well regardless if it was bolted down or not, if a thief wants it, hes going to get it. especially if you consider the fact that the bracket holding the kit is plastic anyway, it wont be that difficult to pry it and steal it with a simple flat head.

dont go back there, just bolt it in yourself. not worth the hassle and BS they might throw your way.

 

Your head unit needs to know that the car is in reverse. There should be a wire labeled "reverse" on the radio's harness. Tie that to one of the taillights - it should be 12V when the car is in reverse. You will then see video when you back up.

 

There's a wire labeled reverse, but that's coming from the Metra kit. On manual transmission cars, that reverse wire does nothing.

Where exactly is the reverse wire then? Should it be a wire before the whole Metra Axxess box that I should connect? Is that what you meant? Sorry for being dumb about everything :/ first time ever touching a car stereo

 

Your head unit should have a wire labeled "reverse". Don't use the one on the Metra kit. If the head unit's reverse wire is tied to 12V, the head unit should show the video from the camera. What head unit do you have?

 

Sony 660BT

I know I need to find the power wire that goes to the reverse lights and connect my head units reverse wire to that... But where can I find the reverse lights power cable?? I've been searching online everywhere trying to find what cable it would be...

Thank you for your help everyone.

I ended up just sending the reverse wire all the way to the back of the car and attaching it to the power wire that went to the reverse lights, worked fine!

 

Just installed my metra kit everything working perfect -- I been looking through the thread about illumination and dimmer wires....

Where do those go? I saw Pulsed dimmer on E or g inverted dimmer -- are those on the metra harness or we gotta tap into the stock radio harness?

 

Can I get a confirm that the Kanatech kit works with the automatic climate control?

Their site does not specify.

 

Incase anyone else searches for this, took me a few hours to find...

http://www.metraonline.com/files/pro...NST95-7510.pdf

Metra installation guide.

 

Having some problems with my Metra kit...

Installed fine, everything working (had some trouble with HU settings, but worked out) Two problems:

1. Get in my car the other day and no sound coming from the speakers, just my sub (wired with RCA). About five minutes into my drive, speakers come back on and work fine for a 45 minute drive an hour later. I get to my destination and pull out the HU (because of problem #2, see below) check all connections are tight, they are. Through testing in and out of the dash, the speakers eventually just refuse to work.

2. Radio, when first turned on, sort of works for about a tenth of a second, then quickly deteriorates into a loud, angry-sounding static, even though the plug is all the way in.

Definitely need help with this one. I can only think of three things that could have gone wrong:

1. Head unit defective pushing out sound to the speakers, and not the sub.
2. Black Metra Axxess box burned out.
3. All the Bose amps blow at the same time.

I only installed it this weekend, and after fixing the HU sub problem had it working perfectly for a day before this happened.

 

First, the Axxess box is not the problem, since the audio does not pass through it. The problem is either the audio coming out of the head unit, or a problem with the Bose amps. To check out the audio, get another speaker (any full range speaker) and connect it to one of your speaker output connections on your head unit - LF+ to one speaker wire, and LF- to the other speaker wire. Listen. If it sounds OK, Bose is your problem. If not, the HU is the problem.

If Bose is your problem, try looking at the amp turn-on output from your head unit. Is it 12V, or close to that?

Is there anything between your head unit outputs and the Bose inputs?

That's all I've got for now... Good luck.

 

Thanks for the opinion. I was planning on putting a voltmeter on the speaker wires to see if they're getting signal out of the HU.

The amp turn-on (remote?) wire shouldn't be 12V, no? It's just a digital on/off type signal. Plus, I run that to my remote wire for my sub, and that turns on fine. They're wired in parallel, so the voltage should be the same through both my amp and the Bose amp and therefore still recognized by the Bose amp. I'll try and disconnect the sub to see if that might work. I should mention again, though, that everything did work, then got sporatic, then went quiet (except for the sub that still works)

HU outputs straight into the stock wiring harness (and Metra kit) just how Metra instructions say, no tap off the speakers down the road or anything.

Anyone have an idea why the radio won't work?

 

Bump...after work this weekend, it's the Bose amp.

Hooked up a speaker to the input side of the bose amp and we got sound...took a voltage and the speaker wires were all ~5V.

Remote wire was reading ~5V...can we confirm that 5V is not enough to click on the Bose amp? Should I run a 12V remote wire to it instead of using the HU remote wire? Last thing I want to do is fry it. (I pulled out everything else that I had connected to that remote wire, including my sub amp and XM module to make sure that the way it was connected wasn't creating a drop on the bose remote)

 

The Bose amp wants 12V to turn on. I would try driving the Bose amp turn on lead with the ignition wire for testing - a 5A fuse in line would probably be a good idea. If that solves the problem, the Bose amp wants more current than your head unit can provide. You can use the head unit's output to drive the coil of a relay, and have the relay switch ignition voltage to the Bose amp. I can give you more info if you need it. Good luck, and let me know how you do.

 

Thanks! Just the answer I was looking for.

 

Hi people,

I'm Bruno, live in Belgium .
I have ordered the Metra kit for the RX-8 . Plugged everything in, everything seems to work : audio OK, display OK, settings OK, but the airco FAN keeps blowing hard, can't turn it off and I can't change the temperature and the AUTO **** doesn't work either .
Is it possible that the Metra is only for manual airco, and not suitable for automatic airco ?

Bruno

 

Yes.

 

Shame ...
So why doesn't Metra tell it on the website ...
Is there an easy way to get it working, or is there a solution that I can buy to get it working ? Here in Belgium, the metrakit costs about 300€ !!

Bruno

 

just insatlled my metra today, and the center display doesnt work, also the fan turns on but no defroster, temp control or any of the middle button functions? Checked the wireing,, any ideas?

 

Definitely sounds like either the axxess box is faulty or there's something wrong in the wiring. Honestly, I'm more inclined to suspect something wrong in the wiring. It's impossible to say what's going on exactly without seeing it in person. I'd say it's probably time to have a second set of eyes take a look at it, either somebody else experienced in installation in your area or a pro.

 

Sadly, the Metra kit will not work with auto A/C. You're going to have to return the Metra kit and get the Corksport/kanatechs kit in order to work with the auto a/c.

 

ok ill take another look, having no defrosters is a b*tch

if it is the box, and suggestions?

 

If the box is the problem, you'll have to contact the dealer from whom you bought the metra kit or Metra directly. I know that in the past when I've contacted Metra for a faulty product, they've sent me back to my local dealer to handle the replacement.

 

great mine was off ebay, alright ill take one more look, thanks for the advice

 

Be thankful. The kit I bought off eBay had NO Axxess interface in the box! At first they told me it doesn't come with one and the picture was wrong. Then they told me to send it back for them to inspect and then they might issue a refund. Then they said they'd ship me the missing part but never did. Thankfully, I paid by Paypal so I have some recourse. I won't get reimbursed for the wasted time though.

They are just total morons. I bought a steering wheel control adapter at the same time and they opened the box for the Metra kit to insert the steering wheel adapter. They probably just removed the Axxess interface and forgot to put it back in the box!

 

I want to say thanks to everyone who is apart of the forum there is so much info on here! I have read this entire thread and studied up for about a week before i even tried to install a new headunit in my car, especially since this is my first time. With that said, i installed the AVH P4400 BH this weekend with the help of the metra kit. I attached rca to the metra kit speaker outs and plugged them into the rca jacks on the headunit and grounded everything to the chasis below the ash tray. I intstalled the axxess aswc to retain my steering wheel controls and a rear view camera. I also used a relay to bypass the parking brake. After installation while sitting in my garage everything sounded and work perfectly but when i backed out of my garage, i noticed a clicking sound from behind the headunit and the volume of the headunit shuts off. When i stop the volume will come back on. The volume shuts off when i move forward as well and the clicking sounds becomes more frequent. Is this a grounding issue. What could the clicking be? I really don't know much about this stuff, i'm at a loss. Any ideas where to start first?
Thanks for your help!!