Mazda RX-8
Neo iON Installation Guide
Installation Guide Courtesy of Neo Car Audio
Table of Contents
Phillips Screw Driver
Flat Head Screw Driver
Socket Wrench (with extensions)
Flashlight or other good source of light
Before you begin, raise the parking brake in your car. Also, you will want to keep your car keys handy at all times. Make sure that you do not touch any wires in the car while the car is turned on. We do not recommend disconnecting the car battery, because there will be times throughout the installation where it will greatly help to be able to turn on the car. Make sure you have all of the required tools on hand so that you do not have to look for them once you've started the installation process. Also, it might help to have a cup of some sort on the side to be able to place the screws that you remove so you do not lose them.
1. The first step is to remove the covering to the center piece which is above the transmission. To do so, you must unscrew the shifter until it comes off.
Figure 1a: Shift knob on. (Seen above)
Figure 1b: Shift knob removed. (Seen above)
2. Once the shift knob has been removed the next step is to remove the covering above the transmission. To do so, you will need a flat head screwdriver. You will want to place the screwdriver in the notch where the center console slides over as shown in the picture below. Use the screwdriver to pry up the covering, but do not pry too hard that you might break the cover.
Figure 2a: Where the cup holder center console and the cover to the transmission area meet. (Seen above)
3. Once you remove the cover, you will notice there is a wire connected to this cover which will prevent it from being fully removed. To get this wire out of your way, again make sure the care is OFF, and disconnect the wire. Then you can place the center covering in the back seat so it is not in your way.
Figure 3a: Wire connected to center covering (Seen above)
Figure 3b: This is what it should look like once you have fully removed the center covering.
4. The next step is to remove the ash tray. Once the ash tray itself has been removed, you will want to remove the ash tray module (containing the part with the cover to the ash tray and the cigarette lighter). You will need to remove 2 screws that are shown in the picture below which hold the whole ash tray module in place.
Figure 4a: Remove the two screws shown in the boxes in the picture above.
5. Once you removed the two screws as shown above, pull out the ash tray module, but not too hard. You will notice two wires attached to the ash tray module. Remove these two connections from the ash tray module. There will be one more wire attached to the ash tray module that we will remove in the next step.
Figure 5a: Remove the wires connected to the ash tray module as shown in the picture above.
6. Now we need to remove the light from the ash tray module to fully free it so that we can get it out of our way. To do so, locate the white tab on the ash tray module. Simply push on this tab with a flat-head screwdriver while pulling out the light. Once you have removed the light, you can place the ash tray module in the back seat so it is not in our way. If you have a tough time removing this connection, it is not required. You can simply move the module to the side so it is out of the way, but make sure you do not tug on it too hard so that you do not mess up the light connection.
Figure 6a: Remove the light from the ash tray module by pushing on the white tab shown above.
7. The next step will be to remove the covering underneath the steering column as show in figure 7a. To do so, with both hands, pull at spots indicated in the picture. This piece will fold outward. Don't worry, you will not break this piece. Once you have folded it out, simply pull towards to to remove it completely. Then place it in the back seat so it is out of the way.
Figure 7a: Remove the center covering by pulling at the spots indicated above.
Figure 7b: This is what it should look like once you have folded out the covering to the steering column.
8. This next step is probably the hardest step. I was unable to get a picture because of the bad angle of this location. You need to go underneath the steering column and look upward and diagonally towards where the head unit is located. Underneath there, there is 1 bolt all by itself which is bolted in to hold the head unit in place. You will notice two bolds directly above each other. This is NOT the bolt you need to remove. Once you locate the bolt that holds the head unit in, you need to use the socket wrench and extensions to remove it. If you are looking directly at the two bolts that are directly above each other, the bolt you need to remove will be up and to the right from those two bolts.
Once you remove this bolt, the next step is to pull out the head unit.
9. There are two more screws that hold the head unit in place. We need to remove the screws to access the rear side of the head unit. Refer to the picture below to remove the screws. Please note, these screws are NOT the outer screws shown in the picture, but they are the two INNER screws. These screws are the ones circled in yellow. The ones circled in red can remain where they are, they do not need to be removed.
10. The next step is to pull the head unit out. To do so, reach you hands underneath where the ash tray was located, and grip underneath there. Then pull out towards you, which will release the head unit. It might seem as though it's being held by something else, but it is not. You might need two people to pull this out, one from the driver side, and one from the passenger side. Once you have released the head unit, do not pull it out too far as there are wires connected to it in the back which need to be released.
Figure 10a: Pull the head unit out as shown in the picture above.
Figure 10b: This is what the head unit should look like once you have released it.
11. The next step is to remove 1 of the sets of wires connected to the back of the head unit. These wires are located directly behind the air conditioning controls. Refer to the picture below.
Figure 11a: The yellow arrow shows the approximate location of the wires you need to remove.
The connections you need to remove are two round plugs and they are the bottom-most connections on the head unit. Once you have located them, disconnect them. You might need to use the flat-head screwdriver to release the clasp that keeps the plug connected to the head unit.
12. The next step will be to locate the port that the Neo iON will be plugged into. This port is not hard to find, but the angle of it made it hard to take a picture. The port can be found towards the top of the head unit on the drivers side. It is a rectangle port and the white end of the Neo iON plugs directly in to this port. Do not force it in to the port, as there is a proper way to put it in. If it does not go in, try turning it upside down.
13. You need to decide where you want to wire the iPod to. If you plan to use some sort of cradle or holder, it's best to mount it to the right of the head-unit and level with where the ash tray is. To mount the iPod here, it's best to remove the cover to the little circle cutout on the dashboard that can be seen while sitting in the passenger see. This piece easily comes off and you can then run the wire through that hole. If you want a cleaner look, you can notch out part of the plastic cap that you just removed, and place it back where it was with the wire feeding through it. Another alternative to wiring the iPod is to run the wire underneath the covering to the transmission and have it come out in the cup holder. I find this not as effective as the cup holder tends to get very hot at times. But it is up to you to decide where to place the iPod itself. Make sure you leave enough slack in the wire that you can move the iPod around a little bit.
14. Once you have wired the iPod, it is best to test it out and make sure it works before putting back all of the pieces you took apart.
15. To put the car back together, reverse the steps above in the same order.
Credits
Installation Guide and Photographs by D. Krevat
This guide was created for use by Neo Car Audio. Distribution by anyone other than Neo Car Audio is prohibited.
iPod is a registered trademark of Apple Computers, Inc.
Copyright © 2004-2005 D. Krevat / Neo Car Audio