Wiring 350Z Steering Wheel Controls into an Australian 2003 350Z
Background
It has generally been agreed that installing the 2006 audio controls on a 2003-2005 model was too hard and professional audio technicans thought it "too hard". The closest I could find anyone here in Australia attempting this was
Domino back in April 2006 with another query in
May 2008. Again no one seems to have tried seriously since 2006.
The results were that the cruise buttons worked but did not illuminate and were eventually hardwired to constantly be on. The radio buttons were not attempted given an aftermarket HU was installed.
However, this install has been successful in US.
My attempt November 2009
This is to be used as a guide only to assist owners wanting to install the audio controls from 2006+ models into 2003-2005 Australian delivered models. I had the following completed by an experienced audio technican and therefore do not have photos or guides available for the additional wiring required. Professionally it should not take more than 3 hours to complete.
The Parts
Required Parts:
1 x 25550-CF40A (Audio & Cruise Control buttons)
2 x 87850-89900 (Air-bag Torx bolts)
The audio & cruise buttons are one single piece and joined together as Domino had shown previously. Also included in the picture is the required airbag torx bolts.
You WANT to get these! At $2-4 a pop they will save you a lot of hassle when you strip the exisiting bolts trying to get them out. Part numbers are consistent between Australia and the US.
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1 x B5567-CF40A (Spiral Cable) -< different to the above.
As Domino and the Americans had noted (and I have posted abve in this thread) there are additional wires that run through the steering wheel. This part is known as the combination switch or spiral cable. This part ensure thats the wires do not get tangled when turning the steering wheel. I orginally purchased one from America with part number 25567-EN025. This part used to have an Australian equivilent of 25567-E
T025. It has since been superseaded with the above cable.
This part must be purchased from Australia as US airbags require two wires and not one as shown below.
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The Wiring - The Theory
From the 2003 Service manual we are able to determine that there are 3 wires that are used in the combination switch (spiral cable) which control only the cruise control.
Per the 2006 Service Manual there are an additional 5 wires from the steering wheel controls. Two (2) of these control the illumination of the switches and other three (3) control the audio controls linked to the OEM Bose head unit. Within the back of the Bose head unit there are four plugs.
The following diagram shows how the plugs (M39, M40, M41 and M46) fit into the back of the Bose head unit:
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Picture 1 – Wiring Plug Diagram
The following is an example of the Bose head unit (confirmed ours look like this) from the rear.
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Picture 2 – OEM Bose head unit (rear)
The picture above shows the four (4) plugs as identified in red in Picture 1 as follows:
- M40
- M41
- M39
- M46
The below pictures shows what each pin does in the back of the Bose head unit.
Picture 3 - What the plugs/pins do
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Based on the 2006 wiirng diagram the additional cables from the spiral cable need to be run to plug M39 (as shown in picture 3). These are explained below.
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Picture 4 – 2006 Service Manual wiring diagram (page AV-15)
This requires three (3) wires to be run from:
- Pin 31 (M23) to Pin 25 (M39) to control power & mode (ground wire)
- Pin 24 (M23) to Pin 22 (M39 to control volume down
- Pin 32 (M23) to Pin 23 (M39) to control volume up.
Additionally the two (2) illumination wires need to run (or tapped into) from the same source as pins 7 & 8 (M40) from the Bose head unit to control the illumination of the steering wheel controls (M23).
The Result
After following the above instructions I had the following results.
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- Illumination - Yes. When parkers come on
- Cruise - Yes. Just like before.
- Audio - No.
The problem solving then started on why the audio controls weren't working. We identified that first that our Australian delivered head units do not have a M39 plug. To get around this we ended up soldering directly to the pins but still this didn't work.
A call to Clarion (what the relationship is with Bose I don't know) was of great help. The contact at Clarion is the guy who repairs broken Bose head units. The advised that the reason that what we had done wasn't working was because the head unit was not wired correctly (ie with the resistors/software) to be able to manage the steering wheel controls. Fark! What he did advise was that the 2006 would definately work. It was then that we discussed sourcing a 2006 to test this out.
This led us to track down part numbers:
US: Model# PP-2514L
Aus: Model# PP-2546L (2003-2005) Model# PP-2546LD (2006+)
UK: Model# PP-XXXXL
(It is easy to tell which model you have from the tape deck. If you look closely 2003-2005 should be CR-250 and 2006+ should be (I think) CR-16. Importantly, US models will not work in Australia, so dont go sourcing one. However, UK ones will. I am yet to track down a model number these.
This also brought up another problem. The 2006 head units are a different size and also a different colour and this was not acceptable. Clarion have advised that the 2003-2005 faceplate can be removed and retrofitted to the 2006 model easily. This was looking more positively as this would also mean MP3 capability while keeping OEM look.
So where am I at?
Therefore, at this stage Clarion is trying to source a 2006 head unit so we can test it out and see if it works. They will not send me one from their current repaired stock so I am currently on the look out for one in classifieds to test this out. If someone has one hanging around (particualrly in Melbourne) please shoot me a PM. If it plugs in (before modifying faceplate) you'll have a buyer
. Additionally, he is looking into seeing what is required to add the additional resisitors/software to the 2003 head unit to allow the controls to work.
Things to try:
- try using a 2006 Australian headunit
- try using a 2006 UK headunit (will lead to OEM bluetooth project
)
- Find M39 plug and try again (instead of direct soldering)
- Build extra resistors in 2003 head unit
- give up
I am almost there. Wish me luck!
