NIT units or What's in the arm rest of a 4200?

davidhowson

Junior Member
Messages
474
I have been waging a bit of a battle with my car to get the GSM phone to work, but finally after much messing about, I have done it; and this time the unit talks to me, as my previous attempt left me with no spoken commands on the sat nav!

For those of you who may want to look inside the arm rest of a 4200, here is how to do it and what you will find. Useful for all kinds of audio fiddling about kind of projects!

1. The arm rest in question. This has the horizonmtal slot for a CD usually in use by the Sat Nav, and a vertical slot for the GSM sim card. Just to confuse you, the picture is taken on a 90 degree angle!

NIT1.JPG


2. Turn on the power and remove the CD:

NIT3.JPG


3. Turn off the power and remove the Info Centre Sim Card holder if you have one:

NIT2.JPG


4. Under the mat at the back of the storage area in the arm rest, you will find two cross head screw bolts, remove these and the two screws at the front of the storage area:

NIT4.JPG


5. Lift up the storage tray and remove it, if you have the phone privacy unit fitted, unplug this cable:

NIT5.JPG


6. With the storage tray part out of the way, you will see two cross head screw bolts holding the arm rest lid in place. Remove these being careful not to drop the bolts and washers into the void below (I have some grey coloured insulation in the arm rest to make the hot air go into the rear of the car better seen in this picture):

NIT6.JPG


7. Now gently pull the rear air ducts out of the arm rest:

NIT7.JPG


8. With both of the air ducts out, you will see two cross head screw bolts at the rear of the arm rest frome; remove these, again taking care not to drop them into the depths of the car floor:

NIT8.JPG


9. OK, we are nearly there! Now pull the tray out of the ashtray to reveal a cross head screw, remove this screw:

NIT9.JPG


10. Now move the mat to one side next to the mirror switches and remove the cross head bolt from under here:

NIT10.JPG


11. Remove the ash tray assembly and then remove the cross head screw under that, but first unplug the wires from the ash tray light:

NIT11.JPG

NIT12.JPG


12. Lift up the rear of the entire centre consol:

NIT13.JPG

NIT14.JPG


13. I propped the centre consol up on a long drill bit to gain access under the NIT Unit:

NIT15.JPG


14. If you want to remove the NIT Unit, undo the 4 x 13mm nuts under the unit:

NIT16.JPG


15. Now disconnect the cables CAREFULLY from the rear of the unit. The green connector at the top is the phone antenna and the grey one is the GPS antenna, then lift the unit up:

NIT17.JPG


16. Finally, remove the cable connected to the front underside of the NIT Unit and then it is free to come completely out:

NIT18.JPG


There you go. I hope to show you what goes on inside the NIT in the next installment!!

-David-
 

JAGPURR

New Member
Messages
91
Brilliant ! great to see others pulling stuff apart. Looking forward to the next installment, are we goint to see the nit unit in bits? Glad to hear you sorted your voice problem out. Who needs a Haynes manual anyway?
Keith
 

davidhowson

Junior Member
Messages
474
I have pulled the old NIT to bits, taken a load of photo's and worked out some of what you can see.
But TBH it looks like a pile of mangled electronics, imagine someone dropped a telly from a hotel bedroom window (no it wasn't me) and then took a load of pictures of it.....
Anyway, I will try and make some sense of it and post on another thread later in the week if you can bear to wait!

Oh, and I put the whole thing back together again too, in case you wondered!

-David-
 

safrane

Member
Messages
16,747
David took a look at my NIT in Cumbria, and with his wealth of knowlage found that all I needed to get Sat Nav was an antenna and a softwear up-grade. Just £8.99 later via e-bay and I am up and running.
 

davidhowson

Junior Member
Messages
474
I'd like to say that I was extremely confident when upgrading Peter's car with the new software.
But if the truth were know, I was wondering how I was going to explain why his system no longer worked when it had finished!

No, not really. I had "done" mine a few weeks earlier to get the phone system working properly so everything was under control.

Looking at Peter's NIT, it was clear that the hardware was there and all that was needed was the software upgrade and a GPS antenna. The phone is different. It also needs a SIM reader which I haven't been able to match...until now. It would appear that the same system is used in the Alfa 147. I'm on the look out for a scrapped 147 with SAT NAV if anyone hears of one.

If anyone else would like to "share" this knowledge, then drop me a PM.

Regards

David

ps - I did do a full NIT Strip. But I haven't had the time to work out what all the pictures mean yet!
 

urbanmaser

Member
Messages
2,908
David well done and brilliantly illustrated........even a muppet like me could follow that............only problem is that I have a Gransport and not a 4200 :)
 

Emtee

New Member
Messages
8,446
Hi Dave, Sorry a question? What do you mean by software upgrade for the NIT? Is this an OS upgrade? If so what MY does it upgrade from? Oops that's actually three questions!
 

davidhowson

Junior Member
Messages
474
The software is a Maserati package which installs all the functions onto the NIT system. The version I have includes both the sat nav and gsm phone functionality. There are some subtle chnages to the menus and a few of the software glitches are sorted (some systems suffer from problems when they boot up and the services remain greyed out).
-David-
 
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Emtee

New Member
Messages
8,446
Many thanks for the clarification David, I do have gremlins with mine (tho' satnav and phone are fully functional) and so I'll do the diagnostic over the weekend. Depending what version I have running I may PM you if I may? Cheers, Miles.
 

speedevilus

New Member
Messages
48
Hi David,
My 4200cc has the sat nav and the phone and they both work fine but I never use them since they are old design i.e. no postcode seacrh, no bluetooth and use CD for sat nav and I would really like take them out and replace them with my own system i.e. Kenwood hub unit touchscreen, amps, subs, speakers upgrade etc.which I hav edone in all my previous cars, yes I am an audiphile I have to admit.

Hoever, my big concern is the NIT and how much of the car's electrics are related to this? I can do a full install but what I don't know is what effects removing the NIT would have on the other aspects of the car? Would you happen to have any knowledge of this?

American friends seem to do this alot but are very secretive about how to use two units together, not sure why really!

Any thoughts?

Cheers

Andy
 

davidhowson

Junior Member
Messages
474
Andy - I know what you mean about the standard system being very out dated, but I like the fact it's all built in, nice and neat. I don't use the sat nav much but it gets me from A to B without too much fuss once you have got it programmed.
I use the phone more, and this is no problem at all, I quite like it actually. You can even send text messages to and from the car screen (but not on the move!).
As for swapping or combining the systems, I can't really comment as I have only worked with what Maserati gave me, and having taken the unit to bits and had a good poke about, I wouldn't recommend trying to alter it unless you have a very strong understanding of the CAN systems running through it.
As you say, some in the States have done so, but the cost is $$$$$$.

Andrew - What are you wanting to do with yours?

-David-
 

aliquot

Junior Member
Messages
299
Hi David,

i am looking at adding a kenwood audio hub which fits inline with the FM areal lead. Do you know if this is a connection on the back of the NIT unit in the arm rest, cant quite see in the pics.

The aim is to get all my MP3's in the car, and also have a bluetooth phone option for the times i forget to switch my phone to divert. (quite often)

thanks

Steve
 

aliquot

Junior Member
Messages
299
on another note, my phone / sat nav etc is working fine, however the only item i can control by voice is the phone. The manual specifies i should be able to control the radio and sat nav too. any thoughts on why this option is not available to me ?

cheers
Steve