I've got a 2000 mustang, no mach system. Radio died, and I'm trying to replace it with a Pioneer headunit. I read all the posts, found a pdf online describing in detail what to do to remove and reinstall. I picked up the wal-mart radio removal tool you guys recommended in another post. I get home and tried to remove the radio to no avail. I did the wiggling and pushing the tools outwards like I read to do, but still no luck. I moved on to the cd player and that came out no problem, took like 5 seconds. I inspected it to see just what these stupid clips looked like and marked where they should be on the tools with a sharpie to get an idea of how deep to put them.

So I tried again for about another 15 minutes with no luck. The right hand side you can hear the clips clearly "click" and starts to come out when I pull. The left however, there isno resistance, no clicking, nothing. When I pull the radio itself doesn't seem to want to budge on that side, and if I try to force it, it looks like I'm going to pull the whole bezel/dash out. So it seems to me like this side is broken. Is there another way to pull this out? Can I maybe break the clips off by jamming a thin screwdriver far into the holes on the left side? I don't care about breaking the stereo, I've already hit it and shattered the face out of frustration. Thanks for any help.

 

If the tools are not inserted properly the first time, you can bend the clips the wrong way. Every time you insert the tools after that it will then bend them back towards the dash. Try and insert the tools while trying to keep them at an angle to catch that now bent clip and sometimes you can catch it.

If you can't get it that way you can try to get yer fingers or some other tool in from the cd slot to push that clip in, just be ready to catch it and have the removal tool in the other side so that you can slide the radio straight out when you do get that clip.

And if all this fails then you will have to break the face off of the radio to pull it out. The dash piece it is mounted to has 3 screws holding it in place. Two are just below the radio and easy to get but the 3rd is BEHIND the radio....... If you do have to break it, it is not hard. Just ram a screwdriver into the hole on the side and then pry it out. After installing for over 10 yrs I have had to do all of these at one point or time.

 

Tip that has gotten alot of these out when someone cant get them...

Slide them in slow and gently, once you can tell your getting close to the clips pull back to see if it caught if not, press forward just a tad further keep doing that until you got it. Alot of times people push them in too far or hard and alot of times it just needs to be babied.

 

Thanks for the tips. I ended up having to break the face off the radio, but that's no big deal since it already died on me. Now I'm looking at the back of the radio and I see a bunch of wires (more than I ever encountered on my Neon when I did an install), and now I don't think I got the right wiring harness. I got the wal-mart scosche fd021 but only one part looks like it fits with the factory wires. There are 2 odd black plugs that I have no idea where they go. I'm hoping these aren't those amp wires I keep hearing about....I'll post a pic if anyone knows that'd be great. Otherwise, does anyone know of a link where I can find an in-depth installation guide with pics?

First is the wires that are left from when I removed the stereo. The grey and red in the foreground is what I expected to see, and also I recognized the antenna wire, which is somewhere in the dash, but the 2 plugs that I circled are a mystery to me. What are they? Also, the smaller black one to the left of the grey/red?


And here is the scosche adapter I bought (FD021). It doesn't look like there is anywhere here to connect anything other than the grey/red plug in the previous picture. And as you can see the two grey connectors in the foreground aren't shaped the same as the circled black plugs are. Is this even the right adapter? Or am I just missing something here?


And in case it helps, here is the back of the new receiver, Pioneer DEH-P5900IB.

 

check page 2 of my cardomain page to see how I integrated in the 460. It is a little more difficult then it needed to be but all the tweeking I did really made the 460 sound as good as it could. IF you are going to keep the factory speakers for some time then I would recommend doing it like I did(which will require the hrns you have as well as an additional one(FDO3B)). If you are going to change out speakers or add a sub then you will still need a different hrns(FDO6B) but it is easier then the way I did it.

http://www.sonicelectronix.com/item_...6B+-+FD06.html
http://www.sonicelectronix.com/item_...3B+-+FD03.html

 

Cool, thanks I'll go check out your cardomain now. I plan on eventually replacing the factory speakers, but no sub. I was thinking of getting some infinity components for the doors. Probably won't do anything for the rear. Should I still get the FD03B? Oh, and does this mean I have/had a 460 stereo with the amps and all? I'm kinda confused on all the different types of mustang stereos.

 

yes, you have a mach system in the car.

If you are not going to add a factory sub then for simplicity sake I would recomend going with the FDO6B hrns unless you want to spend some time tweeking it. You would need to add capacitors to the speaker wires that go to the tweeters to keep the bass from going to them.

 

Ok, I'll order it as soon as I get paid. I've got another question though, ever since I got this car (Feb 07) whenever I play the radio and I turn the volume up to about 50% or higher, the sound suddenly drops to about 10% or so. Does that seem like a problem with the radio, or amps? And is there anything else I should plan for to factor that in?

 

I would guess that it was a problem with the deck. The head unit has always been the weak link in ford systems and it should be the most solid.......

 

Ok, that's good then if it was only the deck. I just ordered the second adapter, so hopefully I can get this installed soon. One more question for now though: When I did a mock-up I noticed that the radio didn't quite fit the opening in the dash.There is about 1/4"between thenew radio and the edges. It didn't come with any kit or anything so I'm guessing I need one? Which is necessary for me?