lots of people have installed the Metra kits without issue. If you contact them, I'm sure they'll make good.

 

Okay, so I called "tech support" and they think it could be a firmware issue. They've said they've never heard of an issue like this. They said to find some numbers on the back and give them a call back. The problem is that the old unit only says "Assembled by Hedi." Either way, Crutchfield has sent me another one. It should arrive today. I'll install it and give you folks an update after that.

 

Okay! So I replaced the dash kit and it powered on and didn't automatically go into defrost. That's an improvement. However, the climate controls still wouldn't work. Oh dear. I had tried several things and the last thing I did was disconnect and reconnect the battery. That seemed to do the trick and it works like it should now. I hope this lasts.

 

I've seen these and Scoche ones.. but I've heard of some issues with both

 

I read about the firmware issues with the Scoche one.

 

Yah, some kinda battery drain thing. Apparently been solved with that firmware, but with such new products and applications, I guess you have to expect glitches

 

I suggest you find this Hedi guy and beat the $%& out of him!

I have the Scosche kit and it had a firmware issue where it was draining the battery. they sent me a new one with the firmware upgrade and it's been working fine for the last 5 months. I'm sure you'll be ok from here on.

 

LOL. But it gets better: The second unit says the same thing. Apparently both units were assembled by Hedi.

 

Did you call Metra's tech support or Crutchfield? Glad to see it's working out for you so far.

 

Yes. Called Crutchfield first and they suggested I call Metra. I did that and seeing that Metra didn't really have a clue since "they've never heard of anything like this before" Crutchfield just sent me a new one. If if screws up again, heads will roll.