DIY~~AVIC X940BT install ~~2010 Series 2 RX-8 Sport
 

This DIY is for a 2010 Series - II RX-8 Sport (Other models or makes may be different Please do your homework for your car)

https://www.rx8club.com/members/vors...-799-34846.jpg

Link S1 VS S2 : https://www.rx8club.com/series-ii-te...rx-8-a-221326/

What i used:
Pioneer AVIC-X940BT In-Dash Navigation AV Receiver with 6.1
Metra 99-7515HG Double Din Radio Provision 2009-10 Mazda RX8 Kit (Black) ~~(The HG in the name stands for High Gloss Finish)~~
Metra 70-7903 Radio Wiring Harness for Mazda 01-Up Power/4 Speaker
OBDII Cable, J1962M to Open End, 10ft (144505)

Warning when putting in a new system you looks the start up RX-8 wording in your top information bar

https://www.rx8club.com/members/vors...-232-34844.jpg

HAVE NO FEAR!!! you can up load an awesome loading screen in to your 940BT.
link pic

On the side note you will also loose you time on your car and your temperature will move to the left side where the time use to be. This can be fixed though. Here is a link to another RX-8 club members genius thinking using the factory radio and an OBD-II cable:
NormalException.net - RX8 Stereo Display Override

https://www.rx8club.com/members/vors...-190-34847.jpg
https://www.rx8club.com/members/vors...-172-34843.jpg
https://www.rx8club.com/members/vors...-752-34840.jpg

The first step for this DIY is to hook up everything from the Metra wire harness to the 940BT harness

https://www.rx8club.com/members/vors...2-77-34839.jpg

To do this I just hooked them up wire to wire color to color. At one point I had a blue and blue/white wire left on the Metra harness. I did some research and found that I need to connect the solid blue wire to the remote control blue wire on the 940BT harness. this is what controls your amp in your speakers and I didn't hook up the blue/white wire from the Metra harness to anything.
You will also need to keep in mind that you will have a pink and a purple wire coming from your 940BT harness. The Pink wire is your vehicle speed sense and will need to be hooked up to your actual vehicle harness( the Metra wire harness does not have a wire for this). The purple wire will also need to be connected and it is for your reverse signal so if you're are using a back up camera the screen will change.
The choice is yours on how to tap and connect these wires. I just used inline connectors.
The AXXESS steering wheel controls guide is here: http://contentdocs.installernet.com/...icle/10959.pdf

https://www.rx8club.com/members/vors...-891-34841.jpg
https://www.rx8club.com/members/vors...-803-34845.jpg

I needed to connect the Green/white wire from the Axxess wire harness to the vehicle harness wire in Pin 1N (Red/Black wire), then you need to connect the wire in pin 1P from the vehicle harness to the vehicle ground wire ( I just used some of the extra wire from the 50 billion others they give you in the Axxess kit and taped it in to the ground wire on the Metra harness) then you also need to tap the Red and the black wires from the Axxess harness and tap them in to the Red and black wires on the Metra harness.
As for screwing in the unit to the Metra Dash kit just follow the instructions they are strait forward.

To start the install, (STOP!!! Always disconnect your car battery we dont need any blown fuses or accidential shocks!!!)

https://www.rx8club.com/members/vors...-273-34842.jpg

here is a great video that i found that helped me to understand how to take apart the dash.

I didn't remove the connections to the cigarette lighter I had enough cord to just move it to the side.
As for the Heating and AC controls I found that the wires on those were very short (IDK it may be different on your car) so I just unscrewed it because I was having trouble getting them unplugged.
It also took me a little bit to get the assembly to pull out but after some willing and tugging it pulled lose.
NEXT it is just plug everything in (Except the connections that need to be made to the Vehicle harness itself See above)

I hope this helps a lot of you. I will be uploading a video of my mic and GPS antenna at a later date.

Thanks again to all the other RX8Club members for you help and knowledge.

Awesome DIY mate. I will be doing this install soon.
Hopefully the wires in USA model of the RX8 is the same as the wiring in the Australian model.

I understand you tapped the AXXESS wires to the vehicle harness.
Did you attempt to tap it into the metra harness first to test if it would work that way?

I don't have inline taps. Would stripping the wire and coiling the addon wire work just as well? (and wrapping it with duct tape)

Thanks for the help mate.

I had to tap the wires that vehicle harness because the Meta harness that i had did not have them. I guess you could also install the correct wires in the the Metra harness and plug them in that way or maybe your harness came with them. Link your harness if you could and i can look at it.

I would recommend using taps because you can take them off if you needed to with minimal damage. IE it would just leave a small cut in the wire insulation witch you can just put a small amount of tape over and it should be fine.

As for stripping it and using duct tape i wouldn't recommend that because it might not insulate the wire properly. The twisting caps or the small wire taps are very inexpensive and work very well.

These are what i used if you can find something like this.

http://midterminc.com/database/contents/media/5601.gif

You should also use something like this.

http://midterminc.com/database/conte...a/346csnsh.GIF Or http://www.hometheatershack.com/foru...-wire-nuts.jpg


All of these would work for the joining of the wires.

Good luck and let me know if you have any other questions.

Thanks mate for the reply.

What size are the wires that are used in the RX8?
Would like to know which size T-Taps I should buy.

22-18AWG?

Yes 22 - 18 AWG is what i used.

Thanks for your help so far. It has been awesome! Few more questions. (Just trying to nut out all the issues I might face before ripping my dash apart)

1. Did you break any clips or anything when pulling the dash apart?

2. Does your unit dim with the interior light dimmer?

3. You mentioned "Pink wire is your vehicle speed sense and will need to be hooked up to your actual vehicle harness".
Did you hook this up in your install? If so, what color wire is it on the vehicle harness?
I remember in the post "VSS in Series II?" by RadRedR3 (https://www.rx8club.com/series-ii-in...ies-ii-239465/) it was mentioned the Series II has no VSS.

4. Does the unit and nav work without this hooked up?

I am glad to see you are doing your homework first. :D

Answers

1) No i did not but it took me about 3 min of wiggling to get it to come out. You have to kinda pull hard and i was wondering if it would break but after a while to started to slide out. I found that alternating sides back and forth got it to wiggle out.

2) Yes it should dim IE turn from white when the lights are off and it will turn black when lights are on.

3) Yes i have a series 2 and Yes it had a pink vehicular speed sense. I hooked it up to the vehicular harness pink wire. You can check on the wire mapping diagrams to make sure you have the correct one. (you can look at one of the pic above and see one of the taps on a pink wire)

4) Yes it still should work without the vehicular speed sense but will be more accurate on your arrival time if you do hook it up (that's all it was for).

Hope this helps and good luck. Post pics after your done!!!

More questions: (Sorry about bombarding you mate, just trying to work out everything before I pull the dash apart.)

1. My pioneer harness only has a orange/white wire. Should I connect that to the orange/white or solid orange?

2. What did you do with the "Parking Brake" wire? Did you just follow the instructions provided by pioneer about tapping into the handbrake power side?

3. Regarding the VSS below.

I've been trying to find wire mapping diagrams specific to RX8 series 2 so I know which pin to insert to the metra harness.
But I can't find any.

Do you know which pin it is?

The ones available are:
O, Q, M, K, I, T, L

I am going to assume it is 1i due to the resources I have found below.

1. Attached image
2. http://d5102.wikispaces.com/Mazda+3+Stereo+Harness
3. http://miata.fosketts.net/index.php?title=J-01

What do you think?

Awnsers:

1) I think i just hooked it up to the orange.

Here is a video and this guy explains it @ 8 Min about the orange wires.

@ 12 Min he talks about the pink VSS



2) Yes i hooked up the parking break. It doesn't bother me because i don't watch movies in my 8. If you want to can look up on how to do the bypass for this unit but do it at your own risk.

3) Yes this is the one i used http://miata.fosketts.net/index.php?title=J-01

Just wanted to thank you for this. I plan on purchasing the x940bt this weekend and starting my install.

Thank you and Happy Holidays!!

If you have any questions just let me know i am glad to help.

I just had my 8 Detailed and i need to take a few more after shots i will post pics of the interior later tonight. The dash looks amazing after it was polished.

Finished installing the unit in my car today. Followed your instructions. I did have to change one thing:

"To do this I just hooked them up wire to wire color to color. At one point I had a blue and blue/white wire left on the Metra harness. I did some research and found that I need to connect the solid blue wire to the remote control blue wire on the 940BT harness. this is what controls your amp in your speakers and I didn't hook up the blue/white wire from the Metra harness to anything."

I used the blue/white wire to the blue of the 940BT. I didn't use the solid blue wire. With it wired the other way around, I didn't have any sound. Just FYI.

Other than that, your instructions worked out great for me. Thanks again.

I did buy a backup camera. Do you happen to know where I can tap the reverse signal into the car?

Attachment 228458

Thanks to paimon.soror for the splash screen logo

Attachment 228459

mmmmmmm that's odd that you didn't get any sound when you did that.

Looks great and glad i could help.

And no i didn't do a back up cam but i looked in to it. I think has something to do with the orange wire Cam/BUS. I would say if the orange wire is hooked up to the unit just plug the camera in and put in in reverse and see what happens.

Let me know what you find out.

I still need to take some Pics of it all polished after i had it detailed.

I do own an R3 w/ Bose speakers. Not sure why that would have anything to do with it. I do have some slight static when music isn't playing, so I have some "grounding" checks and may solder and shrink wrap my connections.

I'll let you know if I find out how to wire the camera.

Here are the after pics. Yes that is my reflection! LOL

Also a side note anyone know if it is possible to take that trim piece from around the unit and match it with the same gloss at the panel around it???

While I like the dash kit, the trim pieces could be a lot better. I'd be interested in this as well

Hey Vorsanss, for the axxess steering wheel control, where did you plug the male connector to? Manual says to plug it in to the head unit's swc but I don't know where that is...

Here is the connection that i think you are talking about.
It is found on page 8 of the install manual.

Hope this help let me know.

https://www.rx8club.com/members/vors...tion-36987.jpg

Thank Vorn, I will take a look at my manual, cause I currently have the Pioneer AVH 4400bh. There isnt a wired remote input..

Alright, I got it to work. All i had to do was reset the Axxess and then voila!

Thanks for this thread, it's been very helpful.

Now I'm preparing to install an AppRadio 3, and have four questions.

1. Did you guys connect the VSS to 1i in the harness? If you did, is a signal traveling to the nav unit?
2. Did you guys connect the parking brake line to the actual wire from the parking brake, or did you connect it to 1k in the harness?
3. How did you handle the wiring of the headunit to the amp? Did you wire in RCA connectors in order to use the preouts? I'm concerned that if I wire the preamped signal to the Bose system, I'll get the hissing.
4. Where did you place the GPS antenna and the AXXESS unit?

Thanks in advance.

Answering my own questions...
1. Still don't know where the VSS is. There is a spot for it in the vehicle harness, but I've read that no signal is sent to it.
2. I tapped the parking brake.
3. I used hacked up RCA connectors to the preouts since I have the Bose system.
4. I put the GPS antenna in front of the center speaker, and in order to do so I had to trim down the speaker. There's plenty of room behind the stereo, so my PAC unit sits in there.

Connection question
 

What do you connect purple wire too? Having trouble with my back up cam. I don't know what wire is the reverse for the car so I can hook up the purple wire from the unit.

Is the purple wire for reverse? If so, I ran mine to the backup lights. I ran two wires from the trunk. One for the backup video signal and one for the reverse indicator.