following GripperDon's lead, I was able to get my XBox under the seat, and about as far to the front of the car as possible.

I used some cable ties and was able to lift the Xbox off of the floor, so that "theoretically", the air vents will pass the air under the xbox completely. I may have to extend those vents somehow to make sure the air completely clears the Xbox...Fortunately, the Xbox has built-in protection from high temperatures, and will simply shut down if it gets to hot...In the XBMC software, you can go to a screen that has all the temperatures listed.

In order to fit the XBox under the seat, as far forward as I wanted, I had to "bend" some of the metal framing under the seat to make a little more room than was originally available. I just used a pair of heavy duty vise-grips and a hammer to bend the metal framing that surrounds the track that the seat slides on, while still making sure there was plenty of clearance for the track.

It's a very tight fit, but it does fit.

I can take some pictures if you think it'll help...

 

[MCowher]

Oh...and my power supply...

I removed the stock XBox power supply, and replaced it with the following two items paired together:

OPUS 120 watt DC-DC power Supply DCX3.120

Tribemods APACHE v2.6 PLUS

I put the Opus power supply into "dumb" AT mode, so it doesn't try to communicate with the motherboard.

Alternatively, you may want to try out a combo of the above two devices that is "guaranteed" to work with an XBox, but I'm not sure how it'll do with a larger hard drive (mine's 300GB):

Llamma's Custom 12V DC Automotive Power Supply for the XBox

In addition to the power supply, I spliced into the XBox power switch lead, and grounded it directly to the XBox metal case, so that when I power up the car, the XBox automatically fires up as well. This weekend, I spliced in a toggle switch to this ground wire, so that I could disable the auto-boot if needed.

 

[EasternPA]

Thanks for the description. Of course, it just went from interesting to scary I've had my eye on the Opus intelligent 12v power supplies for some time. In particular, this application

http://www.opussolutions.com/index.php?p=product&id=27

 

[GripperDon]

Never Had a proble

They all loved the Mod Mo.