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I’ve held back a fair while (7+ years?) with my stock headunit, but I think it’s now time as most of my trips are different enough to require GPS. So it would be nice to have it integrated into the dashboard somehow.

My model is the Australian 2009/2010 NC2, PRHT, Automatic with Bose. The factory headunit looks like this in photos from my article on how to swap the evaporator in the Air Conditioner:

As you can see it comes with a state of the art 6 CD stacker that also reads MP3’s, to hold literally thousands of your favourite songs – playable within minutes.

Removing the entire fascia

I’ve already removed this once during the air conditioner repair & took photos as I knew this upgrade would happen sometime. However to get it removed is fairly straightforward, you can follow the first couple of steps in the AC article which is basically this:

  • Unscrew the gear knob & pull off the handbrake cover
  • Unclip (carefully!) the small panel between the seats
  • Unscrew the centre console plastic section, unclip two plugs, and lift it out
  • Remove the two plastic shrouds on either side of the radio
  • Remove the lower section of the fascia (containing the 12v socket)
  • Unscrew both sides of the combined aircon/radio fascia
  • This is probably the hardest bit – there’s a tiny bolt hidden on the side of the radio – mine was on the drivers side in AUS. This needs to be removed before the whole section can be pulled out. This was easier to get to for me as I had the entire steering column unbolted and out of the way. Good luck!
Here’s the tiny bolt holding the whole radio panel in.

Here’s how it looks from the back once removed, so we know what we need to find regarding wiring harnesses.

The back of the factory headunit for the NC2 with Bose. The Big plug is where everything happens, the little plug seems to be for steering wheel controls & aux?
This shows the white plastic clips along the sides that are important for reassembly, and the lower aircon controls which we’ll be keeping.
Here’s the plugs that are left behind once the entire radio & fascia are removed.

It’s already been done

Here’s a few videos from people who have gone through this process already, which we’re going to be getting some hints from regarding wiring trickery.

This guy is fantastic with his mx5 upgrades.

Shopping List

Now that we can see what’s there and how people have done it, we can figure out what bits we need to achieve this. There are maybe 3 options for the Fascia I have discovered:

Generic Aliexpress – seems to be missing the side guides. There is also an option that allows for two single din slots but can be cut to allow double. This model also looks like it’s for the NC1

Metra 99-7519B – looks identical to one of the aliexpress options in terms of style, but contains the side guides. This is what the majority of guides use.

Scosche MA1550B – this appears the closest to the factory fascia (rounded lower corners, inset aircon controls) and the most expensive, and difficult to source.

My aim is to source the Scosche MA1550B for the appearance, and also it seems to have a slightly larger opening to allow for the cheaper radio that I’m looking to get. I’m reading a lot of people are having to modify the other options by filing or grinding to get radios to fit.

For the radio to keep the price low I’m looking at the ATOTO brand. These seem to be about half the price of more popular brands while still doing all the typical google functions (like maps) and android auto which is what I’m after. The popular one (from 2022) seems to be the A6PF (performance). I’m finding newer S8 and 10X models but the price increases to the more popular Sony/Kenwood/Pioneer type brands so it wouldn’t be worth it. We’ll see how we go.

For the wiring we need to connect between the new radio and the mazda plugs inside, and also accommodate for the steering wheel controls and maybe the handbrake/park override. It seems you just need to make sure the harness has CANBUS support. So this is what I have come up with from the videos.

Fo all radios:

  • 4 x solderless RCA plugs (for the Atoto line out converters)
  • Wire crimps
  • 2 x Metra 70-7903 Wiring Kits (the 2nd is for steering wheel controls)

If you’re going non-atoto:

  • Parking break bypass cable (this is radio-brand specific) – apparently only required for name brand radios, for Atoto we can ground or just leave disconnected the parking break wire.
  • Metra ASWC (for steering wheel control translation – apparently the Atoto contains an app to do this for you)
  • You may need 2xline-out converters (these come with the Atoto)

Wiring

Troubleshooting the blue wire / no power: https://forum.mx5oc.co.uk/t/nc-bose-atoto-s8-swap/150675/12

The 1N and 1P pins are what’s needed to add to the harness for the steering wheel controls.