Help!


I am the proud owner of a 2006 chili red Cooper S (last week)! First of all, I love this car and I love this forum. The forum is one of the reasons I felt confident buying a car I know little about.

Anyway, I bought a GTA car kit to allow use of an iPhone 4 with steering wheel controls and installed it last night. It is only 2 plugs to plug in. Very easy.

The kit works great and allows me to see the song on the display and everything. One major problem though! I am unable to use my remote to lock the car and my brake lights do not turn off at all. When I unplug the unit, everything works fine again.

Anyone with any idea what is up?

Thanks!

 

do you like it and ever get the problem to go away?

 

curious about this as well!

 

Sorry guys!

I went to the dealer and they informed me the car had to be programmed by their computer to "accept" the aftermarket player. The fee on that would be a little over $100.

I sent the gta kit back. I still want to be able to find a kit that works.

 

wow thats odd! did you ever ask the GTACARKIT guy about it?
thanks so much for your insight!

 

did you call gta?

 

I contacted the guys at GTA via email this weekend and am waiting for a response. once i get a response ill post here.

 

Gta told me they could not guarantee that it would fit every model and stereo type. They were VERY professional and refunded my money.

I have no problems with GTA at all!

 

I just purchased a 2006 MINI and was looking for an after market IPOD kit. Did you find one that worked without have to reprogram your computer? I was going to purchase the GTA kit until I read your review?

 

Nope. I gave up.

I tried to order an OEM one from the dealer and they got it in for me. When i was paying for the kit, they told me that it would have to be programmed to work in the mini and only the dealer could do it.

If anyone has a suggestion, i would love to hear it!

 

I have a dice Media bridge. Pretty happy with it. Easy install.

 

Have been looking on the web for possible solutions and thinking about this. Mini Aux kit 82 11 0 153 367 for $40 and http://www.sendstation.com/us/produc...t-miniusb.html for $30.

Looks like a simple fix, Just as long as I get good quality sound. Has anyone used this approach?

 

I installed the GTA car kit yesterday and it works flawlessly, no electrical issues whatsoever. Maybe the manufacturer's fixed something since they first made the kit available to MC owners.

I have a 2006 MCS Convertible, and the sound quality is AMAZING! I don't have an iphone yet, but I am using my iPad 2. I highly recommend it!

P.S. It was super-easy to install. I am a 44 year old mother and I got it done in about 30 minutes (my husband is away on business) thanks to the youtube video. The hardest part was getting the lower screw to come out of the cup holder. And once I got it out, it felt like I was putting the screw back into thin air. Weird. Maybe there was a plastic piece that fell down when I took it out. Not sure. Ideas?

 

I've had the same kit in my car for over a year. It does cause a battery drain on my car. I noticed it continuously charges ipod/iphone when plugged in even if the car is off. Even if you unplug the ipod, the radio remains in a state of drawing power. Worked great for about the first 6 months.

 

I also have a GTA Kit for my 2005 MCSC. I bought it in Aug of 2011. I've been dealing with a battery drain for a few months and the other day traced it down to the GTA kit. The kit itself works great, but the battery drain is very annoying. If the car sits for more than 24 hours it will not start. I took the GTA kit out and the car has sat for over a week and starts right up.

I contacted GTA, but they said since it's been over a year since purchase I am out of warranty. They said they've made a fix to the newer kit and offered me a small discount on a new one. If it is really fixed I would highly recommend this kit. Easy install and works great. If it's not fixed then just make sure you drive every 24 hours!

 

A little late, but whatever. I have the Sendstation, and it works great! Its a good way to get "Line Out" quality sound anywhere you go, instead of using the headphone jack. If you're not an audiophile, the headphone jack sucks for sound quality since it's amped for headphones, not speakers.

 

I have fixed the issue I was having with the GTA kit myself. I don't know if it will work for the OP's issue though.

My solution was to cut the wire going to the #15 pin (battery) on the GTA adapter side going into the radio. I cut the wire the kit piggy backs onto the main wire. I then stripped that cut wire back and attached it to a stripped portion of the piggy backed wire going to the #16 pin (ACC).
The iPod works perfectly and no longer drains the car battery since it only when when the key is turned.

If anyone needs help let me know.

 

This looks like a solution but if you don't mind can I see it in pictures cos I dont understand it... Hopefully u took photos of it when you were fixing it.

 

debayo,

My solution may be different than a fix for you since you're installed in a Camry, but it might be the same issue. Unfortunately, I don't have photos anymore, but I can try to explain it better if that helps. If you can send me pictures of your kit and if you have a pinout diagram of your radio that would help.
You need to know which wire goes to the battery and which one goes the accessory. See the attached file - it shows the wire going into the 15 pin on the MINI stereo is for the battery and the 16 pin is for the accessory.

The GTA kit was wired into the battery so I think it was always pulling power from the battery (even though it shouldn't). I just rerouted it to the accessory pin so it won't pull power if the car isn't on.

It may or may not be related, but the adapter is really flaky lately. Most of the time it won't find the iPod. It will charge always, but no audio. I haven't had time to pull the radio back out and look at it.
I've noticed that GTA no longer sells a kit for the MINI. Clearly they had issues with it. :(
I would now not recommend the kit (if they still sold it).

 

hello chtrich,

i cant seem to find the pinout diagram or probably i'm not searching for it properly. Am i suppose to look for the model number of the radio unit in order to search for the pinout diagram?.
its a toyota camry 2002 model tho.

However i took the photos of the unit it self as you requested may be that would help with a bit of descriptions so you can use them to re explain if you have to.

I also saw this info from a modifiedlife.com website.

2002 Toyota Camry Car Stereo Wiring Diagram
Car Radio Battery Constant 12v+ Wire: Blue/Yellow
Car Radio Accessory Switched 12v+ Wire: Gray
Car Radio Ground Wire: Brown
Car Radio Illumination Wire: Green
Car Stereo Dimmer Wire: N/A
Car Stereo Antenna Trigger Wire: N/A
Car Stereo Amp Trigger Wire: Pink/Blue
Car Stereo Amplifier Location: Located to the right of the glovebox behind the passenger side of the dash.
Car Audio Front Speakers Size: N/A
Car Audio Front Speakers Location: N/A
Left Front Speaker Positive Wire (+): Pink
Left Front Speaker Negative Wire (-): Violet
Left Front Tweeter: Powered by the same wires as the left front speaker.
Right Front Speaker Positive Wire (+): Light Green
Right Front Speaker Negative Wire (-): Blue
Right Front Tweeter: Powered by the same wires as the right front speaker.
Car Audio Rear Speakers Size: N/A
Car Audio Rear Speakers Location: N/A
Left Rear Speaker Positive Wire (+): Black
Left Rear Speaker Negative Wire (-): Yellow
Right Rear Speaker Positive Wire (+): Red
Right Rear Speaker Negative Wire (-): White

Hope it helps...
Cheers

 

I'm the 44 year old mother that wrote in earlier. Now I'm 46.

I began having strange electrical issues several months ago, things like battery drain, sunroof button stopped working, seat warmers, turn signals, interior lighting, radio malfunctions... The list is long. So I took out the kit tonight and all is well again.

Until the electrical problems began I did have one problem that drove me nuts. The radio signal was drastically altered, I could barely pick up any stations that weren't right around the corner from me.

I'll miss the GTA, but at least I have the radio again. 😊

 

Well, this only took me forever to reply. Sorry about that. I actually just pulled the entire kit out, so I have pictures to upload as well.
My kit is a little different than yours, but the concept is the same.

So in mine, GTA uses 4 pins going into the radio. Pins 9, 12, 15, & 16. You can see the 4 wires coming out of the GTA kit and sharing the pins on the plug that goes into the radio.
Using the pinout diagram I posted earlier, I found that on the MINI pin 15 was for the battery and pin 16 was Accessory. So since the battery was draining, I cut the GTA wire (blue wire) going to it. However, the GTA interface still needed power, so I stripped back some of the housing on the GTA wire going to the accessory pin (red wire), and then wrapped the GTA blue wire originally going ot the battery around that GTA red wire. That provided power to the unit still, but only when the key was turned out.
That completely fixed the battery draining issue.

So for your car, it looks like to do the same solution as me you want to find the wires going to these pins
Car Radio Battery Constant 12v+ Wire: Blue/Yellow
Car Radio Accessory Switched 12v+ Wire: Gray

You want to cut the Port 1 side of the wires. Cut the constant wire (Blue/Yellow). Strip off some of the housing from the constant wire and some housing from the accessory wire (Gray) and wrap the stripped constant wire around the accessory wire. Wrap some electrical tape around the new piggybacked wire and you should be set. That should stop the battery from draining.

Let me know if something doesn't make sense.

 

It seems like these GTA kits work well at first and then start causing issues. Mine stopped the electrical problems when I redid some wires on it abd worked fine for a few months after that even, but then stopped seeing the iPhone at all. Upon further review I think the GTA kits are garbage!

 

Trying to figure out if this battery drain in my Honda Pilot 2007 is coming from the gta kit as well