I know that the steering wheel controls for the stock headunti won't work with an aftermarket headunit because it had to plug into the headunit and aftermarket ones don't have those connections. My question is does your TRIP button work for the display on the tachometer that switches between the temperature, DTE, trip time, etc.....

 

no none of those controls will work anymore, i got a after market one for my 2k3 se and only the cruise controls work , the trip and all that is garbage now

 

You can retain the full function of your steering wheel controls by doing the following (which is mentioned in the Audio FAQ's)...

"How do I make the steering wheel controls work with an aftermarket headunit?"

This is a two step process. First you have to obtain the PAC-SWI adapter from Crutchfield or some other mobile audio dealer. This will allow you to utilize the radio functions on the steering wheel.
Secondly, to regain use of the trip computer (the one with temp, DTE, MPG, etc.) you have to first locate the small wiring harness you removed from the stock deck, but diudn't use in the install of your aftermarket deck. This is a small harness with 4-5 wires in it. One of these wires is brown with a white stripe/marking. This wire must be cut from the harness, the stripped and grounded. I recommend grounding it to the large metal peice below the vents (you can use a small screw or electrical tape), or any other grounding site. This will now give you full use of all steering wheel controls.

 

http://www.crutchfield.com/S-TFIpfOz...&avf=N&search=


Don't give up so easily there is a way you can get all of your functions back. If you want to keep you trip controls all you have to do is ground the brown wire from the wire harness in back of your radio.

 

I just spliced it into the ground I used for my radio.

 

I don't really care about the controls for the headunit since I have a remote for it and I don't feel like going through the process of cutting the stock wires and splicing into that new harness from crutchfield, but I would like to keep the trip button. So all I have to do is cut that brown wire coming from that thrid harness and either splice it into the ground of the headunit or ground it to something metal, correct?

 

correct sir.