How To Get Your Steering Wheel Stereo Controls Working

[richzx]

Well after a lot of time messing around on the net and doing my research I bought this:

I thought it would be ideal because it had bluetooth connectivity and was steering wheel remote ready and thanks to Commsman who sourced and supplied the buttons I have steering wheel controls with my cruise control. I did some research and came to the conclusion that this unit was the one for me because it had orange illumination similar to the factory colours. What I didn't take into account was all the usb, aux and mic ports were at the back of the unit and needed to be plumbed into the car somehow.

Some more research later and I decided that I need an Xtrail loom to make the steering controls work with my new head unit, so I bought this from the U.K.

It actually had ISO plugs on it the loom which I cut off to mate to my JVC loom which I rigged up to put in and test out. So I'm all ready to go, I just have to connect that brown wire at the bottom of the picture to this wire:

How easy is that????? Not very it turns out!

I pulled my dash apart with some guidance from Jetwreck and the youtube tutorial and went to install it. DOH! The body loom plug is incorrect and because I've hacked the ISO plugs off, I can't send it back. To say I was pissed is an understatement because I was misled, in my opinion, by the ebay seller who said it was plug and play.

Anyway, undeterred I tried again with an Aussie seller that was double the price but was assured it was plug and play. When I got the new unit it looked identical to the previous one but with different body plugs(!) and the brown wire was still loose and they had the jack plugs connected. I trusted that it was right and just plugged it all in and the stereo was working, a small win! After driving for a few days I found the radio reception was rubbish and it really annoyed me.

Then my luck changed! I got onto these guys:

http://www.yellowpages.com.au/tas/launceston/car-accessory-installs-12430245-listing.html

Ky went through everything I did and discovered that I hadn't pulled out the FM expander that was there for the Jap spec stereo. So, I pull it all apart again and then drove the car down to them to look at. Ky stopped working on another car and fixed the reception issue by removing the fm expander and looked at the control box and loom I bought and thought that one of the wires was wrong as did I. Anyway, he snipped the jack plug off and connected the brown wire to the blu wire with yellow stripe and success!!!!!! Steering wheel controls work!!!!

Pretty.

So how much did Car Accessory Installs charge me for this? Not a thing!!!

I drove home and put it all back together and routed the ipod plugs and bluetooth microphone through my ashtray.

Voila! I am one happy camper right now.

I wish I had of taken my car down to Car Accessory Installs in the first place as they have converter boxes that can be tuned to ANY head unit to make your steering controls work as long as the head unit supports it. They also sell all the accessory's required to make it work so a free plug for them.

Now I have cruise control which I love and steering controls which work.

Edited April 3, 2013 by richzx

[Daleo]

Excellent work!

Good to see a local business supporting enthusiasts! One recommendation can get you tonnes of business.

​Link to moccasin purveyor?

[Commsman]

Good one Rich! Great to see you've (finally) had success & worth a free plug to a business who looks after you so well.

Hope they get rewarded by heaps of paying customers turning up on their doorstep.

[richzx]

Excellent work!

Good to see a local business supporting enthusiasts! One recommendation can get you tonnes of business.

​Link to moccasin purveyor?

These guys are great for mocco's! I just bought my bro in Sydney a pair and he's here tomorrow for the Supercars.

http://www.allgoods.com.au/

[richzx]

BTW the harness you need is for a 350Z. The one I used isn't listed on ebay again at the moment.

[Blek]

Nice toys mate, great setup! I wouldn't be able to do this, too many cruise control fiddly bits on my steering wheel

[stripey]

Ill just bump this thread up a bit as i now own this stagea and jvc head unit is showing age and stole one of my cds and refuses to give it back. I have installed a pioneer head unit that has a small audio style jack for input of steering wheel controls. Can u use jack from the aerpro control unit and plug straight in to back of stereo? I ahould have asked before i put it all back together but its an easy job

[Daleo]

You should be able to; the control only uses 2 wires.

The control just uses a bunch of different resistance values that are then programmed into specific functions.

When setting up, I'd imagine it will ask you that press a button for a specific function, then allot that resistance value for a particular command.