New avic install
 

Here is a pic of my new avic-940bt install. I love it however the damn metra kit is not allowing lumination of the havc control lights grrrr.

My subs and amp
 

Pic of my trunk set up. Two 12 inch kicker comps and a 1200 watt jl audio amp.

Do you mind me asking about how much it cost to do the install?

Looks pretty good, similar to my Avic Z110bt setup.

@nnorris7413 - Depends on where you get your materials. When I did it two years back, the metra kit cost me $240 shipped (Somewhere around there), and my deck on top of that. Total, it was about $1000-1100 for my setup when I did it.

Not sure if you can still get them, but if you can find a refurb Avic z110bt or z120bt, get one. Mine was $1700 when it was released, but I got a refurb not long after release for only $700, one hell of a deal and an amazing deck.

Not at all. I paid 699.99 for the avic,185.00 for the metra kit. I also installed a PAC steering wheel control that was 69.99. I spent about 150.00 for power,ground,remote turn on wire and fuse block for the amp. I already had the jl amp kicker comps and 2 farad cap from my other car but I have about 700.00 in those. Also I installed a back up camera(60 bucks). And of course my time. I woke up had coffe at 7am on a Saturday and was done by 7 in the evening. I am real happy with the results and the install is real clean. My only issue if I had to say I had one was getting the headunit mounted properly so that when the metra face plate was snaped into place the stereo lined up properly and looked good. My sub box was made for my 98 z28 convertible camaro. It just so happens that the box fits like a glove into the rx8 giving me two 12's with the proper airspace. I must say the system hits real hard when turned up and also sounds real clean when at normal listening level.

The Metra kit does not control illumination of the HVAC controls. The illumination is controlled by the White/Blue wire at the center connector on the back of the HVAC controls.

HVAC lights
 

Nice-looking install, Reaper! I've got the x930BT and hoping to upgrade the firmware soon to bring it up to date with the 940.

As for those HVAC lights... well I have the exact issue. You can read about it here: https://www.rx8club.com/interior-aud...ra-kit-229038/ . I haven't even taken the unit back out yet to troubleshoot, but basically everything works except for those lights (the little LED indicators do work, however).

If you read that other thread, you'll see I talked about the 2 illumination wires (orange and orange/white) on the Metra harness that were causing issues with the stock display - so we completely removed those pins from the harness and taped them up. I assumed these were the wires responsible for the HVAC lights, but when we connected them to a power source, it did nothing. Not sure if they need to be powered through the harness or not.

But someone else here mentioned that the HVAC lights are controlled by a blue/white wire? Not sure which wire that is, but everything on the HVAC panel is plugged into the Metra box, so I'm not sure how the lights are not controlled by the Metra kit in some way. I even swapped out my HVAC unit and the lights still did not work.

Anyway, if you figure out something, please let me know! I hope to take the unit out again soon, so I'll do the same if I find something.

Btw, which backup camera did you use, and where did you mount it?

Thanks I appreciate the props! I will be taking it out tomorrow and seeing if I can fix the hvac lights after work. That said I will post what I find after it is all said and done.Here is a pic of the cam and the location as well. It is a tview cam that I bought from a local car audio store. The camera image is amazing there is no picture roll at all. It is allot better than the sony cam I had in my last car. I will post the model of the cam when i get a chance to dig it out of my mess of a garage.

No. That is incorrect. On the HVAC panel, there are two small molex terminated cables (that were originally connected to the circuit board on the back of the radio faceplate), and there are two large connectors (one behind the fan control (black recepticle), the other behind the mode button (white recepticle)). The two wires with small molex connectors are attached to the metra box, the other two connect to the factory harness. The white recepticle contains the illumination control wire (white/blue).

Even the illumination wire for the head unit (the orange and orange/white wires) do not connect to the metra box. They connect from the factory harness connector directly to the head unit (one supplies ~12VDC when the lights are on, the other supplies a "pulsed" voltage signal).

If everything works except the HVAC lights, there is probably a problem with the white/blue wire on the white plug from the factory harness.

Thanks for clearing that up. It's been a little while since I've been behind the dash. But I was mainly thinking about the big red Metra connector that plugs into the factory harness. That connector has the orange and orange/white wires I was referring to (see pic below, they are on top). I guess if they don't control the HVAC illumination, then they don't do anything - because right now I have them completely disconnected and everything else works.

So I'll have to check that white/blue wire on the factory plug. Just out of curiosity, how did you figure out it was that wire that controls illumination for the HVAC panel?

Reaper - thanks for posting the pic! Have you checked that wire as well?

Yes my issue was a loose pin on the metra harness plug for the illumination wire that was not making contact in the black box. Mine is good to go now.

Awesome! Are you referring to the one of the illumination wires like in the pic I posted?

FSM part 13 (Electrical), Section G-1 (HVAC) - Page 66, Center Panel Module - Connector G1-10.