Metra Axxess ASWC-1 Steering Wheel Control Interface

This thing is awesome. I put an aftermarket stero in my Harley and I used this to keeping the handle bar controls. Volume control, seek, prev/next, mute & mode. Easy to program and works great! Fast shipping and great product.

I purchased this item together with several other Metra parts (dash trim, radio harness, antenna cable, and backup camera retention cable) to replace a factory stereo with a new CarPlay head unit in a 2018 Sentra (base model, no Bose speakers). The overall installation process for all of these parts was lengthy but fairly straightforward... though I haven't used my soldering skills since high school, I was able to wire up the various harnesses, insulate everything with shrink and tesa tape, open the dash, and get everything hooked up and working. The teenager who drives the car is very happy with her new radio.The most difficult part of the entire operation was installation of this component. First, Metra's website didn't cover the model year of our Sentra (2018). Eventually, I learned that the 2017 instructions worked and that Metra simply hadn't yet tested enough 2018 models to feel comfortable putting it on their website--fair enough. Even when I found working instructions, they were poorly written and laid out, almost to the point of being impenetrable. Metra should really consider hiring a professional to improve their documentation.Fortunately, a couple of calls to Metra's tech support--even available on weekends!!--answered all of my questions. They were patient, helpful, and encouraging, giving me the confidence to take on and complete the install. Metra's tech support is genuinely excellent. I only wish their documentation was half as good.One thing Metra recommended which I did NOT do was splice directly into the car's radio harness behind the plug. That would have required peeling back insulation to splice in-line to the bare wire without cutting, and then soldering the new connections *inside the dash*. As I said, my soldering skills are pretty rudimentary and I was not confident that I could easily solder such small connections inside the dash cavity without damaging something else. Instead I used Posi-Taps to tap the two cables behind the plug without cutting or soldering. While Metra warned me that taps wouldn't work, I had seen other installers use them on YouTube. Even Crutchfield's tutorial video used them! In the end, they worked perfectly and I spared myself the tricky soldering and possibly damaging the factory radio harness.Overall, though it was a bit of a challenge I'm glad I took it on.

This one worked first shot for the steering wheel controls. Just followed the instructions for wiring & programming. Two other brands were suppose to work with the steering wheel buttons on my car and after two days neither one worked right. This one was easy to program and worked first shot with the steering wheel buttons and the after market radio in my 2004 Monte Carlo.

I've installed car radios on all my cars and many for friends/family. I've probably done 20-25 installs and have no trouble wiring things up. I would have given this product if it was a bit easier to wire up (part of the issue was my impatience, but it was not helped by the online documentation). According to the online instructions I needed pin 7 and 8 on my 2004 Toyota 4runner. They had a nice picture of the harness where I could find pin 7 and 8. The problem is that the picture they showed was NOT the harness used in my car. My car had two smaller harnesses.Fortunately, the instruction booklet that came with the device lists both the pin numbers AND the color of the wire IN THE CAR. I then wired up connection 7 and 8 properly but it still didn't work. This is where the extra time was MY fault. Even though I only need to connect wires 7&8 on the Axxess device (along with 12V and ground), I ALSO needed to wire a 3rd wire in the 4runner to ground. Took me 20 minutes to realize my mistake.Here is the best part. The auto detect (on my 4 runner and Alpine radio) worked perfectly. In the past (4 other cars) I have always use the PAC audio devices (like PAC-SWI-PS and RC). The devices are a pain in the butt to program (thank got you only have to do it one time). Another advantage the Axxess device has over PAC is that i didn't need to solder in a reisistor inline with one of the wires. While this is a simple task, it's an annoying step to get one resistor of the correct value (special trip to radio shack). Also, most DYI installers would be more than happy to remove the manual soldering step.In the end the Axxess device was $10 more than the PAC device (at the time I bought it anyway) which was money I saved by not sitting there longer soldering a resistor and doing manual programming.If the online instructions were more accurate (I had mistakenly assumed the online instructions would be more up to date and accurate than the printed material that came with it), I would have given this product 5 star. Realistically, I would give it 4.5.