Installing a car radio... hmmm

[lemay.08]

Wow... It's been a while since my last visit on Genvibe. I've been in the south trying to get away from Canadian winter HAPPY NEW YEAR!! (2 weeks late hehe)I've got myself a car radio for the Holidays which I can also watch videos on it. It's a Freeway from Canadian Tire. I don't remember the model though...Anyway, while trying to take the grey panel to access my OEM radio, I broke a clip which attach a beige cable. It is connected to the third button (the one down the Recirc button). Now that it is not connected, I wonder if it's safe to let the cable unplug?Plus, while I put the screw back to put my on new radio, I drop a screw... It fell down... Is there a way to remove the panel that surround my shift gear?Thanks Vibers!

[bh357]

To remove the the console surrounding the gearshift...note: I have a manual transmissionRemove shift knob (manual tranny knob just unscrews)Remove bezel surrounding radio.Remove center HVAC knob and remove screw behind knob.Use a small flat-bladed tool to pop up the shifter surround.Remove HVAC panel and shifter surround/boot, unclipping 2 snaps at top of HVAC panel.Remove 2 screws under shifter surround/boot, at top of console.Remove lower bin from console.Remove 1 screw behind console.If you need to order more screws, you'll possibly have better luck at a Toyota dealer. My local GM dealer said they were on backorder for ??? amount of time... the Toyota dealer near my work got 'em in 3 days.

[ColonelPanic]

The beige cable is a mechanical linkage to release the recirculate button to switch over to fresh air when using defrost (drawing in fresh air instead of recirculated prevents windows from fogging.) If the cable is disconnected, that function will not operate, you'll just need to remember to turn off recirculate if it is on when you switch to defrost.The clips were broken on mine, but the cable did a good enough job staying in place if I just pushed it back in and reinstalled the bezel. There's always duct tape.

[lemay.08]

I don't know how, but yesterday I just found the missing screw on the front passenger mat... o_0??I still don't get it how a screw can be backorder....Still, I appreciate the info

[lemay.08]

Oooh... Yeah, I've tried with the ducktape. But each time I put the panel back, the cable just drop out of it's socket.... It was really frustrating Maybe I will get lucky when it'll get warmer.

[lemay.08]

As for my car radio... Last week, I went to the Montreal 2012 car show. I've seen all the new models. Then, it hit me... What makes the car authentic are it's original components. So I decided to keep my OEM car radio. Even though it cannot read MP3, CD-R/RW, AUX, etc. I'll find a way to get my Android playing on my car radio.