[jimtesla]

I hopefully go under the knife this weekend

I got an 06 spool 06 trim pieces 05 pilot switches..to match crusie control

pac unit to match the steering wheel controls to my kenwood unit.....

And I hope it works..........

The pilot switch look like they may elluminate...that would be way to cool......
they have a blueish tint versus the white on the crusie control switches...

 

[pandreson]

Reload this Page steering wheel volume controls

A universal CAN BUS interface that will connect directly into many, many cars iso harnesses behind the dash, then the other end will plug into JKM G4's adapted harness which is an ISO standard connector. This means that we can get ignition live, illuminations and reverse gear sensors from the CAN BUS system.
-----------------------------------
pandreson

Viral

 

[Ejudge]

i have an 04' E. has anyone found an easier solution to do this mod with parts from the 06' E steering wheel? i was hoping that i would be able to order this from the dealer, and it would be an easy install. i'm pretty new at mods, and not to hot with an iron and spool. any tips on making it easier? Thanks

 

[murso74]

i looked all over majestics site but i can't find the part number for the element spool for the steering wheel controls... does anyone know it?

 

[Legioss]

Radio Remote on 04 E steering wheel, with E parts from...?

I'm sure there is an easy way to do this by now...

How do I put the radio remote buttons onto an '04 E with stock radio? I've looked at a couple threads, but they seem outdated (using Pilot parts, or homemade electronics).

I Know where to find the buttons, the left bezel (that the radio buttons go in), but I'm confused when I get to the harness parts.

Help?

 

[AztecRol]

I'm sure there is an easy way to do this by now...

How do I put the radio remote buttons onto an '04 E with stock radio? I've looked at a couple threads, but they seem outdated (using Pilot parts, or homemade electronics).

I Know where to find the buttons, the left bezel (that the radio buttons go in), but I'm confused when I get to the harness parts.

Help?

Here is the thread you are looking for:

http://www.elementownersclub.com/forums/showthread.php?t=20422&highlight=steering

They used all OEM Honda Element parts. Best way to do it if you ask me.

 

[valkokir]

Reposting what used to be on my webspace that is now defunct. My apologies for not having this info out there any more:
_____________________________________________________________________________________________________________

Okay, here's my shot at a DIY project.

I had camera problems and many of the pictures did not turn out so I made some drawings of the most detailed items. Hopefully some kind soul will take it upon themselves to take some pictures from a camera that doesn't suck.

This will allow you to change radio stations/cd tracks, adjust volume up and down, and switch bands (AM/FM/FM2/CD/AUX) on your stock EX Radio. Any input from others on other radios this will work for is appreciated

It uses various parts that are available through Majestic Honda

Click here for a printable list of the parts you will need to order

The parts were not something that Majestic had in-house and they ordered them. Took about 1 week to arrive at my door. Shipping totalled 6.29 not including the 4.95 handling fee.

In all my initial searches I was able to find information on how the remote feature works on the ex stereo. Basically you are just grounding pin3 of the light blue 20pin stereo connector. By applying different amounts of resistance between pin3 and ground you perform different functions as follows:

Function (Resistance in Ohms)
AM/FM/CD/AUX (2300)
Channel Preset Up/ Next Track (1000)
Vol Up (320)
Vol Down (50)

PART 1: Radio connecter modification

You will still be able to drive your car at this point so if you figure out you are missing supplies its no big deal

Remove the Stereo:

You need to be able to access the stereo pin while the radio has power. Since I decided that a connection like this is not exactly critical to the operation of the vehicle and is not carrying any significant current so a makeshift connector properly done will be just fine. Scosche sells the entire radio connector (HA08R) if you want to spent $15 for one connector. This company carries them They are also available from installer.com for $11.50 If you are really nice you could buy one and gut it and sell the individual terminals to your other forum friends

Unplug all the radio connections so you have room to work. Get a feel for how easy/hard the large 20bin blue connector goes into the radio and make a mental note so you can tell later if you have a problem without bending pins!

You'll notice that the connector pin location has two holes. The radio pin goes into the bottom hole of pin 3 so we need something thin enough to go into that hole. So, take a piece of small gauge solid core wire (mine was 22 gauge, A long resistor lead cliped off would also work.) and put a hook in it like shown. This hook needs to be able to pass through the back of the connector, out the front and then hook between the holes on the front. See the section view below. When you push it in from the back it will be forced to the bottom of the connector by the plastic finger inside designed to hold the terminal in place. Using a pin from the front of the connector force your terminal over the center divider. You may need to sand the hooked part flat to allow the radio pin to enter the connector.

Test fit your connector to the radio and adjust fit as necessary, it's easier than it sounds. When I finished mine the plug went into the radio as easy as before modification.

Solder a wire length of 22gauge stranded insulated wire to your new terminal and shrink tube the connection. This wire will run all the way to the steering wheel so it needs to be long enough to get there routed behind the instrument panel.

Plug all the radio connections back in and turn the car on. press the power button on the radio and enter your security code. With your favorite tunes playing touch your new wire to the metal radio mounting rail inside the dash opening or any other reliable ground. Your Volume should turn down as you hold it to ground. If this doesn't work then there is probably something wrong with the terminal you just made. You will have to manually turn the volume up with the radio knob to test this again.

This is a good example of why you need to make sure this wire doesn't short on the chassis anywhere during this process, otherwise the volume will keep turning down and you'll be in for a quiet ride ...

 

[valkokir]

Part 2

Part 2

You can ignore this part if you don't feel the need to test how the remote works. If you are one who enjoys the building process as much as the final result, this is for you.

My first test was to see if this even works as it says it is supposed to (IT DOES) so I set up a breadboard (the white thing with lots of hole in it) with all the various resistors. 2.3k was accomplished with a 2.2k resistor in series with a 100ohm. 50ohms was done with two 100ohm resistors in parallel [(100*100)/(100+100)=50ohms] all the rest were done with one resistor.

This picture shows a $8 multi meter hooked to the test bed set at 2k ohms and reading the resistance from the 1k ohm resistor (channel up/track skip)

So connecting my new wire to one side and shorting to ground I found that the radio functions do work. So, Rather than balance a breadboard on my lap while driving I decided to order up some more parts Hence:

 

[valkokir]

Part 3

PART 3: Disassembly

That was the easy part. From here it gets a bit hairy

YOU WILL BE REMOVING YOUR STEERING WHEEL, AIRBAG AND MANY OTHER PARTS THAT WILL KEEP YOUR CAR FROM FUNCTIONING.

IF YOU PUT THEM BACK TOGETHER WRONG YOU ARE GOING TO HAVE PROBLEMS, TAKE YOUR TIME AND READ ALL THE DIRECTIONS TO SEE WHAT YOU ARE GETTING INTO HERE.

IF YOU ARE NOT COMFORTABLE SOLDERING, ESPECIALLY WHEN ADJACENT WIRES CONTROL YOUR AIRBAG, THEN DON'T GO ANY FURTHER.

ALTERNATIVES TO DOING IT MY WAY:

My method works, is there an easier way? most likely, is it as reliable? I don't know.

1) Read Professor Fate's CR-V mod:

He did it using existing wires in the steering column. There is a redundant wire for the horn, he clipped this and reused it for the remote. He later found that the ground in the steering wheel was insufficient and ended up soldering in the spool anyhow. Personally I'm not sure why the ground wouldn't be sufficient, the horn has to go to ground to work right?

2) Read another alternative routed through the cruise switches

I don't have the electrical knowledge required to build up something like this, besides the cruise switch is so inconvenient to get to that I never turn it off.

3) Buy a Honda Pilot spool.

I'd give it a 50/50 chance that you could buy a $35 SRS Spool for a Pilot and just swap the two. The spool has no circuitry, just wires. Only question is if the connectors are compatible. If you can swap them directly then you will save quite a bit of the work and a lot of the stuff that some people are going to have a very difficult time with.



Well I decided to save the $35 and go ahead and do the soldering.



Process:

Disconnect your Negative battery terminal!!! Yes I know most people tell you to do this even if you are changing your oil but seriously. You will be disconnecting your airbag and you don't want to take a trip to the dealer to reset your sensors. I also removed the gauge cluster and wasn't going to mess around.

You can remove as much or as little of the dash as you feel necessary, I took off the entire gauge cluster, center console trim ring, and fuse panel. If nothing else, you will keep these items from being damaged and make wire routing easier. Fold your back seats flat to stack your trim parts on and start disassembling.

eMass' Steering wheel removal instructions:

Dash panel removal :

CRCError Explains it well here

Steering column cover removal:

Remove the three screws holding on the lower steering column cover then release the tilt steering lock lever.

Carefully unclip the six clips holding the top and bottom halves together. I don't know a good way to get these apart, they seem to break easily and the top cover prevents you from pressing in to release them. This is the only part I broke in the whole project, so I'm okay with it. Release the tilt steering lock lever and pull the bottom trim cover off by pulling it out away from the ignition.

You're going to be left with something like this eviscerated mess (photo taken later so there are two extra wires)

Next you will want to completely remove the multi position switch/spool assembly by unhooking its harness.

(again the dash and wheel are already back on because these pictures didn't turn out and had to be reshot)

Unhook large gray connectors from right and left switches

Unhook small 5pin white connector from spool

Unhook lower yellow airbag connector and free the connector from the steering column by unclipping the white nylon clip (easier said than done, pliers or screwdrivers work best.

Remove the three screws holding on the switch/spool assembly. Their mounting points are indicated below:

If you've released all the necessary connectors and clips you should be able to take the assembly right out of the car

If you look at the back of the assembly You will see that the spool clips onto the multiswitches on the top and bottom. Release the top first by inserting a screwdriver in under the four green wires and where the 5pin connector came out of. Pry up on this gently to release the top tab. The bottom tab is easily accessed with a screwdriver as well. The spool is now separate and is easier to work on in a better lit, more comfortable, place.

 

[valkokir]

PART 4: Spool modification:

This is the part of the process I was dreading, but it wasn't so bad. If the spool unravels, roll it back up. no biggie. The steering wheel on an E only goes around like two or three times in each direction so you won't be in danger of wrapping it too tight.

As you took everything apart you likely noticed there are two empty places leading into the spool on both ends.

Here is a very poor picture of the spool still assembled. Note that it is turned backwards and upside down on the steering shaft to take the picture. Use the white 5pin plug for reference.

I have NO IDEA how people had problems with the spool falling apart during the swap-out for a Pilot wheel. As you will see it takes a bit to get it apart. Only thing I can think of is that they wrenched it so hard that they ripped the white plastic ring off, or that the ring was added later on. (Most of my E's parts are date coded June or July 2004 )

Disassembling the spool requires removing the white nylon ring from the back of the spool. This ring is "threaded" onto the part which turns with the wheel. It can be removed by gently prying it off with a putty knife (I did because I couldn't tell how it was put together, it didn't hurt it) or by turning it counterclockwise. See drawing I did from memory below:

The drawing shows how the ring engages on the front part of the spool that faces the steering wheel.

This drawing also shows the guts of the spool, which is just a ribbon cable wound in a spiral about 10 times around or so. I have taped the ribbon cable together so I wouldn't have to rewind it later or risk damaging it. If you do this use good tape that won't get the ribbon gooey, you need it to move freely.

Here is a photo Showing the same thing. Separating the steering-column-side(back) wires from the back of the spool is pretty straight forward, they just pull out leaving you with a plastic frame around the one end of the ribbon cable. The four green permanently attached wires in the cable loom are the airbag wires.

The steering-wheel-side(front) part of the spool shown below detaches from the ribbon cable by using a putty knife to gently press in both small tabs (marked in yellow in pic above) at the same time, slide out the other ribbon cable end.

Gently pry off the plastic cover to reveal the solder points for the two empty wire positions.

Working on the steering wheel side, you will have to solder two wires onto the copper contacts. This requires a fine tip on your iron. You may need to remove some of the plastic to get a clean joint. Use a heat sink if at all possible to avoid melting anything. On the bright side the airbag wires are on the opposite end of the connector. Check your solder job for excessive resistance if you have a multi meter to see if you have a cold-joint.

If you did that successfully, you're in good shape. That's the hardest part (at least for those of us that are bad at soldering )

 

[valkokir]

Now turn your attention to the steering column end of the ribbon cable. You will have to solder extensions onto the pins or come up with a similar terminal like we made for the stereo end. Since we have such nice access to the individual pins, I just made them longer by soldering on a length of uninsulated wire to the two rightmost pins shown below. These two pins should line up with the empty spaces in the 5pin white connector still in the car. Check the continuity from one end of the spool to the other to see that everything worked as it should.

I then modified the black plastic part of the spool where the connector pins pass through to accommodate the added size from the solder joint and my longer leads. a 1/16" drill worked well and did not break through between pins.(This is vague, I know, pictures lost)

Reassemble the spool completely by passing your extended leads through the 1/16" holes you just drilled.

Reattach the spool to the multiposition switches and put the assembly back in place on the vehicle, don't screw it down until you reposition all of the harnesses.

I modified the 5pin white connector to make reassembly easier, If you can do it without modding the connector, even better. Modding it as I did does not hurt anythin as far as insulating between pins or the connector clipping into the spool. Remove the small white retaining clip for easier access and then use a dremel cut-off wheel to open up the two pin slots. see below

Feed the new leads through the white connector and replace the white retaining clip. Plug the connector into the spool.

Trim the leads so they are long enough to solder to. Slip a small diameter piece of shrink tubing onto the wire coming from the radio, solder it to the left lead going by the picture above (you can use either lead but these directions will follow the way I did it). Shrink only the tip of the shrink tubing closest to the connector and slip it inside the connector some to better insulate it. Shrink the rest of the tubing.

Take another piece of 20 gauge wire long enough to reach the common grounding point or anywhere else you chose to hook ground to. Slip a piece of shrink tube over the wire and repeat the process performed on the other lead.

Unravel the electrical tape on the loom leading from the 5pin connector and sneak the other two wires inside for protection. wrap the loom with electrical tape. Piggyback the two wires onto the main harness taping along the way. Route the radio signal wire nicely up to the radio and the other wire safely to ground. In order to get an eye terminal large enough to fit over the ground bolt (6mm ID, 12mm OD to accommodate the bolts threads and washer) you may need to use an eye terminal designed for larger gauge wire. Add shrink tubing, Crimp as best you can then solder it as well.

Rearrange the electrical harnesses the way they came off. Plug in all the connectors.

DON'T FORGET THE YELLOW AIRBAG CONNECTOR UNDER THE COLUMN

Reinstall the steering column covers then any instrument or dash panels you removed.

Reinstall the wheel making sure not to crush any wires or connectors.

Refer back to eMass' Wheel swap guide for help and pictures


The Radio switch looks like the following from the back. It has a four pin connector. The two highlighted pins are the only ones used.

I couldn't help but notice that these nice little pins happen to be the exact same spacing and size as those on a motherboard. These are the connectors used to hook up your reset button and pc speaker. I had an extra lead laying around so I used it. I didn't want to use the attached 26 gauge wire so i released the ternimals and soldered my two wires inside the steering wheel to the two terminals. The solder joints must be small and clean to reassemble the plug. Mount up the switch and plug in your new connector. Polarity should not matter (ground vs. signal wire). You're done!!! Finish reassembling the steering wheel, reconnect your negative bat. terminal and give it a go. I love mine, had to keep doing a double take today as I reached for the stereo instead of using the new controls...

 

[valkokir]

Briefly touching on finisher colors. Majestic sells CL Titanium and HJ Silver colors. HJ Silver matches the existing EX interior exactly. CL Titanium matches the gauge and vent rings exactly. I switched both finishers to CL Titanium and I think they look cool. Better than stock IMHO. For future refence I stopped at a Honda Dealer, It appears the 2005s have CL Titanium finishers and switches.

Here's a pic of my setup.

Some may consider holding out to get ahold of the 2005 Pilot switches, they are silver!

Other threads this is discussed at:

http://www.elementownersclub.com/forums/showthread.php?t=8046

http://www.elementownersclub.com/forums/showthread.php?t=9874&highlight=

http://www.elementownersclub.com/forums/showthread.php?t=5292&highlight=volume+control

__________END OF REPOST_________________________________

 

[Legioss]

Nice. Thanks for going to the work of reposting all the info.

 

[cursh]

Yes - Thank you so much. This all helped me a bunch when I made my first attempt. I realized that I swapped the 4 and 5 pin and had hoped that it was the culprit in an odd occurrence where my cruise control buttons swapped functionality. I just finished swapping them back the functionality didn't change anywhere. I'm going to get into the bag again and see if I somehow flipped the connector for the cruise buttons, but I don't think its possible/I recall already checking.

Anyway - I've nearly gotten used to the reversal, so it may be a moot point now.

 

[mike:]

Reposting what used to be on my webspace that is now defunct. My apologies for not having this info out there any more:
_

Okay, here's my shot at a DIY project.

I had camera problems and many of the pictures did not turn out so I made some drawings of the most detailed items. Hopefully some kind soul will take it upon themselves to take some pictures from a camera that doesn't suck.

This will allow you to change radio stations/cd tracks, adjust volume up and down, and switch bands (AM/FM/FM2/CD/AUX) on your stock EX Radio. Any input from others on other radios this will work for is appreciated

It uses various parts that are available through Majestic Honda

Click here for a printable list of the parts you will need to order

The parts were not something that Majestic had in-house and they ordered them. Took about 1 week to arrive at my door. Shipping totalled 6.29 not including the 4.95 handling fee.

In all my initial searches I was able to find information on how the remote feature works on the ex stereo. Basically you are just grounding pin3 of the light blue 20pin stereo connector. By applying different amounts of resistance between pin3 and ground you perform different functions as follows:
View attachment 97426

Function (Resistance in Ohms)
AM/FM/CD/AUX (2300)
Channel Preset Up/ Next Track (1000)
Vol Up (320)
Vol Down (50)

PART 1: Radio connecter modification

You will still be able to drive your car at this point so if you figure out you are missing supplies its no big deal

Remove the Stereo:

You need to be able to access the stereo pin while the radio has power. Since I decided that a connection like this is not exactly critical to the operation of the vehicle and is not carrying any significant current so a makeshift connector properly done will be just fine. Scosche sells the entire radio connector (HA08R) if you want to spent $15 for one connector. This company carries them They are also available from installer.com for $11.50 If you are really nice you could buy one and gut it and sell the individual terminals to your other forum friends

Unplug all the radio connections so you have room to work. Get a feel for how easy/hard the large 20bin blue connector goes into the radio and make a mental note so you can tell later if you have a problem without bending pins!

You'll notice that the connector pin location has two holes. The radio pin goes into the bottom hole of pin 3 so we need something thin enough to go into that hole. So, take a piece of small gauge solid core wire (mine was 22 gauge, A long resistor lead cliped off would also work.) and put a hook in it like shown. This hook needs to be able to pass through the back of the connector, out the front and then hook between the holes on the front. See the section view below. When you push it in from the back it will be forced to the bottom of the connector by the plastic finger inside designed to hold the terminal in place. Using a pin from the front of the connector force your terminal over the center divider. You may need to sand the hooked part flat to allow the radio pin to enter the connector.
View attachment 97434 View attachment 97442
Test fit your connector to the radio and adjust fit as necessary, it's easier than it sounds. When I finished mine the plug went into the radio as easy as before modification.

Solder a wire length of 22gauge stranded insulated wire to your new terminal and shrink tube the connection. This wire will run all the way to the steering wheel so it needs to be long enough to get there routed behind the instrument panel.

Plug all the radio connections back in and turn the car on. press the power button on the radio and enter your security code. With your favorite tunes playing touch your new wire to the metal radio mounting rail inside the dash opening or any other reliable ground. Your Volume should turn down as you hold it to ground. If this doesn't work then there is probably something wrong with the terminal you just made. You will have to manually turn the volume up with the radio knob to test this again.

This is a good example of why you need to make sure this wire doesn't short on the chassis anywhere during this process, otherwise the volume will keep turning down and you'll be in for a quiet ride ...

Reviving an old thread just to say thank you. I went the seemingly easier route and got a 2003 or 2004(sorry I didn't take a picture of the car at the junkyard) Pilot steering wheel with audio controls with the clock spring/srs wheel and as much wiring (white plug and yellow plug from the steering wheel towards the cabin) as I could out of the donor car at my local LKQ, not knowing how much I would need. I read your directions a few times and with the other diy's you linked I was able to get everything installed and working into my 2003 Element EX, without too much issue once I understood what you were actually saying to do.

I even made the account just to say thanks and to clarify that if you go the route I did, then you only need to run a wire from the #3 pin slot on the blue radio connector (I stripped a piece of the donor wiring to backfeed(?) the pin) to the white connector Pilot's clock spring/SRS wheel and another from there to a ground. I did not have to modify anything from the Pilot as the SRS wheel, wheel itself, white connector and yellow airbag connector were all the same (the Pilot's white connector just has two extra wire for the audio, ground and signal). The only cutting will be where you go from the Element white connector to the Pilots as I didn't have the right pins to install into the Element one but if you do, then even better.

Pictures below if needed, at first I just pushed 14 gauge wire into the back of the Element SRS wheel to verify that it would work, then I cut the Element plug out and wired in the Pilot one. The car is down at the moment waiting for parts to fix the P2646 CEL so I can't verify that the cruise control works but ATM, the radio controls do.

 

[NeuseRvrRat]

I got the steering wheel audio controls from a 2006 Element working on the factory head unit in my 2004 Element EX. For anyone else who stumbles upon this thread like me and can't find the original tutorial, here's what worked for me:

Install audio control switches with trim and a clock spring from a 2006 Element. I got the cruise control switch and trim as well so they would match. Also snip some pigtails while you're in the junkyard. You need pins from the white connector on top of the clock spring and a pin from the blue connector behind the head unit. Swap the light green and dark green wires in the cruise control connector on the 2006 clock spring so that your decel and accel cruise control buttons won't be swapped. On the white connector that plugs into the top of the clock spring, use the salvaged connector to install terminals in the two empty slots. Run a wire from Pin 4 to a chassis ground. Run a wire from Pin 5 to Pin A3 on the blue connector behind the head unit using one of the terminals from the salvaged blue connector. I ended up not needing to do anything with Pin A14.

If you want to test your factory head unit for steering wheel remote control compatibility, just temporarily connect a wire to A3 and tap it on a chassis ground and you should see the volume go down on the radio.