alright, so today my dash kit came in. woot woot. just by looking at the unit, i knew this would be a pain. ive gotten up to the point where the headunit is ready to come out. i got 1, maybe 2 clips off. i seemed to be stuck at this point when a storm suddenly came over me got dark, and began to rain. guess thats it for today. i left all the screws out, glove box off, and put the cables to the heater and such back on and the control nobs. so im ready to continue this tomorrow.

whats the trick to this? i bought a set of plastic pry bars and they are pretty useless. maybe im just afraid to pull harder but it defenatly doesnt look like its moving.

one more thing. once i got the knobs back on, air always comes out of the drivers side vent, no matter what setting its on... i looked back at the cable, everythings looking good.

 

Did u remember to remove the two bolts that's located under the dash that hold the radio in? there are 2 10mm bolts underneath. If u drop the under cover and look up, u will see those 2 bolts. AFter that, it's just man strength. I pried from the bottom first. I thought it was gonna break but it came out after lots of force becaue those clips are in there TIGHT. DO NOT try to stick something between the radio housing and the dashboard housing, you WILL dent the edges and it will RUIN ur dash. U can also try to stick ur hand in behind from the glovebox side and push from the back.

As for the air from the drivers side, is you recirculation open or closed? that's that slider that goes side to side. Make sure it's on interior recirculation. If air is still coming through, make sure u hooked up the correct cable to the correct spot. U can also try moving the cable back and forth where it "clips" near the side that is hooked up to the AC unit under the dash. What the instructions don't tell u is to mark the cable before removing it from the clip so u know exactly where the cable sits. Too forward or too backward will affect the way the system works.

 

thanks a lot. i did take off those 2 screws underneath the temperature knobs. i started prying (as the directions said) and noticed that it was not only not working, but also damaging the faceplate a tad. no big deal there though, as im putting the aftermarket dash kit in. i didnt think about sticking my hand out and pushing it, ill try that tomorrow. i was pulling pretty hard when i heard some noises that i really didnt like lmao. i guess ill just have to pull and hope nothing breaks...

it does that thing with the vent weather the recirculation is open or closed. the directions said nothing about marking anything...or even removing the knobs. but i knew to turn the knobs all the way and remove the cables. i didnt mark them, but i managed to get the cables back on without moving them (or so it seemed) the cable is mounted to the car about 2 inches from where it connects so it would be impossible to connect the cable to the wrong place.

and when i was testing it, i was not moving. so air isnt comming through from the outside....its kinda wierd...

just a little update - its pouring, but from the inside of the car, i was able to see that the slide knob, when recirculation is off, it doesnt slide fully through the piece where the cable connects (i dont know what to call it) so it would be like the slider is in the middle at all times. i can see a bar sort of thing that opens and closes, it looks like it fully closed, but the other cables look absoultely perfect. i couldnt manage to get the cable off from inside the car. when i originally took it off, i was half in the car, half out. so im pretty sure i know whats goin wrong here. just gotta rip that ugly headunit out...

 

this is absolutely insane how tight this is on. the thing wont budge at all. im going back to it in a few my hands are killing me.

 

I have an 09, but for mine, it really came down to committing to it, and yanking the beejezus out of it, after I had popped most of the press-fit panel connectors at least partially loose. I did pry all the way around with a painter's tool and/or putty knife, both wrapped in electrical tape. I also put electrical tape all along the edges of the trim piece and the dash. I didn't noticably scratch anything. On the 09, there is a single bolt holding on the radio, accessed via the bottom panel and vent control similar to yours.

For the 09, and possibly yours, there is a notch on the upper right side of the OEM trim piece, under the upper glove box door. You can slide a flat blade screwdriver into this to get some more leverage. You work around from that side prying out the press-fits, effectively unzipping the panel from the dash. Keep in mind that the radio pulls out mostly horizontally, so you want your pulling force in that direction.

I think that your stock radio is different from mine given the change in air control setup, but my stock non-navi radio has seven press-fittings on it. There is one each at the very ends of the top extensions of the trim piece that fit around the vents, on the right, one directly in-line with the row of the LCD, one at the corner on the right where the vertical edge of the trim meets the section that curves under the radio, one at the bottom edge under the Scan button, one at the bottom edge under the "note/speaker" button, and one on the left edge directly in-line with the "1" preset button.

 

thanks, yeah i didnt see much that would help me to remove it from looking inside the glove box. today im taking another shot at it. after work me and my friend are just gonna hulk it out. im sure it'll come out alot easier then me just pulling it myself

 

I just did this yesterday. I started pulling on the edge of the trim on the passenger side using my fingernails in the small gap between the front panel and the dash. I popped the clips one at a time moving in a counterclockwise direction. There are seven of them. You do have to pull rather hard but ultimately it doesn't matter if you crack anything as you are replacing it anyway. The direction to mark the cables is in the Honda directions, not the ones from Crutchfield. Unless I missed a step, I don't think you reinstall the two 10mm bolts with the new kit. You also need to keep track of the metal clips as you reuse them when you install the new panel.

 

thanks for the help as well. yeah, even if you skipped a step and didnt put those 2 bolts in, it really doesnt matter as its not moving anyways. i like how they put a security code on the headunit. no1s going to go through the trouble of stealing that piece of poo. in fact, i wish some1 did steal mine.... i wouldnt have had to go through the trouble of taking it out haha.

 

**** it. i give up. i love working on cars, and this was the most unemployable thing i have ever done. and the only thing i gave up on as well. the piece of shit wont come off. i have spent 3 days pulling prying. everything the top 2 clips will not budge.

add this to the directions-
tools needed - powered saw

 

well now that i have not only failed to take the headunit out. i have more problems. lets keep in reminder, that the headunit actually never came off. first thing i notice when i get back into the car - the headunit doesnt power on. shat! i dont know why i did that.

next thing i do is close the door. "thump" my subs kick when i close the door. wtf? can any1 give me some clue what went on here.

the switches for the rear defrosters and ac have power, but the radio does not.

i had some1 wire the subs to the stock headunit.

 

I wrote up a post (including pictures) about the install of my Sirius radio. The first part of it relates to removing the stock radio.

https://www.fitfreak.net/forums/fit-...tml#post533190

With that said, it sounds like you're doing the right things. However, when you're trying to get the top clips loose and assuming that you're working on a 2009, you should be trying to pry at the seem between the face of the air vents and the back side of the air vents vs. prying between the face of the radio and the air vents.

The face of those air vents should come off with the stock radio.

 

its an 08. now i gotta take this thing out anyways and try to figure out whats wrong. i think somethings ****ed up here. all the screws are off. everything. ive spent the last week of work making sure everythings right. i dont even know what to do now. its lke halfway off, it wont come out anymore, and it wont go in anymore as well.

 

You mentioned a subwoofer. I don't think that is stock. Did an installer have to remove your HU in the past to connect it? When they reinstalled did they change something -perhaps use different clips that do not release? I think if you get very desperate, you can just use a dremel tool and cut the portion of the current faceplate in the area under the dash vents to access the three clips along the top where you seem to be having he most trouble

 

yes, it is the stock headunit. it was never removed. rca wires were taped in at the rear and the remote turn on wire goes to the fuse/accessory box.

cutting seems to be the only reasonable option..

 

Have you tried one of these?

 

any1 do this on an 08?

i stopped by the car audio place today, and when i was talking to the guy, he said he was almost certain that honda added screws to the radio in the airvents on the 08s for pretty much no reason. either way, im going to have them do it for me. they gave me a good price and im pretty angry with the car atm.

 

Mine's an 08 and I just did this two days ago. The Honda directions were very accurate. Sorry to hear you're having so much trouble. There were no additional screws that I know of. I purchased my car in June 2008 just about a month before the 2nd gen 2009 Fit came out so I cannot imagine much was changed after my build date

 

i got mine in the middle of august of 08. the 09s were not out yet. so im still 2 months ahead of you. its pretty frustrating to have trouble with such an easy task.

i dont see why they would add screws there, but it really does feel like something is holding it on.

 

I just reread the Honda directions and went out and looked at the OEM trim plate and HU again. If you removed the two vertically oriented screws on that gray inner metal bracket, then I really can't see where your problem is unless some of the clips got bent in some unusual way when they were installed at the factory. I suppose you've already tried rocking the whole unit side to side to try to unseat the clips. I did note that the wiring harness to the passenger airbag indicator is long and can get tangled on the chassis but it sounds like your resistance is much firmer than that. Can you post some pics of your current situation?

 

yeah i brought it to the same people as last time. but they didnt need to take the dash off.
alright got an update here. definatly an eginering defect here in my opinion. when trying to pull the plate off, i actually bent the radio harness and the entire dashboard is going to need to be removed get it out... first off. theres no way that a metal harness should bend before clips came out. your guys approach of pull harder didnt work. from square one, it just didnt feel like it was moving at all. so in other words, its gonna coast me a rather large amount of money to have some1 fix it for me.