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26 of 27 people found the following review helpful:
4.0 out of 5 stars
Works "OK"; slow response, July 7, 2008
I installed this last week in my 2004 Toyota Sienna, together with a Kenwood KDC-X492 receiver and a KCA-BT200 Bluetooth interface, since my factory stereo did not include Bluetooth support. So far it works "OK", albeit with a couple of quirks.
* If you push any of the steering wheel controls right after powering on your car, it becomes unresponsive for several minutes. I believe this puts the unit into some sort of programming mode (as if you were pressing the "programming" button on the box itself) - but I am not about to open my dash again to look at the unit in order to find out. I'll learn to give it 4-5 seconds of startup time before interfering with its inner workings.
* The steering wheel buttons are not quite as sensitive as they were with the factory stereo. It takes a fraction of a second before a push is registered, and also it seems that it takes a little time for a release is registered as well. The result is that controlling the volume, for instance, is a bit more tricky than it used to be for me: It takes about 1/2 second before the volume changes - and then it changes fast! I also have to release it slightly before it reaches the desired level.
A couple of other things worth noting:
* There are several SWI (steering wheel interface) models out there; this one is for use with JVC, Alpine, Clarion or Kenwood head units (hence, "JACK"). For a Pioneer or Sony you would use the SWI-PS instead, and for Eclipse you would use SWI-ECL2. (Though note that if you are getting an Eclipse head unit for a Toyota or Honda, you do not need a SWI adapter. Simply hook the factory control wire directly into the Eclipse unit, and download firmware for your car from e-iserv.jp).
* If you have not already bought your aftermarket head unit, check out the "Steering Wheel Interface Programming Guide" on pac-audio.com in order to determine which brands offer the best match for the steering wheel buttons in your car. I actually ended up with the Kenwood unit for this reason; I was first going to get a Pioneer DEH-P7000BT, but with the latter, the "up/down" buttons on my steering wheel would be "seeking" in tuner mode rather than selecting the next/previous preset channel.
* The SWI does not come with car-specific harness adapters. This means that you MAY have to do some manual wiring (soldering, cutting/splicing, etc.) onto your factory harness. In my case I was able to get away without such damage: I had some 22-gauge hookup wire available that fit snugly into the (female) connector in the factory harness; I just soldered that onto the end of the required SWI-JACK wires. Also, you will need to solder (or crimp, etc.) some of the wires to ground and VCC (+12V), which you can best do by sharing the corresponding solder points for your aftermarket stereo.
* In either case, you may want to follow specific instructions for your car found at the pac-audio.com website, rather than the included (very generic, massive, and confusing) printed material included with the kit.
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