MarcT

My wife seems to have gotten a CD jammed into the OEM CD player in our 2004 venture.

I'd like to get the stereo out to either fix it or replace it with a non-OEM. There doesn't seem to be any easy, visible way to remove the panel surrounding the stereo (it goes from just under the dash down to the floor). Are there hidden "tabs" that I should be looking for here? Will I have to remove other components of the dash such as the glove box to remove this panel and the stereo? Or does it get worst than that...

Any help or links to instructions would be greatly appreciated. I'm also not against picking up a Haynes manual or equivalent as long as it will be helpful in this case (my experience is that these manuals don't spend much or any time on things like removing stereos, etc...)

All this plastic makes me nervous and a dash never goes back together quite the same once it's been taken out, so I'd rather know than guess how to do this.

Thanks in advance,
Marc T

MarcT

Figured I'd post back the solution since I did figure it out. Sorry, no pics but should allow someone else looking to repair or replace the stereo in their similarly outfitted 04 Venture to figure it out:

1) pull out cupholder and remove the screws to the side
2) open the floor console storage area (under the cupholder) and remove 2 screws at the back
3) carefully move the floor console storage out of the way, taking care not to rip out the wiring for the accessory outlet... should be able to be moved to the passenger seating area in one piece or by removing the "wing" pieces on either side
4) on your back, look under the cupholder... either 2 or 4 screws to remove there
5) lifting from the bottom of the console faceplate and carefully remove the tabs from the top

Voila! You now have access to remove/replace your stereo system.

FYI, luckily, we were able to fix the stereo instead of replacing it... 1-2" white plastic disc inside the cd player (puts the pressure from the top to allow the disc to spin) had been dislodged during the cd jamming. Luckily the piece wasn't badly damaged and putting it back into its rightful place gave us make CD music in our Venture

mkoz

Marc,
Thanks for your post. My daugher managed to stuff two CD's in the slot ofour Silhouette's radio. I suspect the loader motor gave up the ghost. I already picked up a complete radio from the wreckers fora song and I plan to replace just the CD module since I don't have the master code for the junk yard radio. OtherwiseI'd replace the whole thing. Like you I only glanced at the center console and found two screws in the cup holder compartment. I searched online for a while before I found this forum and your post which is exactly what I was looking for.


Mike

mkoz

I just finished replacing the CD module in my van with one pulled from a radio I got at the wreckers. A couple of additions to the above procedure - if you have the entertainment system with DVD instead of the bottom console storage, the front cover on that bottom unit is snapped in place with 4 large metal clips (2 per side) and 2 small ones on the bottom. The front cover just pulls off with some careful yanking. Keep in mind that once removed the side metal clips usually stay/fall into the mounting holes in the bottom console. They need to be retrieved once the console is removed and snapped back in place into the cover for reassembly. Make sure you get everything right during reassembly, otherwise you will be unscrewing the bottom console and removing it to retrieve the clips if you make a mistake somewhere and need to pull off the front cover again (don't ask me how I know).

Other than that everything else is quite straight forward. As an aside, if you replace the head unit with another GM head unit you will need to get the master code for the replacement head unit in order to get it to marry the security system. To avoid this I just replaced the CD module with the radio in the car and wired in for most of the procedure. I pulled the plugs out for about 2 minutes and no problem. Before I started I called around - any GM dealer can retrieve the master code for any GM radio. Some will charge for this, others will do it for free, but you have to bring the radio installed in the car to the dealer to get it done.

I also found this useful PDF which describes the console removal procedure for most late model GM cars:

http://www.metraonline.com/downloads...NST99-2003.pdf

avavra

I am trying to remove just the cup holder (I have some keys that fell behind it). In your posting you said just to remove the cup holder but I am not finding that easy to do. Maybe I am making it harder than it has to be but it doesn't just slide straight out so I am not sure what to do. If you could reply back it would be very helpful. Thanks.

cartek

If you have the lower console, under the cup holder, you must remove it first. Then pull the cup holder all the way out. There are two 7 mm bolts under there to support the back of the cup holder. These go straight up, you can see them if you crane your neck, or use a mirror. Not difficult, just a PITA.