Dealers and HU Firmware?
 

Do deales have the capability to upgrade the firmware on Head Units or do I have to send it off to rx8garage ?

thanks

So I called a dealer and the guy didnt even know what "firmware" was. That being said, how does Rx8garage.net do it? There are enough satisfied people here, that I know I am not taking a risk...but I am curious as to how he gets it. I assume he probably works for the electronics people @ Mazda or something..

Why not ask Thew himself? He is an excellent vendor for our forum by the way. I have purchased his products and received very good service. The dealers will not upgrade firmware that I aware of, so Thew is your best bet on this one.

"Matt are you out there today?"

I'll try to get a hold of Thew ASAP but he is probably hung over from eating too much turkey :D

Here was my story (yes I'm to detailed some times, oh well I'm too tired to edit this thing down):

I actually asked my dealership and they laughed at me :( but I know all the guys working there so it's ok :) They said they would have to order me a new head unit but since there was nothing broken they could not authorized it. I suggested they pull one from a new car and trade it with mine...one of the guys said that is a great idea except the service department has NO access to new cars except when they are bringing them in for TSBs or recalls and even then they arranging that kind of move would be difficult to pull off, the amount of time it would take trying to do the removal...spending it at the dealer, etc. etc. you'll end up losing money on time lost.

Then I finally thought I would order a new Head Unit from one of the vendors and another member on the forum here did it and got another old one...so he had two that didn't work, he was not happy. Apparently the stock of HUs in the US that exist for repair are mostly older, makes sense but still annoying. Mazmart may have one that is new the problem is you'll pay over $200 for it then you'll have to take a gamble selling your used one on ebay and maybe not getting much cash for it.

Then out of the blue Thew comes along to save the day with his upgrade, pull out HU...UPS or Fedex ASAP, the upgrade is done, it is sent back ASAP, easy as PIE :) then you can hookup your PIE it is a smooth and easy process.

To tell you the truth being one of the first who did it was a little nerve racking but I had seen the happiness of the few who had gone before and had chatted with thew...so I felt somewhat confident...now I reccomend the service all the time.

Talk to Thew he is on AIM screename 'sbthew' and get your XM up and running in your nice new car :D :D he'll show you how to order it on his site www.rx8garage.net it is a painless process

yes.. its all good.

The HU gets reflashed thats all there is to it.
Your MAzda Dealer does not work on electronics componets :) they just replace them.
The Radio is designed to be upgraded. But your MAzda dealer does not have the equipment or desire to do this. This service is being offerd to help those that have the issue that I had and discoverd how to fix. Its price relfects the fact that no one is getting rich from this. If you are intrested in the service please email me at rx8garage.net

Thanks