Forward: this all started when i noticed that the information display has a bunch of LED's that don't light up. i also couldn't help noticing that just about every car outside the US seems to have the auto climate control. then i found the EU/JDM parts catalog, and then crucially Higgi parted out a car.

Difficulty: there are a lot of parts that you need to get, however once you do get all the pieces, its all plug and play.

Parts needed:

obviously you need the actual climate control unit,

you need the amp unit, the manual ones appear to be black, the auto ones appear to be poo colored.

these two parts do not occur in the US, and must be sourced from either Japan, or Europe.

you also add two sensors, the "solar radiation" sensor, which goes in the dash. Happily this is the same S1 and S2 so its available in the US

part number is F151-51-761

then you need the cabin temperature sensor, also available in the US, although the little holder isn't.

part number L022-61-757A

you also need to get the Blower transistor, which replaces the US blower resistor. i forgot to get a picture.

 

The Hard part:

the difficulty is the wiring harness. the Manual wiring has the two additional sensors, and the fan is wired completely differently.

the plug and play solution is to get the whole dash harness, although the dash needs to come out to install it.

there are a couple of variations in dash harness,

Manual OR Auto climate control.

Bose OR not Bose.

and Navi or No Navi. this is the simplest case, as its a couple extra wires, and doesn't need to be used.

if you get an RHD harness, like i did, it won't go in the car, but you can pull the 5 wires you need and just wire up the sensors.

the attachment is the pinout of the Amp module, as you can see there are the two added sensors, and then a couple wires move around, the only hard part is that its under the dash, so you have to do this upside down.

there is the version spec wire, and i haven't tried the EU spot, but i did try UK vs ungrounded (JDM?) and the temperature range changes. UK spec is 15-29c, ungrounded its like 18-32c

the fan wiring for the auto S1 is the same as the auto S2, so you can wire the fan up easily. the S2 does have some other differences though, so only the fan wiring can be used.

 

Installation:

radio comes out, and the old climate control unit gets replaced by the automatic one. you can use the US faceplate, and the information display is the same world wide, so this also plugs right in.

the AMP module is located by the drivers right knee (LHD), and the auto unit bolts right in its place.

the cabin temp sensor. by the ignition switch there is a small vent in the dash, and the temp sensor sits right behind this, the screw hole, and locator peg is there, so all you need is a screw, W201-64-999 (its the same as all the other screws in the car), and its in place.

the auto climate cars have a little hose from somewhere in the blower assembly to this sensor, so it gets airflow. the hose is not sold separately although the Cx7 has one that looks like it would work, failing that the sensor is 14mm 9/16" so a trip to the hardware store would probably be in order. the tabs for routing the hose are present

the blower transistor goes right in place of the blower resistor.

the solar sensor goes right in place of the hole cover we get in the US. however running the wires up there is HARD. i have not done this yet.

then you can put the car together and you're done! the information display actually looks normal, instead of having something missing.

 

not bad, whats a good estimate at end-of-day cost for this?

 

i spent about 4 hours, if the dash came out (ie if you got a plug and play harness) its probably about 8.

Higgi sold me all the bits for a good deal, i see all the stuff is on the UK ebay site too.

the big advantage is that you get 6 fan speeds, and if you set the temp to something reasonable, like 20c, it does a nice job of keeping it there, even if you're not using the auto part.

 

this is so cool, I want.... great write up and a great DIY!

 

i need this!!!

 

Once you did this will it always read in metric or can it be switched to imperial?

 

Where this solar sensor at, can you have a pic of it?

 

He hasn’t been to the forum in three years, it might be better to try to email or pm him directly

 

Its located by the edge of the dash

Its probably easier and faster if you just remove the whole dash, do whatever you gotta do, then put it back

I worked on both RHD and LHD rx8 so it wasn't hard for me, whole process takes maybe 3 hrs (including remove the dash), but that's just me, cuz I work on the dash like gazillion times so I know where/what to look for.

for a n00b, maybe a day or 2.