Has anyone installed the mp3 player? I should be getting one on Wedensday and I was wondering if anyone knows how to pull the cd player trim panel off. By trhe way, Trussville is awesome. $267.00 for the mp3 WITH the trim panel. I ordered on-line last friday and will have it this week. They are fast and cheap!! Here is a link: http://www.trussvillemazda.com/

I will post some how-to info when I get it installed.

Mike

 

rx8racer,

Do a search for posts from EastMoon, a forum member from Japan that has posted a thread and weblink to the procedure. His instructions are in Japanese but you can try bablefish to translate back into English. He has some pictures which show you how to dismantling the head unit. Maybe somebody who has the link can post it.?

EDIT: I tried to do a search myself and can't seem to find it. Maybe it was forum member Yuhki and not East Moon. Well sorry... somebody else most know how to find that thread. :o

I'm interested in additional info, I have the MP3 Player on hand and am interested in installing it myself.

 

The MP3 player comes with pretty decent instructions. I don't have the RX-8 yet (any day now... sigh), but I did get the MP3 player last week (also from Trussville, those guys rule).

But for anyone who's actually installed it... any tips?

--SL01

 

I made a suggestion in the suggestion forum that we have a DIY section/forum for questions like this.

Maybe you guys can go there and chime in as well.

 

Here's a link to Yukhi's page translated through Excite Japan:

How to remove the audio unit (web translation)

I'm looking forward to any pics or videos of the MP3 installation you guys can provide. And info on how the player deals with sub-folders and id3 tags would be really good to know also.

 

The instructions that came with the MP3 player says it displays either the ID3 tag (v1.0 or v1.1) or the file name. The display is 30 characters and there's supposedly a scroll ****.

Directories are navigated with the disc up/down button. Instead of changing discs as in a CD changer, it changes directories. Directories are ordered such that sub-directories come immediately after their parent. Thus if you had a folder for a band, and then inside of that folders for each of their albums, disc up/down would switch between albums. When you got to the last album of that band, it goes to the first album of the next band (folders without MP3s are skipped from the up/down thing).

--SL01

 

See SL01's post from last night in this thread.

 

Is the MP3 player port installed option or dealer installed option?

 

Dealer installed, or self installed.

--SL01

 

Just thought I'd post this for the benefit of any other would-be self-installers

I bought the MP3 kit from Trussville and saved a few $$ that way. I attempted to install it myself, but halfway through I wimped out and decided not to. When I removed the panel under the steering wheel I caught my finger on a sharp edge somewhere and gave myself a nice bloody gash on my fingertip (so just be careful of sharp edges down there!). After I bandaged my finger, I located the 10mm bolt and found that my arm was not long enough to reach it (I guess I have really short arms or I'm not enough of a contortionist). I stared and stared at it and thought to myself, even if I get the right tool and manage to undo it, I'm not at all confident that I could get it screwed back in again. So with a dejected sigh, I decided to quit at that point and put everything back together again.

So, I took it to the dealer and had them install it. They charged me 2 hours labor ($160) to install it. Just an FYI for anyone debating whether or not to self-install it.

 

You need a 1/4" or 3/8" drive 10mm socket and a 6" extension or driver handle. You could pick up a complete 1/4" socket set with all of the above and sockets from about 4mm to 12mm for a lot less than $160, and it's a handy thing to carry in the car. I've stored mine inside the spare wheel cover.