Anyone take their stereo out by themselves?
 

My boyfriend is planning to install my iPod adaptor by himself and in order to do so, he'll have to get the actual stereo system out. Has anyone done this before? What's the difficulty of taking out the face of the stereo? Any horror stories?

I'm scared. :X haha..

yeah its pretty easy... you have to take the ashtray out and the screws behind it ... put a rag on the shift knob and put it in the 2nd position... then take the plastic off under the steerign wheel and find the cars bitch bolt.... its located on the side of the radio behind the center plastics.. take that out and then use a screw driver with elctric tape around it and pry gently the top of the radio away from the vent.. the rest is just pulling out the radio and unplufgging it... then the i-pod should plug into the black plug on the driverside bottom of the back of the radio... the instructions should do the rest

Cool, thanks. Just wanted to know what's ahead when we attempt to do this...

YOu will need a long extension to remove the bolt

You'll want to point him at this tutorial:
http://www.neocaraudio.com/installs/ipod/rx8/
Hardest part is reputed to be Step 8, removing the "hidden bolt."

Be careful when pulling it out. Mine was uncommonly tight in there. Luckily I didn't scratch anything.

Cool, cool. Thanks for the heads up, guys.

Update: Installation successful! :) Woohoo!!


Man, my boyfriend said it was a BITCH to find that one bolt under the steering column. Haha, it was so funny watching him try to find it :)


Oh, and thanks for that link Likabat... came in handy.

for future reference.... this link is great also...

www.whatsmyip.org/ipodrx8

^ very helpful link for thoe who want to do this

I had a hell of a time finding the bitch bolt, looked and looked finally saw that it wasn't there. No idea when it was removed but my faceplate is cracking around the temerature control. Trying to get it replaced under warranty, they say it looks like it was pryed, well it was broke before I took it out. The dealer replaced a center vent above the faceplate and the 2 heater control knobs and says that the radio didn't have to be removed for them, I doubt it.