Install an After Market Head Unit on a 1996 1998 Honda Civic
Replacing a car head unit with an aftermarket 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 how to take out a stock head unit (radio, deck) out of a 1996-1998 Honda civic, and put in an aftermarket head unit. This article will also go through all the materials you need and everything you need to know on how to swap the head units.
Contents
Steps
- Buy an aftermarket wiring harness and a mounting kit for a Honda Civic 1996-1998 which you can get at a local Future Shop or Best Buy or any other place that sells that sort of stuff. These two items will allow your Honda to be able to install aftermarket head units.
- You will also need a Philips screwdriver(star screwdriver) which you will use for unscrewing screws, wire strippers or something to strip the insulation off wires to expose the actual wire, and electrical tape.
- Remove the ground on the battery. The reason is so you don't short circuit anything when installing the equipment. The ground is marked by a - sign on the battery and is usually black. To remove, simply loosen the clamp. This is usually done with a socket, different clamps have different ways of loosening them, and slip off the clamp from the terminal.
- Remove the center console and the lower dash under the steering wheel. The center console and the lower dash are just 2 panels of plastic that hide you car's internal and make the interior look nice. These panels are just held on by some screws. To get to your first set of screws look at your original head unit. Underneath you will see the cigarette lighter plug. Right above the cigarette lighter plug, you will see two Philips screws (which are star shapes screws). Unscrew these two screws with your screwdriver.
- Open the glove box 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.
- Push on the bottom of both sides of the glove box firmly, to find the next screw. While it's open this will let the glove box swing down farther 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 3 more 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; it's held in place by some snaps. Just pull gently and it will come off.
- Locate and unscrew the screw that was hidden by the panel. It was a Philips screw, that was located to the right of the steering column.
- Unscrew the final screw that is directly in line with the one you just removed, except about {{safesubst:#invoke:convert|convert}} lower.
- Grab the side where the two Philips screws were (next to the glove compartment) and wiggle it loose from right to left(to remove the center console). Before the center panel comes off completely, you need to remove the wire leading to the back of the cigarette lighter. There will be a clip attached to the back of that that gives power to the lighter plug, simply disconnect the clip. Now you can completely remove the center console.
- Remove the head unit. The head unit is held by one or 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 the screw(s) at the rear of the head unit which are also Philips screws. Unscrew these screws. If you have difficulty removing these screws, they are also 8mm bolts, so you can use a ratchet or other tools to remove them. Now you will be to pull out the radio or you can push it out by reaching behind.
- Detach the clip(that is currently attaching the wires to the head unit at the rear) from the head unit by pressing on both sides of it. You also need to pull out the antenna plug which is a separate black wire attached to the head unit. Just simply pull on that wire. You may also have a third plug, on the back-left side. This one is quite hard to pull out. Wiggle the plug from side to side, and it will eventually disconnect itself.
- Begin the installation of the new head unit.
- Install the mounting kit. Insert the mounting kit where the old head unit was and it should fit in place. Don't forget to insert the included rectangle-shaped plastic spacer, if applicable.
- If you have one, now is the time to install the DIN cage (metal cage your radio fits in). Just slip it in to the hole in the dash, and bend the tabs so that the cage stays there. It holds the installation kit in place, too.
- 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.
- Take these wires and strip off the insulation of all the wires. Strip also all the wires on the wiring harness.Your aftermarket deck should have come with the wires attached to it.
- Notice that the colors of the wires on the wiring harness are the exact same colors that are on the aftermarket head unit. All aftermarket wiring harnesses and head unit have the same color wires and all the wires are meant to do the same thing.
- Attach each wire to its matching color. To attach the wires together you take the two wires and twist the bare wire which you have exposed when you stripped the wires.
- Wrap the exposed wire with electrical tape. Do this with all the colors.
- Plug in the radio antenna. Plug to the aftermarket head unit and insert the head unit in your mounting kit and DIN cage. It should fit snugly.
- Re-attach 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.
- Install the panels back on, if everything else is working. It is just the reverse of what you did before.
Tips
- You will have two screws that you do not need to use. These are the screws at the rear of the stock head unit you removed.
- 1998 civic ex (US): removing stock radio will cause loss of some light if radio is equipped with stock keyless entry system.
Warnings
- Make sure you don't lose the screws. Keep them in a secure place so you can find them again when it's time to put back the panels.
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