Hello,

Well I got a new radio installed in my car yesterday. It has Sirius, an Ipod connecter, is bluetooth capable, and is hooked into my steering wheel controls.

The only issue that I have with it is that when I use the steering wheel control is used to change the channel it just goes to the next channel (i.e. from channel 3 to channel for) instead of going through the preset channels in the radio.

I was wondering if any of you guys have aftermarket radios like this and have had a similiar problem. I called my installer and he is looking into it.

I can live with it, but it is kind of annoying. Other than that the radio is awesome. Here is a picture.

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Oh, and before anyone asks those small 4 holes on the right of the dash are from my old xm radio. I am taking it in within the week to get those cleaned up.

What model Alpine is that and how'd you hook it up to steering wheel controls???? Also you have any more pics???

Not 100%...but sounds like a setting on your raido.

On my kenwood there is a setting for preset or channel when using the seek button. I also use the steering controls but with a pax controller programed from the remote that came with the head unit.

Hope this helps and NICE RADIO !!

Well I hooked it up to the steering wheel controls by basically opening my wallet and shutting my eyes

J/k, I paid like $90 for a steering wheel control interface or something like that. I have a couple more pics, but they are low resolution.

I'm still in the test phase for this radio. Besides the steering wheel control changing from channel to channel instead of preset to preset I have noticed that the blue lighted buttons are extremely bright even when I turn them down. I don't know if I'll get used to it or not. It's an awesome radio though.

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Here is another one

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I have an Alpine HU. Mines a CDA-9857 with the steering wheel control interface. It's a wireless infra-red system. Do you know where they put the signal receiver for the HU? and do you have a problem with the HU not catching the signal from the steering wheel controls sometimes?

I think they put the reciever on the front window in front of the mirror where you can't really see it. I don't seem to have a problem with the signal from the steering wheel controls.

The 9857 is nicer than mine, but was out of my price range.

When you use the steering wheel controls does it change the presets or just from channel to channel?

Also, do you find the blue lights kind of bright at night? The auto dim feature does not seem to work, so I turned them down manually; but they still are kind of bright.

Thanks!

arouth:They put my receiver squeezed in right above the face. I think it looks kind of tacky there. It looks like some of the wiring is sticking out, but they told me that was the best place they came up with to receive the signal. I sometimes have problems with the signal especially when all of the windows are down. Mine scans through station by station but that's because I wanted it that way. When they were programming it, they asked me if I wanted it that way or if I wanted it to control my presets so I believe that it can be done the way you want it. What I miss is that with the stock unit and a Kenwood HU I tried, if you hold down the 'mode' button on the steering wheel, it would power up and power off the HU. With the Alpine unit, they couldn't get it to do that, so the mode button just changes it from tuner to Sirius to CD and iPod. Also, when I was in the mode to adjust the treble, bass and subwoofer, with the other two units, I could control the volume for those specific modes with the volume control on the steering wheel and with the Alpine, the volume control, controls the volume only no matter what mode you are in on the HU. I'm not really happy with the interface unit because I expected more from it after it's abilities were described to me before I made the purchase. I'm dissappointed that it's not a 'hard-wired' unit as opposed to that 'infra-red' setup. I don't really notice that blue light. In the photos, yours does look really bright. Mines not that bright. I guess because it's only the buttons. My read-out is kind of gray like newsprint. I do know that my auto dim doesn't work either. I just figured that the installer didn't set it up. Since it wasn't that important to me, I just let it go. It sure would be nice though that after you drop a bunch of money on an audio package that every feature should work. The most important part does work though, I think it sounds fantastic and it's really easy to make any adjustments.

Well I took the 4runner back in and asked a lot of questions.

They said they can't do anything about the steering wheel controls. I'm not giving up though, i'm sure somebody on the web can figure it out.

They connected the autodim feature, but it's still kind of bright. I'll see if I get used to it, if not i'll think of something.

I'm still testing the system out. It's nice, but I agree with you on the display. I guess i'm spoiled after having the xm dock with all the information on it.

TELL YOUR INSTALLER TO USE A PAC SWX-ALP STEERING WHEEL CONTROL FOR ALPINE HD!

Ok, what exactly will that do? Will it allow me to change the preset radio stations with my steering wheel?

thanks!

it's like the pax swi your installer install in your 4R but the swi-alp work alot better with alpine HD. I have one insatll on my IVA-d900 and my radio preset works fine with the factory control!

That feature depends on the head unit. Check the manual to see if it seeks the next station and pre-sets. Some units only seek one. On the factory Nav HU you can hold down the steering wheel button until it beeps and you will seek to the next station, if you just push the button momentarily it will seek pre-sets. You may want to try and hold the button.

Koz