mparrotta

How to remove factory head unit and install aftermarket head unit in a 1996 LX450 Parts Needed Phillip's head screw driver Flathead screw driver 1996 LX450 or equivalent installation kit 1996 LX450 or equivalent wire harness (should come with 2 harnesses) 2 rolls of Radio shack wire (not speaker wire) wire cutter/stripper About 30 or so butt clips FLASHLIGHT! !!!SAVE ALL SCREWS THAT YOU TAKE OUT DURING THE INSTALLATION!!! Directions 1. Use the flat head screw driver to pry out the little compartment/sleave that is directly above the Radio, pry from the top of the compartment, there are 2 clips on top that should allow u to pop it out. 2. Use the phillip's head screw driver to unscrew the 2 screws on the corners of where the compartment used to be. 3. Pull out the the ash tray and push down on the top of it, and you should be able to pull it out completely. 4. Use the phillip's head screw driver to unscrew the 2 screws on the corners of where the ash tray used to be. 5. Pull the black plastic dashboard piece that you unscrewed as far as u can, dont force it, once u pull it as far as u can, if it does not come out, run your screw driver along the top of the blac piece from top right to top left, and then from top left to bottom left, you should be able to pull it out as far as the cigarette lighter power cord allows, if the gear shift gets in your way, put the parking break, on, turn the car on to "ON" and then shift into the "L" gear, this should allow you to pull the black dash boarder far enough out. 6. Unscrew the 4 screws on the brackets holding the head unit in, 2 on each side of the factory head unit. Slide the head unit out until the cords wont allow you to pull anymore, un clip the 2 factory harnesses from the back of the head unit, then gently pull and wiggle the antenna wire out, and the headunit should completely out with the right and left side brackets on the side of the factory head unit 7. Unscrew the 2 brackets from the factory head unit and you should have the 2 brackets and the head unit seperate 8. Take 2 screws that connected the factory brackets to the factory headunit and screw the factory brackets on the the aftermarket installation kit, make sure that the brackets are screwed into the installation kit in such a way that it will be as low as it can inside the Double-DIN slot, in other words, we are planning to have the headunit mounted as high as you can in the Double DIN slot and the installation kit will be underneath it, so make sure its as low as it can go to allow room for your headunit, especially, in my case, when you have a headunit with a motorized face plate. 9. Take the 4 screws that held the factory brackets to the inside of the dash, and screw the brackets, that are now screwed to the installation kit, back into the dash. 10. Open the glove compartment, and pull the 2 bars on the top of the glove compartment in order to allow the glove compartment to fall all the way out revealing several important components 11. Look inside and to the right of the glove compartment and you should see the factory amplifier, unplug the factory harnesses that match the harnesses that you bought, and plug the harnesses that you bought into the factory amplifier harness 12. Now clip butt clips onto every wire from the harness, there should be around 13 wires. 13. Now bring your aftermarket CD player out and plug in the aftermarket harness that came with the aftermarket cd player and clip butt clips onto every one of the wires (NOT THE RCA CABLES, THOSE WILL COME IN LATER) 14. Now the fun part, take 13-15 wires and strip both ends about a half an inch on each end 15. Find a wire from the harness connected to the factory amp, clip one of the wires you stripped to a wire on the factory amp harness you put on the amp, run that wire up the inside left of the back of the glove compartment up to the back of where the CD player should be, clip that wire into the butt clip of the same color wire as the one you clipped it to from the factory amp. (Repeat until every wire from the harness connected to the factory amp is connected to a wire from the aftermarket wire harness that is connected to the aftermarket wire harness, if there are some extra wires from the aftermarket harness plugged into the aftermarket head unit, dont worry, it will function perfectly fine.) 16. Now uplug the aftermarket harness from the aftermarket head unit and put the aftermarket headunit to the side, take a flashlight and look into the empty space above the aftermarket installation kit, on the inside of each bracket there should be about 3 sharp peices of metal jutting out from each bracket facing inwards, these will not allow most aftermarket headunits to be easily slid into place, therefore they have to be bent flat until they are flush with the rest of the bracket, there should be 6 in total (3 on each side) 17. Now you can push the new aftermarket wires in the glove box back compartment as far back as they'll go, and you can snap the glove box back into place and close it, after this you can push the 2 factory harnesses that were connected to the factory head unit as far back as you can. 18. Now plug in the aftermarket wiring harness that is connected to the factory amp via the aftermarket radio shack wire, then plug the antenna wire into the aftermarket headunit 19. (OPTIONAL) If you have an aftermarket headunit with a seperate harness for SUM control, AUX, etc., you should plug this into the aftermarket headunit and install the RCA audio cables from whatever extra components you wish to connect to the pre-amp RCA harness on the back of the aftermarket headunit 20. Now with all the harnesses you need plugged into the back of your aftermarket headunit, slide the aftermarket headunit about 1/4 of the way into the dash, now take the black plastic dash piece that has probubly been annoying the hell out of you by now, and put it up to the CD player but dont push 21. Now the hardest part, you have to get the CD player that is already 1/4 of the way of the way into the dash, through the black plastic dash piece, first I would take off any flaceplate that is on, my RFX9200 did not fit so i had to get the left side in, and use a flathead screw driver to pry the right side in, once you get it through the black part, hold on tight to the CD player and push the black plastic dash piece back into place, if the CD player gets pulled in a little thats fine, but dont let it go more than 1/2 way in, push the left side of the black plastic dash piece so it clips in on the left side, then push the right side in and screw in the screws behind where the ash tray was, replace the ash tray as it was, then screw the screws into the compartment/slot above the radio and clip the compartment/slot 22. Now everything should look as it was except the aftermarket CD player should be sticking out 1/2 way without a faceplate on, now gently push the cd player in until the headunit is 3/4 of the way in, snap the faceplate back on, if you have a motorized headunit open the motorized part to make sure it has clearance, put the headunit as far back as it will go while allowing enough clearance for any motorized part 23. ENJOY YOUR NEW HEADUNIT, EMAIL ME AT MDP4969824@aol.com, OR INSTANT MESSAGE ME AT MP4969824 WITH ANY QUESTIONS OR COMMENTS, CHEERS!!!