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Discussion Starter · #1 ·
Warning: These panels scratch ridiculously easily. Do not use prying tools to remove any panels. With the right pressure in the right places, every panel can be removed with just your fingers.

Disclaimer: I am an amateur. These are not professional directions, nor do I claim to be a professional. Proceed at your own risk. While I doubt you will break a panel almost regardless of how hard you pull, I am not responsible for any damage you incur while attempting a radio install on your own.

Rules:

1) No prying with tools until you've tried to dislodge the panel for at least 5 minutes, and only then with the understanding that you will most likely dent or otherwise damage the edge of the panel.

2) Take your time. Have all day to get your work done so that you have all the time in the world to figure out how a panel comes off.

3) Do not under any circumstances set a panel on top of another panel, or on any hard or abrasive surface. No garage floors, no metal surfaces, nothing. I cannot stress enough how easy it is to mar this plastic.


Tools:

Very small flat head screwdriver
Regular Phillips head screwdriver
10mm socket with about 10" of extension
For the replacement faceplate, I also needed some diagonal snips and a sanding block and ~100grit sandpaper. A Dremel with a cutting wheel and sanding drum would also suffice.

Parts:

Metra Wiring Harness 70-7903
Metra Dash Kit 99-7518B
Metra Antenna Adapter 40-HD10

I opted to complete the indoor work first, then do the install. Indoors you will need to prep your faceplate and install your radio into it, and do your wiring harness. I didn't take pictures of the faceplate process. I installed a 2din radio. I had to trim out the center bar with snips, sand the excess bumps even with the edges, snap in the side panels, screw on my radio, and put on the white clips. It will be different for you if you do a single din radio. The rest that I will be detailing is universal.

Install:



1) First up is wiring the 70-7903 harness to your radio's harness. With the one from my Pioneer, it was as simple as matching up the colors on both ends. If you look closely at your metra harness, you will note that the wires are labeled. It is worthwhile to check the manual for your radio to be sure that the colors and functions match.

I am terrible at soldering. You could use butt splices with a crimper, but I need the practice.

I didn't have any heatshrink tubing handy, so electrical tape sufficed. I wrapped the bunch on either side of the soldering afterward to help keep things tight.

2) Now for the dash pieces. A ton of pieces have to come out to remove the radio from your vehicle. The one piece that looks like it needs to be removed but doesn't (I learned the hard way) is the seatbelt/hazard light panel. Leave it in. It can be popped off after you remove the entire bezel.

Get in on the passenger side with the seat all the way back, and start with the Shift Knob simply unscrewing it like a bottle cap. Those of you with an automatic, I'm sorry. The manual just drives better :)



3) Now the surrounding frame. Get the edges of your fingers under the edges of the panel and pull straight up. Or just get some friction on either side, but it pulls straight up and off.



Note the clips are all straight down


4) The glove box, a hand on either side and pull straight toward the back of the car.

Just little U shaped clips

Which clip to the rod


5) Now to the little panels in the foot wells. Use your small flat head screwdriver to pop the tab on the little push pin clips in both footwells. Once you've popped the middle, just grab ahold of the it with your fingers and pull it straight out. If it doesn't pop out easily, push or pull on the panel toward the front or back or the car to try and take pressure off of it.


The little panels in the foot wells were hard to photograph. Stick your fingers into the top edge joint and work them toward the back of the car along the crevice. There are clips that need to pop out straight toward the car doors on both the driver and passenger panel, on the edge closest to the seat. The passenger one has a single bent piece that hooks in but does not clip.The driver one just has a straight piece that hooks in at the front of the foot well. Pull both panels straight toward the back of the car once you've popped the edge clips outward.
Passenger

hook closeup on left

Driver




Limited to 25 Images. (ugh) Breaking post in half for more....
 

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Discussion Starter · #2 ·
6) On the newly revealed edge, remove the screw on both sides with your Phillips head screwdriver.



7) Remove the center console panel which is located beneath the shifter. There are two clips on both sides that need to be pulled straight toward the back of the car. Once they give way, put your hand over the clips in the back on both sides and roll the panel backwards. Your hand protects the dash, and a cloth over the power ports to keep it from scratching the panel your removing is very highly recommended.



8) Now the panel just below the airbag on the passenger side. all clips pull straight toward the back of the car. I would start by getting one hand under the edge of the panel at the glovebox hole and the other against and into the grove in the doorjamb and work that corner out. Once it is loose you can slip your hand across the top and work the upper clips out, and then down the middle of the car. There are two pegs to be careful you do not break, they help keep the panel lined up. Last should be the bottom right corner, which needs to slip out from behind the lower framing piece. It may be necessary to pull off a little of the gasket and pull outward on that panel to get the other one free.


bottom right corner

Clips on the back



9) The driverside panel, to the left of the radio right by the ignition. Just tuck your fingers in behind that panel by the ignition and pull it straight toward the back of the car. You only need the upper edge to be out and shifted down a little. I did not remove the whole panel. Don't have your keys in like my pic shows :)


10) THE HIDDEN GEM
I am using this pic from http://www.mazdas247.com/forum/showthread.php?123795247-Installed-Pioneer-X930BT-in-my-Mazda2 posted by Kags1969 in his how to thread. I did not get a good pic of this one. With a 10mm socket and a good bit of extensions, remove the bolt in the picture. This is absolutely necessary, it bolts into the side of the radio as some kind of theft deterrent (on a stock radio no less.) Take your time, don't drop it into the dash.



10) Remove the two screws in the front at the bottom of the faceplate, though I'm sure you were itching to do that earlier as soon as you saw them. (note, my pictures show the driverside panel still attached. it should be hanging loosely at this point.)



11)
Put one hand on either side of the radio toward the bottom and work it out. There are about 3 clips on each side and a bunch along the top. Once you feel the first set of clips pull out, work your fingers higher up pull on the next set. Don't just pull from the bottom, you might break the clips for the hazard button panel.


12) Unplug the wires in the back using your handy small flat head screwdriver for any pushtabs that you can't get. Remove the hazard button panel by pulling it forward off of the faceplate. It has a hidden metal clip on both sides. Reattach it to your new faceplate, plug in your wires, plug in your new head unit and pop the faceplate in, and reverse process!

I was installing an indash GPS, so I ended up wiring my GPS receiver over near the passenger door and up behind the gasket. I tried it just directly on top of the head-unit completely out of sight but did not get reliable service.


I also had a mic, which I put into a ring of cardboard and taped it in where that funny vent-looking thing is by the ignition. Worked perfectly for me.

Compared to the other installs I've done, this one rates reasonably high on the difficulty level. All of those panels have to come off to get to the radio, because the stock faceplate has tabs in behind the side panels. The replacement one didn't have those tabs, so you may be able to get away with only taking off the lower panels. The bolt was totally random and unexpected. The panels scratch way too easy, and since I did it with little instructions I tried to remove the hazard button panel thinking there were screws behind it and ended up breaking a post on it, chipping up the OEM radio plate, and even putting a little divot in the upper edge of the dash. dang. Now I've hopefully given you over-the-top instructions so that you do not make my mistakes!

If this helps you, please do register and give me a shout out :) I'll be glad to try and answer any questions.
 

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steering wheel issues

I'm having problems with my steering wheel controls, I should be able to wire everything right up with just a steering wheel interface adapter, but I am wondering what I need to do to get my info button to work again.
 

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steering wheel issues

I'm having problems with my steering wheel controls, I should be able to wire everything right up with just a steering wheel interface adapter, but I am wondering what I need to do to get my info button to work again. does anyone have any ideas?
 

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Discussion Starter · #6 ·
Thanks Bob for the detailed instructions.
I studied your steps alot before I attempted mine.
My previous car was a 07 WRX which could be the easiest stereo change.
Glad to hear everything worked out for you!

I put a radio in my sister's 09 Forester and it was dead simple. If you were good, you could just pull off the center frame. If you were careful, you took off one screw and slid along a panel from the passenger side for access to the back edge.

There are way more steps than most cars require to get to the head unit in the m2, but the results turn out pretty good!
 

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I guess I (his wife) should answer this because I'm the one using it! Let me see.. it's a Pioneer.. uh.. 700 something.
I do like it.. but I feel like its always had some quirks. It takes a while to start up and then sometimes takes a couple of pokes to sense my finger. The navigation system is a little funny, you can't zoom out or anything.
OK I changed my mind maybe the hubby should answer.
 

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Discussion Starter · #10 ·
Glad to help, let me know if you have any issues!

The one you are looking at will be a nice factory-look replacement, but may be of suspect quality. Look into anything you can find review wise. I've heard good and bad over on the corolla forums about the different Chinese off-brand headunits. Good luck!
 

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Sorry to rehash a relatively old thread, but I seems like a lot of people have lots use of their info buttons when upgrading their HU's. The SWC and info button use pins 12 and 13 in the factory wiring harness with 12 (red/black) being your volume and such and pin 13 (green/white) being the info button. If you have properly installed a SWCI, you should have no issue. If you are choosing not to intstall a SWCI, then simply jump pin 13 to ground in you aftermarket harness and you should be good to go. The info button sends out a 5v trigger signal to pin 13 and this pin is grounded internally in the stock HU. By removing to stock stereo, we are removing the path to ground to complete the circuit. Now, the resistance from pin 13 to ground is basically 0 with the ignition off, but when energized the resistance jumps to approx. 47 ohms, so I installed a 47 ohm resistor inline in my jump, but both PAC and Metra say nothing about this in their instructions, not a straight jump is probably fine.
 

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Hey so i have a automatic Mazda 2 and i wanted to replace my stereo but i couldn't figure out how to take off the shifter. I figures put that the center piece it all once part and if just pulls off and you don't have to worry about anything but the pot rivets
 

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Steering controls

Sorry for the late post on this thread but I just recently joined. This looks like the harness interface we need to resume all controls with an after market stereo. I just installed a new Sony DVD system in my car using a great harness from Crutchfield but I have lost the steering controls. I may order this interface and swap it out with the Crutchfield harness as long as it is compatible with my Sony XAV-64BT.

Here's the link to the interface:
http://www.carcommunications.co.uk/...02-mazda-2-mx-5-steering-wheelstalk-interface

think it will work?
 

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Hi,

I need your help. I've installed an aftermarket android head unit into my mazda 2 sport 2009. Everything works well except the steering wheel buttons. In the steering wheel learning menu of the android head unit, nothing happen when I press the steering wheel button.
Did I miss something? There are 3 cables (key1, key2 and Grnd) coming from a red can bus adapter (with a label CX-7??) that I have not plugged anywhere. Maybe this is the bit missing?

any advice?
 
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