cyclehead

I needed to remove my radio. I found mis-information in the archives that caused me to remove the Nav attach bolts - when I did not need to. Maybe these pics will help the next guy.

Pry the lowest panel straight aft. It's held by two clips.
Remove three screws.
Remove the next panel up - held by two clips at the top.
Remove two bolts.
Remove the radio. (No need to mess with the Nav unit)
IF you want to remove the Nav, you must pry out the driver's and passenger's temp switches. They pry straight out of the dashboard. Be careful so you don't damage your dashboard!
Remove two 8MM screws from each side. Catch the screws with a magnet.
Pull the Nav straight aft (four clips, two on each side)

Lowest panel:


Remove three screws:


Pry the top straight aft - both sides:


Remove mid-panel:


Remove two screws:


Remove Radio:


To carry on, and remove the NAV - gotta pry out the two scary temp switches. Be careful!
There are two 8mm screws on each side, behind the switches. Then pull straight aft on the NAV unit.

Jabberwock

Very nice write up and pics. Its a very easy procedure once you know where to start and the pics help a lot. The seat heater switch panel is the first item that has to be pulled out and can be done quite easily by opening the small drawer right above the panel. Then reach under the open drawer and pop the seat heater switch panel right out without any prying.

After having done it 2-3 times getting my ipod interface up and running correctly, I could take apart the center stack and remove the radio and then reinstall everything in about 15 min total.

cyclehead

What ipod adapter did you get? I am trying to get a Grom Audio unit to work.

Jabberwock

Soundgate TOYPD2 - not sure if they are still available. Good customer service - the first unit they sent me seemed to have an intermittent problem with one of the two supplied cables. I called customer service and they immediately sent me a complete other unit which has been working perfectly for a year now. About a year ago someone was selling a discontinued release version of these for $70 so I bought one at that time. Think these types of devices usually cost about $175-200. Mine works great, can't imaging going back to using the CD player. I have about 60+ albums work of my favorite music sitting on a 8 gig ipod nano in my glove box.

drdarell

Hi Jabberwock, is there an extra input on the radio that you tapped into or did you need to disconnect your CD player?

Thanks!

Jabberwock

The soundgate device comes with a Y cable that allows you to "patch" the device into the existing radio cable. You unplug one of two cables on the radio and plug the Y cable into that now open port on the radio, and then you plug the radio cable that you unplugged from the radio back into the other end of the Y cable completing the "patch". Using the Y cable you don't need an open port, everything stays connected, and everything still works. The device plays thru the CD selector button, depress the CD button once and it plays CDs, Depress again and it displays "MD" and plays off of the ipod device. Works very well.

jayclapp

This is the same way the Viastech units connect and operate.

drdarell

Thanks for the information on the IPOD. I listen to CD's all the time and really wanted to find a good way to add a Dock for my IPOD. I've been through 3 CD players and would like to make this current one my last. Thanks again!

drdarell

Just wanted to say thanks again to Cyclehead for the Pics and Jabberwok for the info on Soundgate. They don't make these any more, but I found one for under $100 and put it in my '02 LS and it's wonderful! It took me an hour because I couldn't read the directions without my glasses. You need to program this with DIP switches and then reset the switches... I missed the reset the switches part, it was only in small pictures. Once I got my glasses it works like a charm!