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2014 Mazda 6 stereo and speaker replacement

DIY: 
5K views 10 replies 7 participants last post by  shaikhfaisal13 
#1 ·
A lot of this info is scattered around the internet but I'm going to try to consolidate it all together here to save people time and frustration figuring out everything needed for upgrading the stereo and speakers in the 2014 6 without the Bose system (might be applicable to other 3rd gen years as well, not sure).

Here is the list of things I used:

For the head unit:

Pioneer DMH-WC5700NEX
Metra 40-HD10 Antenna Adapter
Metra 95-7522B Dash Kit (Black)
Crux SWRMZ-64C Wiring Interface (includes steering wheel controls )
Axxess AX-MAZCAM-6V (to connect factory backup camera with aftermarket head unit)
A rigid, single strand wire or pins that you can poke into the factor harness

For the front speakers:

Focal RSE-165 6.5" components for the front
Metra 82-3016 Speaker Mounting Brackets
Metra 82-7501 Speaker Mounting Brackets
Metra 72-5602 Speaker Wiring Harness

For the rear speakers:

Focal RCX-165 6.5 coaxials for the back door
American International NSB710 Speaker Mounting Brackets (these done fit quite right)
Metra 72-5602 Speaker Wiring Harness

10 to 20 82315-27000 clips for the doors

With this list of stuff you can do a 100% reversible installation without any splicing of the factory wiring.

If you order from Crutchfield they'll include most of the adapters except for the camera adapter and the Crux interface. When I was researching steering wheel controls I was very confused about the Crux interface vs the Metra AXSWC METRA AXXESS Steering Wheel Interface. I think the difference is that the Metra interface doesn't include the adapter to the factory wiring harness, so the Crux would be preferable if you don't want to splice wires.

The instructions from Crutchfield and in the boxes were mostly straightforward except for a few things that were unclear or incorrect.

Main Pioneer harness
  • I wired the parking brake wire to ground because freedom
  • They say Vehicle Speed Sensor (VSS) is pin 19 on the 24 pin radio harness but I think between 19 and 24 there's one pin that doesn't exist so if you count backwards from 24 at the end to try to get to 19 you'll get the wrong one. It's the 3rd pin from the right in the long row of small pins, see the attached picture. Crutchfield says this wire is violet/red but for me it wasn't
  • They say the reverse wire is in the trunk but it's actually pin 18 in the radio harness, right next to the VSS
Note this is a picture of the Crux harness so it's a mirror of the factory harness.
Wood Finger Material property Creative arts Font


It's kind of dumb that the Crux harness doesn't have pins in it for 18 and 19. I did some googling to try to find pins to add and didn't have any luck. I did find a stiff, single strand wire in my junk bin that was just the right size to push through the Crux harness and fit snugly into the factory harness and I zip tied them to the other wires on the Crux harness so that they won't come out. Then I soldered the other side of those 2 stiff wires to the pioneer harness. This was probably the jankiest part of everything but it worked.

Pioneer Mounting

The Metra 95-7522B Dash Kit is slightly taller than the pioneer screen so used some window seal behind the gaps. Also pioneer unit didn't have any mounting holes for the Mazda bottom mount piece so I jammed it between the Metra side mounts and then bolted it to the car. It might be a little loose but hopefully it's providing a some support.

Automotive exterior Gas Bumper Auto part Metal



Camera Harness

On the backup camera harness instructions, it says to connect the blue-white wire of the converter to the reverse signal but that didn't work. Luckily I found a comment in the Crutchfield reviews that said to wire the blue-white wire to the ignition wire and that did work.

Mic

Put this in the rear view mirror thing where the factor mic was, pretty straightforward.

GPS Antenna

I always wondered what was under that big speaker grill in the middle of the dash. Turns out there was a stock GPS antenna that I never used because my car didn't come with GPS. I replaced it with the pioneer antenna which fit perfectly. I was a little worried I was going to have to mount that on the dash so this was a relief.

Motor vehicle Hood Trunk Automotive tire Personal luxury car


USB

For now I just ran the cable into the glove box. I'm thinking about getting an Adafruit usb-c panel mount but not sure. I'd like to run usb into the middle console thing to replace the factory port but for now the glove box works. If anyone has a good solution for this I'm interested to hear about it.

Doors

It takes a lot of force to pop out the door panels and a lot of the door fasteners break in the process. I bought a set of fasteners from amazon that included the 82315-27000 clips and a nifty tool that made removing the broken clips easy.

Front Speakers

Automotive tire Motor vehicle Camera lens Reflex camera Rim



For the tweeters, I read some posts about it being a pain to run new wire through the door so I ended up wiring the the pioneer front speaker outputs directly into the crossovers. Then I wired the crossover low pass out to the Crux harness to use the factory wires to the speakers in the front doors. For the tweeters, they came with just barely enough wire to run under the dash directly into the crossovers. Then I mounted the crossovers inside the dash next to the stereo.

For removing the tweeters, I saw some videos where people used a fancy right angle bit. I don't like spending money on tools that I'll probably only use once, so after a few failed ideas I came up with a simple phillips bit and pliers solution where I just pushed the bit down with one finger hand and used the pliers to rotate it.

Hood Automotive lighting Automotive tire Motor vehicle Vehicle


The metra plate for mounting the tweeters is kind of crap and you have to cut it up a bit to make it fit. I also cut holes in the plates for the tweeters, but I realized afterwards that I might have been able to surface mount the tweeters on the plate instead of mounting it flush. There may or may not be enough room for that, not sure.

Rear Speakers

The American International NSB710 Speaker Mounting Brackets Crutchfield gave me didn't fit right and I used a drill bit to widen the mounting holes. I also had to cut a slit into the side to pass the wires through. Not sure if there's a better bracket than these for the rear doors.

I put some rubber window seal on the back side of the speaker mounts to fill the gap between them and then door. I also removed the foam gasket stuff that was on the factory speakers and put it on the speaker mounts to make everything snug. Not sure if it will make a big difference but it was cheap and easy.

Wheel Tire Automotive tire Motor vehicle Tread



That's it!

I think that covers everything. The install took a whole weekend with some breaks, so maybe around 10 to 15 hours. Everything went pretty smooth except for the backup camera issue that took some time figuring out. Sound seems a bit better but the low end is not great, might eventually add a sub to improve that. The main thing I wanted was car play so I'm happy to have that now and I can throw away my old CD slot phone mount and actually see what's on the screen.

Vehicle Automotive design Car Motor vehicle Personal luxury car


Hope this helps someone out. Thanks for reading!
 
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#6 ·
For the front spe
A lot of this info is scattered around the internet but I'm going to try to consolidate it all together here to save people time and frustration figuring out everything needed for upgrading the stereo and speakers in the 2014 6 without the Bose system (might be applicable to other 3rd gen years as well, not sure). Here is the list of things I used: For the head unit: Pioneer DMH-WC5700NEX Metra 40-HD10 Antenna Adapter Metra 95-7522B Dash Kit (Black) Crux SWRMZ-64C Wiring Interface (includes steering wheel controls ) Axxess AX-MAZCAM-6V (to connect factory backup camera with aftermarket head unit) A rigid, single strand wire or pins that you can poke into the factor harness For the front speakers: Focal RSE-165 6.5" components for the front Metra 82-3016 Speaker Mounting Brackets Metra 82-7501 Speaker Mounting Brackets Metra 72-5602 Speaker Wiring Harness For the rear speakers: Focal RCX-165 6.5 coaxials for the back door American International NSB710 Speaker Mounting Brackets (these done fit quite right) Metra 72-5602 Speaker Wiring Harness 10 to 20 82315-27000 clips for the doors With this list of stuff you can do a 100% reversible installation without any splicing of the factory wiring. If you order from Crutchfield they'll include most of the adapters except for the camera adapter and the Crux interface. When I was researching steering wheel controls I was very confused about the Crux interface vs the Metra AXSWC METRA AXXESS Steering Wheel Interface. I think the difference is that the Metra interface doesn't include the adapter to the factory wiring harness, so the Crux would be preferable if you don't want to splice wires. The instructions from Crutchfield and in the boxes were mostly straightforward except for a few things that were unclear or incorrect. Main Pioneer harness
  • I wired the parking brake wire to ground because freedom
  • They say Vehicle Speed Sensor (VSS) is pin 19 on the 24 pin radio harness but I think between 19 and 24 there's one pin that doesn't exist so if you count backwards from 24 at the end to try to get to 19 you'll get the wrong one. It's the 3rd pin from the right in the long row of small pins, see the attached picture. Crutchfield says this wire is violet/red but for me it wasn't
  • They say the reverse wire is in the trunk but it's actually pin 18 in the radio harness, right next to the VSS
Note this is a picture of the Crux harness so it's a mirror of the factory harness. View attachment 247704 It's kind of dumb that the Crux harness doesn't have pins in it for 18 and 19. I did some googling to try to find pins to add and didn't have any luck. I did find a stiff, single strand wire in my junk bin that was just the right size to push through the Crux harness and fit snugly into the factory harness and I zip tied them to the other wires on the Crux harness so that they won't come out. Then I soldered the other side of those 2 stiff wires to the pioneer harness. This was probably the jankiest part of everything but it worked. Pioneer Mounting The Metra 95-7522B Dash Kit is slightly taller than the pioneer screen so used some window seal behind the gaps. Also pioneer unit didn't have any mounting holes for the Mazda bottom mount piece so I jammed it between the Metra side mounts and then bolted it to the car. It might be a little loose but hopefully it's providing a some support. View attachment 247709 Camera Harness On the backup camera harness instructions, it says to connect the blue-white wire of the converter to the reverse signal but that didn't work. Luckily I found a comment in the Crutchfield reviews that said to wire the blue-white wire to the ignition wire and that did work. Mic Put this in the rear view mirror thing where the factor mic was, pretty straightforward. GPS Antenna I always wondered what was under that big speaker grill in the middle of the dash. Turns out there was a stock GPS antenna that I never used because my car didn't come with GPS. I replaced it with the pioneer antenna which fit perfectly. I was a little worried I was going to have to mount that on the dash so this was a relief. View attachment 247705 USB For now I just ran the cable into the glove box. I'm thinking about getting an Adafruit usb-c panel mount but not sure. I'd like to run usb into the middle console thing to replace the factory port but for now the glove box works. If anyone has a good solution for this I'm interested to hear about it. Doors It takes a lot of force to pop out the door panels and a lot of the door fasteners break in the process. I bought a set of fasteners from amazon that included the 82315-27000 clips and a nifty tool that made removing the broken clips easy. Front Speakers View attachment 247706 For the tweeters, I read some posts about it being a pain to run new wire through the door so I ended up wiring the the pioneer front speaker outputs directly into the crossovers. Then I wired the crossover low pass out to the Crux harness to use the factory wires to the speakers in the front doors. For the tweeters, they came with just barely enough wire to run under the dash directly into the crossovers. Then I mounted the crossovers inside the dash next to the stereo. For removing the tweeters, I saw some videos where people used a fancy right angle bit. I don't like spending money on tools that I'll probably only use once, so after a few failed ideas I came up with a simple phillips bit and pliers solution where I just pushed the bit down with one finger hand and used the pliers to rotate it. View attachment 247708 The metra plate for mounting the tweeters is kind of crap and you have to cut it up a bit to make it fit. I also cut holes in the plates for the tweeters, but I realized afterwards that I might have been able to surface mount the tweeters on the plate instead of mounting it flush. There may or may not be enough room for that, not sure. Rear Speakers The American International NSB710 Speaker Mounting Brackets Crutchfield gave me didn't fit right and I used a drill bit to widen the mounting holes. I also had to cut a slit into the side to pass the wires through. Not sure if there's a better bracket than these for the rear doors. I put some rubber window seal on the back side of the speaker mounts to fill the gap between them and then door. I also removed the foam gasket stuff that was on the factory speakers and put it on the speaker mounts to make everything snug. Not sure if it will make a big difference but it was cheap and easy. View attachment 247707 That's it! I think that covers everything. The install took a whole weekend with some breaks, so maybe around 10 to 15 hours. Everything went pretty smooth except for the backup camera issue that took some time figuring out. Sound seems a bit better but the low end is not great, might eventually add a sub to improve that. The main thing I wanted was car play so I'm happy to have that now and I can throw away my old CD slot phone mount and actually see what's on the screen. View attachment 247710 Hope this helps someone out. Thanks for reading! [/QUOTE For the front speaker, we’re you able to add in a 3 1/2” where that fake one is? I just replaced all of the other speakers but would love to get another speaker there if possible
 
#8 ·
Its not 3.5", its the same size at the corner speakers. Theres really no point to it, youre not gonna notice or miss it.
 
#10 ·
I'm currently looking to upgrade just the stereo in my 2014 6 GT w/ Bose. I've read some conflicting reports about the ability to retain the stock Bose speakers. I've read other reports that you're supposed to use an aftermarket amp.

What have you found in your research? I'm looking to buy the Sony XAV-AX6000 but it's a 4ohm stereo. I see the warning on Crutchfields website about the stock speakers. But, I've seen guys on forums install the XAV-AX5000 without adding anything else and they state the stock Bose system sounds way better with it installed. The models are pretty similar so I would assume it would work right?
 
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