Really.

Okay, so, I have a '97 TF Altera in which I am trying to replace the stereo. I found this almost perfect guide on youtube - http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=MaWhsQYsnrs

A couple of questions:
a- The bit from 1:10 to 1:20 where he gets into the driver side footwell, that's not necessary on my car is it?
b- At 1:40 where he pulls the aircon vent panel out, that's where I'm stuck. The left corner pops out perfectly, but the right corner is a pain in the arse. It feels as if the front plate is going to pop off but not the actual vent and opener dial. Am I doing something wrong or is that working as intended? In the video, the right side pops off with just as much ease as the left, and the dial/vent come with it effortlessly.

Really.

Okay, so, I have a '97 TF Altera in which I am trying to replace the stereo. I found this almost perfect guide on youtube - http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=MaWhsQYsnrs

A couple of questions:
a- The bit from 1:10 to 1:20 where he gets into the driver side footwell, that's not necessary on my car is it?
b- At 1:40 where he pulls the aircon vent panel out, that's where I'm stuck. The left corner pops out perfectly, but the right corner is a pain in the arse. It feels as if the front plate is going to pop off but not the actual vent and opener dial. Am I doing something wrong or is that working as intended? In the video, the right side pops off with just as much ease as the left, and the dial/vent come with it effortlessly.

a) Yes it's necessary on your car.

b) The reason you cant get the vent off is because you haven't done part a

You can't just pull the vent on the right side without unclipping the cable under the drivers side footwell. When you pull the vent out, the cable is attached to the right side of the vent and will pull out with the vent. When putting the vent back in, you have to route the cable back down into the drivers side footwell and reconnect it.

The reason you can not get the air vent out is because you have not released the cable

ALso, just take out the bloody air vent, makes the job so much easier

Ah. I got into the footwell as well as I could (I'm... not a small guy), and couldn't see anything even vaguely resembling what he showed on the video. I also read on some other posts on here that needing to get under there was a newer model thing. Which is why I assumed it wasnt necessary on mine.

Having gone back and re-read the posts I had searched for, it seems they were talking about having to push the whole console out from behind in newer models.

Good to know I just can't read. Thanks for the input, karj.


Madmagna - What do you mean by take out the air vent? Or is that just another way of saying release that cable?

Nothing wrong with that guide, I followed it when I put a new radio in my TJ.
Driver's side footwell - look at the video again and you will see you need to unhook a cable from the vents.

Get into the footwell, use a torch, you will see 2 white levers to simplify it. One will be more towards the front of the car than the other, leave that one. Hard to explain but where the footwell vent comes out of the dash, put you hand ontop of the go in about 30cm and a little to the right, you will see the white lever, follow the cable back about 5cm and there is a clip that holds the cable inplace, pull the cable down out of it then slide the ring of the cable off of the white lever.

Very easy to do as Ive done it about 30 Million times. Also yes this cable is what is stopping your aircon vents from coming out.

And the right hand side of the vents will still be bloody tight. Broke the tab off on mine and now the vents don't sit straight! Just lost $5K in resale value because of this! (jk)

Bit of a jigsaw puzzle putting it all back together too. Go slow, go smart is my advice.

And the right hand side of the vents will still be bloody tight. Broke the tab off on mine and now the vents don't sit straight! Just lost $5K in resale value because of this! (jk)


ROFL - haven't we all done that?

If it bothers you, just go down to upullit and grab another (that's what I did :)) -- from memory they charge $8 or $12 for that part.

Right, so, I'm too big to get into the footwell effectively. Curse my chiselled physique.

Is there any other way to remove that cable? Can it perhaps be accessed from the front, via the hole where the ashtray/lighter section used to be?

Unfortunately no.

It is only accessible from the drivers side footwell.

Have you been able to lay eyes on it? I'm not the smallest fellow in the world (short & fat lol), but I can still get to it (albeit awkwardly) when I slide my drivers seat all the way back

Nah, cant even get my head in there far enough to spot it. I'm tall and fat, even with the drivers seat all the way back I'd have to be doing some olympic-level gymnastic contortions to get in there.

Eh, I'll try one more time later this evening, when it cools down a little more.

Maybe if I take a video and watch it, then feel around for it and pray...

Maybe get one of those mirrors on a stick from a $2 shop?

. . . . I'd have to be doing some olympic-level gymnastic contortions to get in there.



That, Sir, is correct! Sit yourself on the driver's side door sill, fall over backwards while worming your head under the steering wheel, then turn your head upwards and backwards. A torch helps. Then reach up with one hand and do the deed.

If you are too tall and bulky for that method, lie on your back on the passenger seat, slide partly onto the driver's seat, let your shoulders and head fall off the front of the driver's seat, and reach under the dash. Deep breathing, forcing muscles to relax is all part of it. Gymnastics indeed.
(Helps if the lower trim panel is taken off, this is not shown in the video)

Now of course, in the factory, they lower the complete dash into the car ( or does it slide in sideways?) but that is the cheat's way. lol

It is easy to remove the lower dash panel to the LHS of the steering wheel.
Then the heater flap control levers are nicely visible.
Gerry

If you want to get to that cable, remove the lower part of the drivers side dash. It's not difficult, a few screws where you pop the bonnet and another over on the left.

However you can replace the headunit without taking this part out, you can get a flat head to wedge the top vent up enough to access the screws, just be very careful as you can easily snap the clips for the top vent doing this.

I ended up getting sick of doing the cable, do I just detached it from that top vent completely. No idea what it does and never missed it :P.

It took 13 posts for people to start suggesting the kick panel? Sheesh :P

For the love of god, take it out. It literally takes 2 minutes to remove it; once you do it is so easy to see what you're doing, you'll kick yourself. I spent hours trying to get to that friggin cable blindly.

Remember to calibrate it (re-attach it, set it to one extreme [just face, for example] and push the blue cable up into the clip once you've moved the switch that the wire moves so that no air comes out of the footwell fent) so that you aren't driving along, and wondering why it's blowing air onto your feet when it's set to face.

I'll have to do a guide. It's a good video (I used it when doing my head unit) but it's this one bit that shat me so much.

Honestly, if that cable is only there to control whether my feet get aircon or not, then I won't even bother reattaching it. My feet will inevitably be in shoes and won't care.

One hell of a setup to put a $100 basic kenwood stereo in when I could just use the aux-in port, a 3.5mm cable, and my iphone. :\

Maybe I'll hire a midget to help me...

Well, I'm sore and mosquito-bitten, and I managed to find two screws under the dash. A third one looked promising but it was just to hold some door trim in place.

I'm just gonna get a workshop manual for it and see what that has to say on the subject.

If it's the manual climate controls (which I'm assuming yes because it's a TF) then it controls where the air goes. face, face + feet, feet + defog, defog) Its probably best to have it connected, otherwise you'll find yourself trying to reconnected it on a humid day with pouring rain..

IIRC (my cars currently getting an engine put in so I can't check) there is one on the left, right down the bottom, near where you're trying to access (it's fairly well hidden)
There is one behind a little cover that you can pry off with a screw driver (below the mirror controls)
Theres 2 I think behind the bonnet release, however theres 3 - 4 on this bit. a couple hold the bonnet release to the panel, the others hold the panel to the car. I undid them all, it was easier than trying to guess.

Once you get these out you should be able to pull the right side towards you and down. The left side has a little triangle tab thing that interlocks with the lower kick panel, so you have to pull the steering kick panel downwards, the other kick panel down with your left hand, then push the steering panel up so they un-lock from each other.

If it's the manual climate controls (which I'm assuming yes because it's a TF) then it controls where the air goes. face, face + feet, feet + defog, defog) Its probably best to have it connected, otherwise you'll find yourself trying to reconnected it on a humid day with pouring rain..

Ugh.


IIRC (my cars currently getting an engine put in so I can't check) there is one on the left, right down the bottom, near where you're trying to access (it's fairly well hidden)
There is one behind a little cover that you can pry off with a screw driver (below the mirror controls)
Theres 2 I think behind the bonnet release, however theres 3 - 4 on this bit. a couple hold the bonnet release to the panel, the others hold the panel to the car. I undid them all, it was easier than trying to guess.

I found the far left one and the one under the little cap. I also spotted a couple on the bonnet release, but I figured they were holding the bonnet release in.


Once you get these out you should be able to pull the right side towards you and down. The left side has a little triangle tab thing that interlocks with the lower kick panel, so you have to pull the steering kick panel downwards, the other kick panel down with your left hand, then push the steering panel up so they un-lock from each other.

I'm having trouble visualising this at work without being in the car. Hopefully it'll make a little more sense when I'm actually in there. Otherwise I'll just kick stuff until it works... or stops working entirely.

So much hassle for such a tiny changeover...

Nahka, ever thought of asking for assistance from your local members??

I know how to unclip the cabel and re-attach it with no issue, Something like this takes me 5 minutes max to do..... and I'm female!!! OMG!!! lol

Nahka, ever thought of asking for assistance from your local members??

I know how to unclip the cabel and re-attach it with no issue, Something like this takes me 5 minutes max to do..... and I'm female!!! OMG!!! lol

The offer is appreciated. If I could bring it to someone for help it wouldn't be too bad I guess, but the car is currently unregistered and immobile in Baulkham Hills so I wouldn't want to inconvenience anyone.