Just curious, reading through Double Din installs and it seems you have to retain your old dual climate control button, and swap your momentary switch and LED from your old board. Generally people end up getting different colored buttons and there is a lot of complaints about having that one button a different color.

My question is, why not just swap out all of the old buttons onto the new JDM controller? Or is this not possible due to some sort of difference in the way the rest connect??

Reason being is I found a kit with black buttons and mine is grey.

 

I haven't had my hands on an 03-04 model, but the 05-07s can be completely swapped.

 

SO my questions is can you use a 05-07 board on an 03? I am wanting to do a DD set up but would love to change the AC controls to the 05 style.

 

This was just asked/answered in another thread - https://g35driver.com/forums/5925648-post432.html

Summary - likely it will, but I don't have an 03/04 to test my old finisher board on.

 

I just did a full install in my 03. I don't know how your controls are set up, but if anything like the 03 you may run into some problems unless you are very very patient. On the 03 model the buttons have these plastic pressed in pieces behind them that acts as springs. I found this out while playing around on my old controller during the dual ac mod. It is very hard to remove the make shift plastic springs to get the old buttons out and so on. If you know someone who has an old one around I would advise practicing before try this. Also the plastic may be a little brittle and any manipulation may cause it to break. In short I think its possible, but you will have to be very careful while doing it. Hope this helps a little.

 

yeah like he said, they are a pain to remove! this is the best way i can describe it...

<'_

-where the (<) is the "plastic pressed in piece or acting spring" as stated above that is locking the button to the board
-the (') is the main plastic board on which the buttons are attached to(the finish surrounding the buttons)
-and the (_) is the part that connects the front of the button(visible/interactive part) with the plastic locking piece in the back.

you have to use a needle nose pliers to squeeze the (<) so it can fit under the small opening on the board(') and then you can use the button(_) on the new board. sure it doesnt seem hard at all by my example, but the (<) area has maybe 1mm of space in between it so you have to sqeeze pretty hard and also be wary so you dont break it, while pushing forward so you can get it out. there are 2-4 (<)'s per button, i just used a piece of folded paper to make sure the button didnt slip back into its hole and relock while i forced the next one out. but make srue the paper isnt to big so you dont bend the (<)'s and break em. oya, and theres a thin plastic strip over the rows of buttons, i forgot what i did to remove it(if i did at all) lol

 

Well it all came in the mail today.. finally. I fully understand how you say those buttons are hard as hell to get off. Quite a frustrating process.

While trying to take them off, I thought hey, this plastic piece that is screwed onto the board might be the same as the old one. Then maybe I can just swap the plastic piece? Is this possible, or is the button holder (plastic piece) different between the two. I figured it might just be the board that is different.

I haven't ripped apart my dash yet because I found if I hammer the controls they seem to work, hasn't messed up in nearly 3 weeks. And I have yet to pick out a head unit and associated steering wheel controls.

 

Nope, cant do just a board swap :/ your JDM board is just a section of your OEM one :/

 

Hmm, I am aware this is a separate unit, but to me it looks like you could just cut off that top A/C controller plastic piece with a dremel and reuse it with the new JDM A/C controller board. I have successfully removed all of the buttons off of the new stand alone board, but realized that the divider in between the buttons is black too, so that would have to be painted to match my grey buttons. Figure I can make this a whole lot easier and just cut the damn thing off the original. I'll have to see how well it goes when I finally decide to swap everything out.

Thanks for the photo though, its very helpful.

 

Oh yeah, well if you just wanted to retain heat/ac then yeah, u should be good. But if u still want audio n ur radio is still working then ur gunna lose it when u chop off part of tht old circuit board to make way for the new one.

 

Oh no, my radio has been broken for quite some time, I am looking into double din's already as a replacement. I just would like the HVAC buttons to be the same as the original only with the new circuit board in place.

 

oh ok, so u should be good w/ just a button swap then