My local Audio shop sent me the following email when I inquired about a custom RX-8 Dash to allow for a single din slot:
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I have someone who was willing to let me take there dash apart and do some testing. Here are some pictures of the dash board housing taken apart.
There is plenty of room in the dash to put any size radio. The issue is when the radio is removed from the dash assembly and the climate control and hazard switch plugged back in, only the fan switch operates. No hazards, no shifting on modes of A/C or heat.
Once the radio is reconnected, it all works great.
There is two, maybe three wire that need to be connected in order to have the climate and hazards to operate. If that cannot be found out, there would have to be a radio relocation made.
The reason for all of this is because I know you peruse the internet on RX8 sites. And maybe some one might know what wires need to be powered or what the modification would be.

Thanks
Bruce

The pictures referred to in this email are available at the following links:

http://www.ciph3r.com/RX8/1.JPG
http://www.ciph3r.com/RX8/2.JPG
http://www.ciph3r.com/RX8/3.JPG
http://www.ciph3r.com/RX8/4.JPG
http://www.ciph3r.com/RX8/5.JPG
http://www.ciph3r.com/RX8/6.JPG
http://www.ciph3r.com/RX8/7.JPG
http://www.ciph3r.com/RX8/8.JPG
http://www.ciph3r.com/RX8/9.JPG
http://www.ciph3r.com/RX8/10.JPG
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Can anyone offer me some help? I will keep the forum updated with the progress of this project assuming we can overcome this Climate & Hazard Control Problem.



Thanks In Anvance,

Keith
kbert@optonilne.net

 

Keith, this vehicle is a major major operation to do a new cd player in. The factory radio must be left connected to the circuit. There is a secondary board on the inside of the main radio that is part of the climate control system. The factory cd player can be detached from the amplifier section. This leaves you with two main boards, one inside the factory amp amp up front and the second is the board attached to the back of the radio bezel. This board needs to be hardwired to the main board at the point where the two would normally connect. The AC controls that plug into that board also need to be lengthened as does the hazard light switch.

The first time I did this vehicle I assumed that I could make myself a headunit relocation kit and move it to the trunk. I went into it also with the assumption that extending a line this long would give me resistance issues. I was correct. I had very little of any control of the climate control system after doing this. So I put it back to stock and all worked fine. Thus it was a resistance issue based on the length of the wires used to extend the lines. So no go for me here. I then extended my lines about 18" and mounted the main board underneath where the lower factory radio would sit. It is hardwired to the main board in the main factory radio and the upper din slot was used for the dvd player. No problems found, just loads and loads of work.

This topic has been covered many a time here, a quick search will show you some topics that pertain to it.

 

I have to agree with the above statment. Search and you will find plenty of discussion of this topic.

Short and simple answer, you cannot remove the radio. In my case, we went through 2 radios in testing, and found that the best way to handle the problem was to strip down the radio to the bare minimum (as stated above) and push it back further into the dash space.

A second option has been to install a DIN radio where the factory NAV unit would sit for those vehicles without factory NAV. This leaves the stock radio in place.

Lots of work involved either way. We can all thank Mazda for the overintegration of our radio into our vehicles!

Below are some pics from my install.
Some other ideas and pictures of my work on my site:
http://rx8.mine.nu

 

Thanks guys, Appreciate the quick responses.

 

just curious...the dash kit that came out for the 6. do you think the circuit board they made would work in the rx8 for the climate controls and the hazard?