My 2001 Honda Civic Car Stereo Removal

May 15, 2006

My 2001 civic sedan came with the most basic of car stereos: a tape deck. So anytime I'm driving around there's not much I can do about the audio. Add to the fact that the tape deck acts up with my tape converter that I use to hookup walkmans and portable mp3 players was starting to act up, I was considering buying a new stereo. Well I finally did and the big question came down to "should I install it myself?" After doing some research and attempting to pry open one of the pieces necessary, I decided I could install it myself without too much difficulty. Tinkering is fun anyway... as long as you don't break things.

So how hard was it? Not hard at all. In fact, in some ways it was so easy that it was scary. I quickly understood why it was so easy to steal car stereos from cars. Not only is it easy to take the stock stereo out (at least from my civic) but the method for affixing non-dealer car stereos in after-market harnesses makes it even easier to take them out with a few extra tools that come with the stereo.

Now, I'm not here to educate you how to steal car stereos. Instead I just wanted to post some pictures to give you an idea at how you can remove your own 2001 civic car stereo rather than paying the guys at BestBuy to do it. There's also some guides that you can buy off the internet that give you some pictures and some very terse instructions on how to remove the stereo but I wouldn't buy them. For me, the biggest gray area was knowing what I was dealing with in order to remove things. It was my first time doing it and I didn't want to damage things.

One site I found useful before I did things to my own car was Ben Johnson's Weblog. He wrote up his own guide for how he installed an ipod cable to the stock stereo.

Tools

You need a few tools to remove the stereo.

If you want to install another stereo, you'll need some other tools.

Additional Components

If you want to install another stereo, you usually need an after-market harness and a wire kit. I bought my stereo from crutchfield.com which typically gives you both parts for no additional charge. They also typically give you an instruction manual for removing and installing the car stereo and speakers. If you buy from a place like Bestbuy or Fry's Electronics, you'll need to purchase the additional components and manual seperately in addition to the stereo.

Some cars need an antenna connecter but I didn't since the stock connecter plugged right into my Kenwood stereo.

Safety

Prior to removing the stereo, it's probably a good idea to disconnect your car battery. While in there I didn't see too much that could cause problems since everything has neat little plastic plugs and you actually solder the wires to the wire kit outside of the car.

The Pictures and the Removal Process

Removing the face plates on the civic is pretty easy. First you start with the lower component with the cigarette lighter. Just find a spot on the corner or so that you can slip in a screw driver or whatever you're using the pry it out. At the top in the very middle is a clip that's part of the plastic. I was able to get it to give in by pushing a screw driver through at that portion.

You have to remove this piece first in order to get at 2 bolts holding the center console in place.

After prying the sides and top, there's actually one clip at the very back of the plastic compartment that you can't get to with a screw driver. You just have to pull on the entire piece until it gives. I've pointed it out in the next picture with a yellow box.

Now that the bottom is out, you can use your socket wrench to remove the bolts from the bottom. There's two of them, one in the very middle and one off to your right if you're facing it. Once you get the two bolts from under removed, you can easily pry out the center console. It comes out even easier than the bottom. The following pictures show it removed as well as the back of the center console with the stock stereo still in.

After that everything is pretty much like legos. Just unscrewing screws and removing nobs and putting things back. You actually have to remove the stock radio and replace it with your harness and then you can install your car stereo into that. The only slightly tricky part is connecting the wires because you have to match the wires with your stereo's and solder them. I won't go into the details for that because I don't have pictures and it should be similar to any other car stereo installation. If you don't understand how to accomplish those things you probably shouldn't be attempting this yourself.

My New Stereo

To finish up, here's some pictures of how my stereo looks with the after market harness.

Hope some of these pictures helped if you plan on removing your own car stereo.