Hi all,

I'm looking to purchase the Metra kit from Crutchfield, along with a DVD or GPS headunit, my question is:

What can I expect with respect to losing some steering wheel functionality?

Or what can I expect to lose with respect to the center display?

Anything I should be aware of before embarking on this install/upgrade?

I have the Bose system BTW.

Thanks,

Ed

 

I'm looking to do the same thing more or less. I don't know what head unit kit to get in order to save all the controls like the a/c and the red digital display. I'm assuming radio steering wheel controls will be lost entirely. I could be wrong but I might have read something about a kit or something that can save them, not sure though. I've read multiple posts about problems with all the brands available for the head unit kits. Don't know which one will work.

 

most people get a pac swi-ps which allows the steering wheel controls to still work. you just have to program it.

as for the lcd display, it will no longer show radio station, volume, or track info. the metra kit takes care of the climate controls.

i would highly suggest that you go with the metra kit.

since you have the bose stereo, you will need to use or make rca to wire converters as the bose amp really needs a flat signal (which rca front & rear outs provide). what most people do is just make their own as it is pretty simple. just buy some rca cables, cut them in half and you have to wire up the rca front & rear outputs from your head unit to the car's wiring harness. there is information on the forums but you really have to look hard. i'll see if i can dig up more detailed info...

*edit: basically, you want to make two of these (or i suppose you could just buy these but it is a waste of money if you ask me):
http://www.crutchfield.com/p_136XDCL...W.html?tp=2610


they then plug into your front and rear line outs and then you connect the wires to your wiring harness for the speaker connections. i'd also suggest getting some ground loop isolators to put between them.

 

Just for clarifications sake, you do not need, nor should you use Line Output Converters. The product linked above is not a Line Output Converter, it is simply a bare-wire to RCA adapter. That is what you need, not a Line Output Converter. As mentioned above, you can simply use an RCA cable cut in half, though most of those are very low gauge wire and will be difficult to work with. Personally, I pick up solder-type plugs at Radioshack and solder them directly to the wire leads from the Metra Harness. That works just as well and doesn't use the overly-thin wires.

As for the steering wheel controls, PAC makes adapters that will work with the RX8, you will need to use the correct adapter for the brand of stereo you are installing, SWI-PS is for Pioneer, Sony, Jenson. SWI-JACK is for Alpine, JVC, Kenwood, and several others. There may be other adapters for other stereo brands as well that I am less aware of. Crutchfield should be able to identify the correct adapter for your stereo.

 

thank you for clarifying. i wasn't exactly sure what it should be called (if it had a proper name).

your way would certainly be the best solution with soldering connections directly to the harness. unfortunately i am horrible at soldering

 

Thanks for the responses guys. Much appreciated!

I've got a local guy selling his Metra kit and a Clarion HU. I think I'll pull the plug.

Cheers,

Ed

 

Metra kit installed with a Clarion head unit. Sounds great, and much better than the stock Bose!!

The kit went in fine, except for the black box where all the connections are made. There was no-where for it to go.

So I took the black casing off, and that made it about 1/5th the size. I wrapped it in paper and then electrical tape. This made it fit quite nicely above the heater/fan controls and below the actual HU.

I'll have to make the hazard light cable about 8" longer though so it can go around the HU and into the Metra connector.

All in all a clean install and no drama!

Ed

 

is that such a good idea

 

Why not?

Perfectly protected by the insulation and the electrical tape. The connections into it are the same whether the "large" black case was on or not. Vibration is actually less in my scenario as well.

Besides, there was absolutely no way it was gonna work with the tiny 3" cables Mazda uses.

If I had shoved it under the HU cavern, only 1 cable would have reached it.

I'll be going in there this weekend to Macgyver my hazard cable, so I'll take some pics.

 

i just cut out a fair amount of the plastic behind my dash. space problem solved :D

 

For me, I was looking at a 3" cable for the hazard lights, and 3" for the fan and temp as well.

I needed a common location so the fan and temp cables would work. This was below the HU, but above the fan/temp cluster.

Overall I am really happy with this, and the sounds is great!

 

After a few days with this setup, my clock is about the only issue I see!

I set the clock using the Metra kit, but it won't keep accurate time. Once I turn the car off, it seems to run slower when I turn the car back on.

I set it, and it is accurate while the car is running, but I turn the car off, come back a few hours later, and it is now from 15 to 30 minutes behind...WTF?

Anybody else have this issue?

 

yes, it is extremely common. there is a fix for it provided by a firmware update. see this thread:
https://www.rx8club.com/series-i-interior-audio-electronics-24/metra-kit-update-need-cable-look-here-172024/

there are cables going around via mail to update the software of your axxess box which corrects the time issue. just get your name on the list and wait your turn

the update process is pretty simple. that first post of the thread might not be totally up to date with information but the steps they provide are accurate.

 

Thank you mbentley! I saw that thread, but the thought of reading through all those pages was disturbing!

Cheers

 

I used the RCA to wire connectors pictured above from Crutchfield on my install of a Kenwood DNX7100 HU using the Metra kit (I also have the Bose amp). After the install, I'm getting ground loops (getting a high pitched noise that gets loud and fades with rpms). Did anyone else have this problem, and if so, what was the cause, and how did you go about fixing it?

Should also mention my last attempt was to run all the stereo and Metro kit grounds to one of the screws on the metal frame behind the glove box instead of using the factory stereo harness ground. Unfortunately that didn't work. Just wondering where anyone else had chosen to ground their HU and Metra kit? And did you ground the Metra kit and HU at different spots?

THANKS!!!!

 

So I have a bose system and just hooked it up without the RCA cables, I just hooked it up to the included harness. Is my car going to blow up or something?

 

I went with the rcas because I remember reading if you have the bose amp (only in GTs if I'm correct) the sound suffers if you use the harness wires from the HU and not the rca outs

 

When I install a system, I connect all ground points together (from metra harness, head unit harness, any other accessories being installed), plus one additional 14ga wire, and in the RX8, I have run that extra ground wire to one of the screws of the box behind the ashtray area. This has eliminated all hum in two different RX8s in which I have worked.

 

The RCA method provides a line-level signal to the bose amp, which is typically what amps prefer to receive. Using the wire harness provides an amplified signal to the bose amp. Most of the time, there is no harm with this, but because the input to the amp is already amplified, the volume range is compressed (if 0 is silent and 20 is your normal output listening volume, you may find that 5 is your comfortable listening volume which gives you little room to adjust the sound in smaller increments (the difference between 4 and 5 will be much greater than the difference between 19 and 20) and turning the volume up too high in this situation can blow the amp or speakers.

 

Thanks bmak!!! Just so I'm clear, you are soldering all the individual grounds to one single common o-ring, right? And then attaching behind ashtray with no problems with hum noise (ground loops)? Thanks again!!!

 

I think that connecting all of the ground wires directly to the ring connector would be difficult and may not give you enough length to get it to a reasonable grounding point. Your idea is spot on though. I solder all of the grounds together and run that point to a ground location using an extra wire to give me the length I need.


|||| <-- Lots of ground wires
\||/
* <-- Solder Point
|
|
| <-- extra wire running to grounding location
O <-- ring connector that goes under screw at grounding location

I can't get the spaces at the front of that ascii art to work so that everything lines up, but hopefully it still helps.

 

Great info, thanks bmak. So to your post earlier, are you running a 14ga wire from the point you join all the grounds to the o-ring? Thanks!!!

 

yes, that is correct. (I'm running a head unit, HD Radio module, ASWC steering wheel control adapter off of it, no amps or anything that require high levels of power)

 

Hey bmak. You see any issues if I run a 10ga wire from the ground join point to the o-ring? I can't find any 14ga.

 

Thicker wire is never a bad idea.