mazda2004

I took my radio out out to hook up my aftermarket system ad now i find out that ther is an anti theft thing, i bought this used so i do not have the code as it was not given to me, if anyone knows how i can get the code or if anyone has the code it would be greatly appreciated.

WikkedOne

there is no "code" in stock RX8's - at least any that i've heard of in my 3 years on this forum... unless you are talking about some aftermarket thing

exactly what is happening? it could be that something is actually messed up and not a "code" problem

mazda2004

idk whats going on, i unplugged it and when i plug it back in nothing comes on, the climate control still works, the lcd comes on as a red screen but says nothing, i tried wiggling the wires but still nothing. it worked perfectly fine before, is there some kind of fuse somewhere? I noticed that when i was taking it out the fist time the lcd shut off when i pulled the cd player out a little bit to unplug the wires, i thought i just pulled a little too far and pulled the wires loose. Anyone got any ideas?

Juice

iTrader: (1)

If you didn't unplug your battery before you started removing things, you probably damaged the radio internally. ALWAYS diconnect the battery before doing work on the car. There are also people who have experienced the faceplate of the radio not fully connecting to the actual radio unit behind it.

I would look into these two things because like WikkedOne said, there is no code for these radios. I have had mine out at least 5-6 times and never had to do anything special except plug it back in.

mdr

There is a code.

If you set it the code is activated and once activated there is nothing you can do but put in the code to reactivate it.

The manual says that if you lose the code the radio has to be replaced as Mazda cannot reset the code.

Is it flashing code or Err in the display?

WikkedOne

I just looked through my manual.. and the only security stuff i can find is about the anti-theft system (car alarm and flashing lights) and engine immobilizer system (starting without the key).. nothing about the stereo..

Where in the manual did you find that?

but he said that the LCD is solid and says nothing - it's likely that what has happened that he seperated the "face" of the HU from the rest of it.. it's a pretty common problem.. it can be fixed by removing the HU again.. taking the face off and cleaning the terminals and gently put it back together... If you do a search you will find a bunch of people that have the same problem. I hope this helps.

Juice

iTrader: (1)

Wouldn't it prompt for a code anytime you disconnected the battery/pulled the room fuse? If not, then what is the point of the code? I would also think they would have given something to new owners with the code written on it, yet I've never heard of this at all and never received anything from mazda when I purchased the car new.

As far as I know, an antitheft code would need to be entered every time power is disconnected from the radio. If the radio has a code, it would ask for one everytime power is disconnected, which it does not. If the radio stores the code even while disconnected then there is no point in having the code at all because it won't deter anything.

I see you are in Australia, maybe it is different there, but there doesn't seem to be any code here in the US. I also tried looking in the manual and couldn't find anything, do you happen to know the page off hand?

mdr

Must be different for here in Australia.
Ours have a antitheft system on them, the code is not activated until the owner activates it by entering the code setting procedure the first time. Once it is activated removing power from the head unit triggers the code and makes the unit inoperable.

Our manual has 3 pages on how to set the code etc. At least mine does.

mazda2004

OK i tried taking off the face plate and cleaning up the connectors but still nothing i tried this twice and it is still doing the same thing, i found that the cd player will take in and eject a cd, the climate control button on the drivers side, the adjusment for 0-5 works, the center climate things dont work for where you want it to blow at at and the hot and cold adjustment does not work, the lcd still just lights up red.

mazda2004

Ok ther has to be some kind of loose connection somewher becasue i just tried it again but using the steering wheel controls and they all work, he radio, cd player and everything but no controls on the HU work. That give anyone any ideas?

laythor

who in the hell would steal an rx8 radio? not exactly a booming blackmarket for the things.
If the controls on the HU work but not the unit then it sounds like like there's an issue with the faceplate connection.

WikkedOne

this is kinda frustrating for me too - because that is the EXACT thing that would happen if the face was messed up.. but if you already tried it twice i dunno now..

I can't think of anything else it COULD be...

champi0n

iTrader: (1)

Are you experiencing this?


https://www.rx8club.com/rx-8-discussion-3/stereo-panel-stays-illuminated-147704/

This is the problem I have... not sure how to fix it... every day it is like this... some days it goes back to normal... some days it doesn't...

And I hadn't taken anything apart, touched anything... nothing... just one day it went BLAH. Although if i pull up on my window switches it does get less bright and i can sorta read the display... (and everything does work as normal besides how it looks)

It's been like this for a few months now... i just tell people i dropped my vodka & coke on it when i was trying to negotiate a left hand turn

stahlstern89

I am having the exact problem as the guy who posted this thing originally. I took the stereo apart to fix my temperature control unit and reassembled it to find that absolutely nothing worked. I have disassembled and reassembled the unit about 4 times, making sure the HU was well connected to the faceplate, and that all plugs were secure. My deduction is that, as someone else stated, I did not disconnect the battery while removing/reinstalling my stereo, and because the stereo is always hot, I permanently damaged some internal component. There are no blown fuses and no missing connectors so I purchased a new Stereo head unit/Heater Control unit on ebay for about $220. We'll find out if that fixes it when it gets here. I've seen alot of people with this exact issue since it happened to me last week and every single one has failed to disconnect the battery while working on the stereo so to me that seems to be the obvious problem. The lesson: ALWAYS DISCONNECT YOUR BATTERY UNLESS YOU HAVE DEEP POCKETS AND ENJOY TEARING DOWN STEREOS. Also, that HU is the only one I could find on all of eBay and none of my wrecking yards had one so, good luck and God Bless to anyone that is trying to find one.

stahlstern89

sorry didn't even look at dates.... :/

joeswazo

Has anyone fixed this problem???

I see a lot of suggestions but no one has posted what has fix it

Please let us know

Dags

I did the same thing and pulled the stereo out and did not disconnect the battery and now I have no hud display and climate control do not work either.

Has anyone fixed this problem?

one person said they bought a whole new unit, but never said if that fixed the problem.

stahlstern89

Sorry about that, yes I purchased a new unit and it did fix the problem... *However* after purchasing a new unit I realized that the fix for the hold one was *relatively* simple and had nothing to do with the battery.

If you look at where the face plate plugs into the stereo unit itself there are two sockets with metal teeth/pin things...(sorry I'm no electrician). These pins as I'm going to refer to them, are designed to flex so that if some idiot who doesn't know what he's doing >.> tries to plug in the faceplate wrong they don't get broken and force you to buy a new unit! Ironically this causes them to get pushed out of the way and misaligned fairly easily when one attempts to reattach the faceplate to the unit.

The solution is relatively obvious: Very carefully remove your faceplate and be very certain that the plugs on the back of the face plate are perfectly aligned with the pins on the stereo then carefully yet firmly press the faceplate on. Next, turn the stereo unit over and through a gap in the housing you'll be able to see the backs of the sockets you just plugged in. Take a blunt instrument (I used a flat head screwdriver) and carefully but firmly press on the sockets to insure that they are seated into the faceplate.

Hopefully this helped, but that's all it took for me to fix my stereo when I was having this problem.

Stroudism

I just took my radio out yesterday and it is also not working at all. The LCD screen above it also out completely. Climate control is working fine, but no radio whatsoever. Completely dead. I checked and double checked all my connections in the back of the unit. I checked the "pins" on the faceplate and I'm almost certain they could not be pushed in any better.

My question is this, if I buy another unit, will this fix the LCD display? Are they connected somehow? I checked the fuses for both and they are fine. In fact, I checked every damn fuse in the car. There are no working lights on the unit at all BTW. I want to get a double DIN unit to replace the radio. Will the LCD screen work if I get a new unit? I assume I fried mine somehow.

Is there an additional fuse in the back of the unit? I forgot to check.

Dags

Thank you, I have pulled it out 6 times. I just pushed from the front to seat them better and it worked. Thank You.

I like my car again.......... until the next problem

Digi

When they added an FM Modulator to my car and they pulled it out. The CD Changer became a HAIR disconnected from the Fascia. Not saying its the cause for you guys, but may wanna check it out.

stahlstern89

There is no fuse in the back of the unit. I would really recommend to just try one more time completely removing the unit and making 100% certain that your faceplate is connected to the unit properly, it is extremely easy to end up pushing those little flexible sockets out of the way and misalign them. The other thing I'm wondering is what did you take your unit out to do to it? If you happened to be soldering something and accidentally dripped or mis-soldered then I would start to consider that you may have inadvertently fried something, but to be honest the unit is relatively difficult to injure and as long as you weren't playing in its internal electronics I am really certain the faceplate is the issue.

firebirdude

iTrader: (3)

That's kinda what I was thinking. I did my install years ago and didn't take any special precautions out of the norm. Never once had any of the issues discussed on this message board.

Stroudism

I think I will check that out one more time. I took it out to attach the Grom iPod adapter and it never worked after that. I removed the adapter and double checked all connections, I pushed and pushed on the faceplate. I saw the sockets the faceplate connects to and I'm pretty sure I got those connected. I'll try one more time to get it working. After that I'm getting a Double DIN DVD player!

Thanks for the advice.

Dags

I just ordered a grom adapter, I will put it in next weekend when I have some time off. Will let you know if I have any problems. Pushing the front of the faceplate at the two other edges of the circle in the middle fixed my problem with the climate and display. I took it out 6 times before I got the stereo and everything else to work again. Real simple fix on my part.