PAC SWIJACK Steering Wheel Remote Interface Review

Sunday, November 14, 2010 by Vera Smith | Posted in car audio, crapola, General, in-dash, interior accessories, jvc, kenwood, steering accessories, steering wheel, steering wheel control, steering wheel radio controls

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(More customer reviews)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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Product Description:
IR learning remote Converts signals generated by the factory remote into IR signals Retains heater & air control buttons on all GM(R) vehiclesSimple 3-wire hookupStep-by-step programming with LED confirmation Non-volatile memory?will not lose programming even when power is disconnected Alpine(R) universal steering wheel radio interface