New stereo - issues

[Keir]

Hi all,

I started to install a new Sony XAV-AX3000 into my M35 Stagea today. My car has a Bose cassette/CD with remote amp and sub-woofer, so I'm using a PAC OEM-1 to interface with the original Bose gear. After doing all of the wiring, the new stereo works perfectly and sounds great.

However, I reckon I'm not the first person to discover that the climate controls no longer work. After a bit of investigation with my multimeter it appears that the climate controls take their power from the main plug that goes into the back of the cassette player. This power is then sent via a tiny ribbon connector at the bottom of the unit, to the climate controls. The problem is of course that I need to unplug that connector from the cassette player and plug it into my PAC interface.

So the quick question that I hope someone can answer is:

Do I need to buy one of those aftermarket fascia jobbies that look cheap and nasty but cost more than my stereo to make this work?

I hope there's another way.