How to Remove Car Radio Plastic Placeholders

When installing a new car stereo, removing additional plastic placeholders can allow for extra room. Center-dash consoles often have "slots" covered or filled with plastic placeholders that may be above or below the factory car radio. These slots allow for larger aftermarket units to be installed, such as CD players, CD changers and LCD screens. In some cases, removing the placeholders is necessary to access the screws and wiring of the stereo system.

Difficulty: Moderately Easy

Instructions

Things You'll Need:

• Phillips head screwdriver
• Flathead screwdriver

1. Locate the plastic placeholders near the existing car radio. Blank pieces of plastic, which often match the color of the dashboard, are the placeholders. In many cars, the placeholders are about the same size of a car CD player.

2. Pop out the plastic placeholders. Plastic clips may be holding them in place, some may simply pop out. If part of the interior dash trim overlaps the placeholders, you will need to remove the screws and clips holding that portion of the dash trim in place.

3. Remove any overlapping plastic dash trim and again try to pop out the placeholders. Use the flathead screwdriver to gently pry one end of the placeholder out. Once one end is out, the placeholder should fall out.

4. Remove screws connected to the placeholder. Removal of nearby dash trim may reveal screws or plastic clips.

5. Remove each place holder, carefully. You may need to put the placeholder back after servicing or replacing the car radio.

Tips & Warnings

• Never break off or crush the placeholders to remove them as you may need to put them back later on. Remove placeholders when replacing the car stereo to get extra space to work with.
• Disconnect the negative battery terminal cable before working on any car component.