Change a Headunit in a Sixth Generation Honda Civic
Replacing a car head unit with a after market one is not as hard as people think I myself changed my first head unit by myself with no help. This article will teach you on how to take out a stock head unit (radio, deck) out of 1996-1998 Honda civic, and put in a after market head unit. The article will go through all the materials you need and will go through everything you need to know oh how to swap the head units. (Source:www.installdr.com)
Steps
- Buy an aftermarket wiring harness and a mounting kit for a Honda Civic 1996-1998. This can be obtained from a local Future Shop or BestBuy, or any other automotive place that sells that sort of stuff – they only cost around $20 each. These two items will allow you to be able to install any aftermarket head units. (Below is a wiring harness.)
- Get a Philips screwdriver. This is a star screwdriver which you will use for unscrewing screws, and wire strippers or something to strip the insulation off wires to expose the actual wire, and electrical tape.
- Begin the installation. Remove the ground on the battery. The reason is so that you don't short circuit anything when installing the equipment. The ground marked and by a - sign on the battery and is usually black. To remove simply loosen the clamp usually done with a socket, different clamps have different ways of loosening them, and slip off the clamp from the terminal.
- Begin removing the center console and the lower dash of under the steering wheel. The center console and the lower dash are just 2 panels of plastic that hide you cars internal and make the interior look nice. These panels are just held on by a some screws. To get to your first set of screws look at your original head unit. Underneath you will see the cigarettes lighter plug. Right above the cigarette lighter plug you will see the two Philips screws (which are star shapes screws) unscrew those two screws with you screwdriver. (Below is the center console panel notice the little holes that’s where all the screws are.)
- Open the glove box of the car and in the top left corner (which is your left facing the glove box) there will be another Philips screw. Unscrew that one as well.
- Find the next screw. You will need to push on the bottom of both sides of the glove box firmly while it's open this will let the glove box swing down further than it usually does .Once you have done this the screw will be on the bottom left hand side of the glove box unscrew it.
- Go to the driver’s side. Here you will find another three screws underneath the steering on the lower dash the screws are clearly visible and they are also Philips screws. Unscrew all these screws. Now you will be able to remove the panel around the steering column – just pull on it and it will come off. Once you have removed the lower panel around the steering column, you will see another screw that was hidden by the panel it's also a Philips screw, it is located to the right of the steering column locate that screw and unscrew it.
- Remove the center console. Just grab the side where the two Philips screws were and wiggle it loose from the left side and to wiggle it loose from the right side before you can pull it completely off, there is a wire leading to the back of the cigarette lighter plug there will be a clip attached to the back of that gives power to the lighter plug, simply disconnect the clip. Know you can completely remove the center console.
- Move on to removing the stock head unit. The head unit is held by only two screws which are at the back of the radio. The only way to access these screws is to go through where the center console was and there you can access the two screws at the rear of the head unit, which are also Philips screws. Unscrew these screws. Now you will be to pull out the deck or you can push it out by reaching behind.
- Note the wires attached to the head unit at the rear. They are connected to a clip just unclip the clip from the head unit by pressing on both sides of it, also you need to pull out the antenna plug which is a separate black wire attached to the head unit just simply pull on that wire.
- Now that the stock head unit is completely removed from the car, you can begin the installation of the new head unit. First install the mounting kit, which is really simple – just insert the mounting kit where the old head unit was and it should fit in place.
- Get a hold of the clip that was attached to the back of the head unit. Here you will need your aftermarket wiring harness. Simply connect the aftermarket wiring harness to the clip that was attached to the radio. Your aftermarket deck should of come with the wires attached to it. Take these wires and strip off the insulation from all the wires; also strip all the wires on the wiring harness.
- Notice that the colours of the wires on the wiring harness are the exact same colours that are on the aftermarket head unit. All aftermarket wiring harnesses and head unit have the same colour wires and all the wires are meant to do the same thing. This makes are job much easier, because know all you have to do is attach the each wire to it's matching colour. To attach the wires together you take the two wires and twist the bare wire that which you have exposed when you stripped the wires. Once you have twisted the two pieces of wire together wrap the exposed wire with electrical tape. Do this will all the colours.
- Once you have finished connecting all the wires together, plug in the antenna plug to the aftermarket head unit and insert the head unit in your mounting kit; it should fit right in.
- Reattach your ground turn your car on and test out your head unit. Make sure all the speakers are working. If a speaker does not work or the head unit does not turn on you probably mixed up wires somewhere.
- If everything is working, just install the panels back on. Doing this is just the reverse of what you did before. Note that you will have two screws that you need to use, which are the screws at the rear of the stock head unit.
Warnings
- Make sure you remove the ground on the battery.
- When attaching be especially sure you don’t mix up the yellow red and black ones or you will blow a fuse.
- Also make sure that when wrapping the wires with electrical tape that you don’t leave any bare wire exposed.
Things You'll Need
- Material you will need before you start
- Philips screwdriver
- Aftermarket wiring harness for 1996-1998 Honda Civic
- Mounting kit for 1996-1998 Honda Civic
- Wire strippers
