trabbic

This may be possible to do, but it will require a LOT of fabrication to the steering wheel, and switches (I think you may have to reverse the buttons, or change the resistance they send otherwise they will be backward, the down button with shift up etc...) The other (potentially bigger) problem is that there are only so many wires running through the roll connector, so we will first have to determine if the steering wheel shift buttons interfere with the stereo controls, and if the stereo controls interfere with the Transmission computer. Chances are if the signal output are different enough they will not, but nobody knows for sure yet. To check this measure the resistance coming off of the shifter buttons when you push up shift and down shift, you don't have to do this while driving, but the ignition must be on. Brady, did your ghost come back, still having troubles?

Actually this is caused by a loose connection, actually wires just BARELY touching. The resistance is higher at the mute, then volume, so if you have a loose connection (but still touching) what will happen is you will lose mute, then volume, then seek, and last mode, as the connection loosens. This happened to me, and caused me to change the directions to make the connection more secure on the radio side. you may never have trouble again, and I wouldn't worry about it if it works fine for several days in a row. I know what you mean, about not having them, I still don't know why they don't offer this as an option...

jc51373, good for you , let me know if you want help over the phone and I will PM you it. Also before you do it let me know, and I will look up the exact wires to cut and let you know before you get into it. PS, what kind of equipment are you going with for your home theatre? I am a big fan of Paradigm speakers, myself...

Come on you guys, you can do this!! It's not that hard, I will even work with you to determine what wires to cut. In fact that is the only difference, you have to cut two wires instead of jamming them into the plug. I have confidence in you, even though you drive an automatic ...

Thanks, Sorry the controls only control the seek of stations, not presets. They also switch tracks when in CD mode.

WAIT, you mean I could have charged for this!! :lol: My girlfriend thinks I should be charging! I told her that it was the least I could do for my fellow forum members! You could possibly develop a kit if you had the correct plugs from Subaru, but I don't think it would really be that easy to get the plugs. I don't really think it is necessary however, as it is pretty easy otherwise...

If you pull out the unit and take a couple of pictures, or write down the color wires on the small plug, I will let you know if it will work or not... Everything still working with your controls, Brady?

It should...

The Spec.B Wheel is the MOMO wheel with steering wheel radio controls. (the same wheel as 05 automatics with the radio controls instead of the shift controls for the automatic.) The airbag cover will look the same as you have now, because you will be using your airbag, I assume that they are all the same.

You would have to do something really dumb, it is almost impossible. To be safe disconnect your battery. I just made sure that the ignition was off, that should disable the air bag system, but I offer no guarantees... Disconnect the battery and you'll be fine...

Buy it, and I will work with you to get the exact wire colors for the Automatic, it will still be pretty easy. Just take a picture of that white plug under the steering column, and post it up here, and I will tell you what wires to cut and where to tap. You will just tape up the other wires so you could always hook them back up if you needed to...

When wiring up the Radio controls the wires do go directly to the Stereo. But in an automatic the shift controls HAVE to go to the ECU (or TCU) for them to work correctly...

I think we could probably do that, do you have a multimeter? We need to know the resistance in Ohms that the shift buttons send to the computer, and make sure that they are different during button presses, and the same when nothing is being pressed. Here is how to do this: Take off the airbag as I described. Unplug the green plug. Check the resistance between holes 2 and 4 when looking at the plug from the left to right. Your meter should give you something around 4.7k Ohms, and that should change when you press shift up and shift down. Report back here with those numbers, and I will make sure that they are not the same as the radio controls. The other thing to consider is that we will have to modify your steering wheel wiring harness to make sure that all signals are sent down the correct pathways and then use that multimeter to find the signals to tap them, at the harness side. This would be custom, and different than my directions, but we should be able to figure it out.

Actually the Spec B and L.L. Bean Wheel come with the buttons already, so you are looking at around $310 or so wholesale, more like 370 or so retail... I think it would work, I would be happy to help out, and I am sure you could sell the wheel if you ran into trouble...

I suppose you could cut at the harness side and then tap at the stereo side... You MIGHT be able to, in theory, have just say the volume controls and then have the other side to shift, but then U would loose the mode, and seek buttons. Also it would have to be determined what resistance the steering wheel shift buttons send out, and whether or not the stereo or transmission computer are effected by receiving this signal. I will try this on someones car if they want to come here to let me hack into it... ) I am the only person to actually do this so far as far as I know... That may be the easiest solution, to pick one or the other...

I know HA HA, Step 14 is using the controls day to day, and showing your dealer what SOA should have offered from the factory...

Step 13. Put everything back together and test again, be sure to use all screws and line up the yellow retainers before you push them in place. Hopefully everything still works and you have wonderful steering wheel controls that you should have had from the factory!

Step 12. If everything works correctly then tie off the wires close to the connectors to keep the wires from pulling out, and then tape up the rest of the wire to the other wiring harness to make sure that you don’t get any rattles (a drawback of using solid core wire is that it is harder and therefore more prone to rattling).

Step 11. Turn on the ignition and test the stereo controls, also turn on your headlights and make sure the illumination works. If something doesn’t work, make sure that you have the wires shoved in as much as possible to all connectors or reattach your taps and connectors. (Please contact me if you are sure that the wires are connected and it is still not working, I was working with a lot of wires and different connections and I might have written something down wrong.)

Step 10. The white connector near the yellow airbag connector near the steering column, has 8 wires feeding it from the roll connector, coming out the other side on MT cars are only a few wires and several empty holes (AT cars will have the wires coming out for the shift controls). In MT’s take the solid core wire and trim off ¼ inch of shielding, and shove the empty end of the red wire and solid green wire into the holes shown, #’s 6 & 7 (the other side of those holes should have green with red stripe and white wires, heading up the column) then plug in the green stripe and black wires into holes 2 & 8 respectively. (The other sides of those holes are colored Sky Blue and Black with White Stripe). If you have an automatic or don’t feel like using solid core wire you must cut the above wires and use connectors to tap into them before the plug (if you have an automatic you SHOULD cut them first so the car does not shift when you try to turn up the volume, but others can just tap in if they want). Plug layout (on the side facing away from the roll connector plug): 1 *.* 2 3 4 5 6 7 8

Step 9. On the back of the stereo find the Orange wire with White Stripe and Purple wire with White Stripe. Trim ¼ inch off the hookup wire ends. Plug in the Green wire into the Purple with white stripe and the Red into the Orange with White Stripe. When you shove the wire in to the plug pull the stock wire down and push it in, it should go in over ½ and inch and be pretty firmly in the hole. Repeat this with the Green wire with your stripe drawn on it and the solid purple wire on the other side of the stereo and the black wire and the Black wire with the White Stripe. If you have an automatic or don’t feel like using solid core wire you must cut the above wires or use connectors to tap into them before the plug. EDIT: After several hundred miles of TERRIBLE roads here in Toledo, one of the wires came loose on the stereo side, this can happen because the wire harness gets crammed back there. I used wire taps to attach them at this point, so this does not happen again...

Step 8. Cut 4 lengths of different color wire about 3 -4 feet long (the hookup wire from Radio Shack has only three colors, so I drew a line on one of the green wire sections with permanent marker to tell the difference.) Feed the wire from the back of the stereo to the white connector, trying as much as possible, to keep the wire behind structure and running along the factory harnesses.

Step 7. Remove the stereo. Start by unscrewing the shift knob and then pulling straight up on the back of the shifter trim, unplug the lighter plug and set that aside. (Automatics have a different process to get this piece off, I believe you remove a trim ring and then pull the part back and off.) Unscrew the two exposed screws on the side trim and then pull each side slowly off by pivoting the piece up from the back. Unscrew the 6 screws holding the stereo in place and pull the stereo out enough to disconnect the hazard/warning switch. Pull the stereo out enough to get at the back of the unit; you do not have to disconnect the connectors.

Step 6. Locate the white plug and yellow plug behind the metal panel near the steering rack. Pull the white plug down as far as possible.

Step 5. Remove the lower kick panel by pulling out the two pop-its on either side and pulling FIRMLY on the center plastic plug. The cover will rotate down and out of the way but will not come off. Remove the Screw on the right hand side of the upper kick panel above the lower kick panel, pull the rest of that panel off, again you do not need to pull it all the way off only shift it down and out of the way. Use the 10mm socket to remove the two bolts holding on the metal plate under the upper kick panel, and set that aside.