kdoiron08

iTrader: (6)

Yes i read all 3million pages of the Metra kit thread
Yes i bought it and a Pioneer 4200DVD installed it and my climate control is fucked
yes i sodered the 3 "cracked/loose connection
still ddnt work so i bought a brand new climate control unit from dealer and No this ddnt fix it
Yes i sodered it again and No it still doesnt work
any thing i missed? The metra Customer service Insist there is Nothing wrong with there kits.."they all work once you soder it"
what am i supposed to do, say **** it go back to stock and pretend i ddnt just waste 220 on a piece of **** kit that doesnt work as advertised?
Its pissing me off, a 400 dollar DVD player is costing me almost 1000 dollars now and i still havnt fixed the problem

invasion08

iTrader: (7)

Did you get your fuses?

kdoiron08

iTrader: (6)

i dont know can check, but everything is on, just cant control anything...

RX8Geek

What works and what does not work?

Does your display work at all? Does the clock show the time?
I'm guessing you can control your fan speed. Can you turn the A/C on and off? Tell me exactly what does not work and I may be able to help you.

kdoiron08

iTrader: (6)

Display works, fan speed works, cant control any of the buttons, it seems every time i turn the car on its on a different setting, sometimes AC says its on but its blowing hot air, sometimes it blows cold air but the AC button doesnt show that its on.. sometimes Both lights are on on the bottom button..Cant control where the air blows..
Also if anyone knows how to reset it...the metra dude said to try and reset it, i did what he said but its still showing the text that i entered a while back..

RX8Geek

It's annoying, but there are three connectors that attach to the interface that are exactly the same. One goes to the display, and two to the climate control module. I can tell that you are connected to the display properly (since the display works), but it's possible that the other two are switched. Can you verify that the other two are positioned correctly?

One side of the Metra box has two connectors on it (call it the upper side), the other side has three (call it the lower side). The connection on the upper side must connect to the temperature **** side of the climate control, and the connection on the lower side must connect to the fan speed side of the climate control.

Let me know.

firebirdude

iTrader: (3)

Having installed Metra kits professionally for over 3 years, let me tell you those Axxess boxes are very dodgy. Sometimes they work great. Sometimes they don't work out of the box. Sometimes they work for a month. Sometimes they're packaged with the wrong harness. Working in a shop, I can utilize my stock to help me troubleshoot. Anytime I'd install one of these and had issues, I'd grab another one off the shelf and just plug it right in place of the suspect box. Boom. Problem solved very often. I'd say I had issues with these boxes....maybe 15-20% of the time? For the record, that's monsterously high.

While I'm discussing this..... WHAT DID I SAY WHEN THIS KIT WAS RELEASED?? You folks that frequent these boards must remember. As soon as I saw those Axxess boxes, I said we're going to have problems. Sorry guys. Hate to say I told you so. They're crap. Unfortunately, us RX8 guys don't have much of a choice.

Send the Axxess box back. Or buy another one from a local big box store, swap it out, and return the kit to get your money back.

kdoiron08

iTrader: (6)

checked the fan/temp cables..they are going in the right place..
guess ima give metra a call tonight..
Im pretty convinced that my box is screwed, either they send me a new one or back to stock I go

bureau13

My first box worked briefly and then stopped, whether it was due to something I did or not I don't know. The vendor swapped it out, but the new one never worked. They (and Metra) pretty much blew me off. I didn't really push it to be honest. My symptoms were no display, no temp control (even with a new climate control panel) and no lights or buttons...I could remove the box entirely and nothing would change. The only reason I can live with it is I rigged the AC amplifier to move the temp control to the cool position and leave it there. I don't have heat now, but I live in South Florida so I don't really care.

kdoiron08

iTrader: (6)

if you would share how you rigged it? i live in guam so i dont care bout heat either..

bureau13

I honestly don't recall the details pin-for-pin, but if you look at the service manual under the AC Amplifier section, you will find that to move the servo into the cold position you need to apply +12V to one pin and GND to another. If you do that, you will hear the servomotor move the little door to one side, when it stops remove the connections. It will stay there (at least it has on mine). I believe there is a similar thing to do to set the thing to Max, although I believe mine had defaulted there.

There are also pins with +12V and GND on them, so I just connected the appropriate pins in order to accomplish this. Of course, make sure that you don't short the wrong pins, or bad things could happen.

jds

firebirdude

iTrader: (3)

Best Buy.

KingBonacci

All the reading I've done about the metra kit is really making me fear getting one. As soon as I got my car I wanted to get a new head unit and now I feel it's not worth it. All the threads dealing with this kit sound bad and problemy. What are the chances of getting a problem free one? Anyone here with one installed 100% with no problems?

xShinka666x

had mine installed by a local audio shop, they had no problems with the kit apart from it taking longer than the average install. the guy had more problems with the steering wheel controls than the metra kit, although i would like to know how to reprogram the lcd/clock now

KingBonacci

If I'm not mistaken your clock will not operate normally now that the metra kit is installed, you'll need to update the firmware but you'll need a certain wire to do it which is available on this site but you need to wait in line on a list if I'm not mistaken.