Monsoon double din HU removal / uninstall and New HU install (informative pics)

[fostex]

Just wanted to post up some pics and my experience of my Monsoon HU removal I did over the weekend.
I had no keys so I used this thread as a guide http://forums.vwvortex.com/zerothread?id=976741
and decided to take some pics that might help someone else.

My uninstall was done on my 2003 GTI

Part 1 - Removal of Double Din Monsoon Head Unit

The first thing i did was remove the cup holder above the head unit.

I did this by prying a flat head screwdriver in between the clips and the side as shown...

Here's a close up view of the tabs...

And with the flat head screwdriver...

I pulled on the flap as the tabs were pushed back one by one
And they come out a little, like this...

Then it slides out easy...

The second thing i did was to pry out the air conditioner faceplate (i think thats what it is called) below the HU...

Then i took off these knobs so that they dont get in the way when i take the faceplate off...

The following pic was taken after i took off the faceplate, but indicates where the 4 screws are to remove. (forgot to take a "before" pic)

Once all 4 screws were off it was a bit hard to get the faceplate off.
i had to pry it off with the flathead screwdriver.

Once it came out a little I had to be careful to not damage the connectors that connect from the HU to the faceplate when taking of the faceplate...

Another View

After careful pulling the faceplate comes (snaps) off
and presto...

Faceplate on floor...

Rear shot...

Here's a pic of everything off...

I took notice to these metal tabs in all 4 corners...

Here's a closeup of one

A pic of seeing how the tab holds the HU in place...

A test fit of the screwdriver...

Another

(The following pic is ghetto, and i should of made some keys with an old credit card or similar, it took some work, but it did the job.)
I plugged an assortment of screwdrivers in the metal tabs so that the HU can be released from its home...

After some screwdriver maneuvering, the Monsoon HU slides out with ease...

Here's the Monsoon harness...

I flipped the bottom tab out and pulled the harness out.

Thats the end of the removal of the Double Din Monsoon HU.
Here is a link to all of the pics that i took that day (un-edited)
http://s10.photobucket.com/alb...soon/

And here is a link to the edited pics
http://s10.photobucket.com/alb...oon1/

Part 2 - Installation of new HU Kenwood

These two thread helped me out with this section
http://forums.vwvortex.com/zerothread?id=2672579
http://forums.vwvortex.com/zerothread?id=967146 Steps 43 - 48

I purchased this Monsoon harness from Al and Ed's Autosound

Another View

A perfect fit. Here is a comparison of the connector from the car and the Al & Ed's Monsoon harness.

I used 2 boxes of these sheilded connectors. IIRC they were 22 - 18 awg

Here is the Kenwood harness all prepped and ready to go

Here are the 2 harnesses connected together...

The following wires werent used on the Monsoon Harness.
Brown
Brown/red
Blue/white
Red
orange...

When i initially did a test connection, the Kenwood HU had to be turned off manually and turned on manually when the two red wires were connected.

To solve that problem i used this read wire instead with an inline fuse and routed it to the 75x

the 75x is a switched 12v power source. and the Red wire with an inline fuse was a spare part I had lying around and was originally from a fog light wiring kit purchased at Pep boys.

Here is another pic

Here is a pic of the Monsoon and Kenwood harness connected together and ready for new HU

Here is a pic of the 75x connection

Once I connected the Kenwood HU to it's harness everything worked perfectly.
I did a balance/fade test to make sure all speakers inside car were working.
They were working great and i noticed a bit of a better sound difference (or maybe its just me) but anyways, i hooked up the outputs and sub amp switch to my amplifier in the trunk and 1 week later as I write this, everything sounds sweet.

Hope this post can help anyone out who is looking to remove their Monsoon double din HU and put in a new aftermarket HU.

Here are more pics that i took that day
http://s10.photobucket.com/alb...New1/
http://s10.photobucket.com/alb...New2/


Modified by fostex at 8:00 PM 7-19-2007

[afinley]

that fuses isnt looking too good!

[squiddub22]

OOOORRR
YOU COULD JUST USE VW KEYS....

(takes 5 secs with the keys vw the 4 hrs without )

[afinley]

alot of people get the keys stuck in there, or bend the tabs backwards and get the whole HU stuck in there.

[kwalton]

Quote, originally posted by afinley »

alot of people get the keys stuck in there, or bend the tabs backwards and get the whole HU stuck in there.

yeah you can see all the pry marks around the dash and it looks like the key holes are messed up as well.

[dogger]

If the keys are used correctly, the radio will come out okay. But if there inserted in the wrong direction some radios can only be removed this way.

Buy the keys and follow the direction on inserting them. Saves all of this trouble.

Yet another great VW design!

Wish VW would look at some of the ways other manufacturers mount there radios, they could learn a thing or two.

[fostex]

Quote, originally posted by squiddub22 »

OOOORRR YOU COULD JUST USE VW KEYS.... (takes 5 secs with the keys vw the 4 hrs without )

Well, um... Not to doubt your experience/knowledge, but I dont think those keys would work.
These are the correct keys to use for the Monsoon HU

Notice the pointed tips for correct insertion

Also, the HU removal only took 30 min w/o the correct keys, (not counting the time and effort it took to take detailed pictures)
I'm not sure about 4 hours.


Modified by fostex at 1:41 AM 7-23-2007

[fostex]

In any case, I personally couldnt wait for the Monsoon specific keys to arrive in the mail due to time constraints.
Not to say that i was in a rush, but i couldnt wait the 4 business days + 2 weekend days.
I personally would recommend the keys. 5 secs is great time. But if one does not have these keys or the time to purchase some then this post could be useful.
Its just an alternative method for anybody that is interested in removing their Monsoon HU.

4 hours (or in this case 30 min.) vs. the 6 days of shipping time... At the time I had no choice but to take the 30 min.

[CMihalcheon]

Yeah the keys are tricky to find. Luckily a local shop sold the 42dd ones over the counter, took 15 mins driving to get them

[Canadian_VWDubber]

Thanks and good job fostex....I've been looking for something like this...

[fostex]

Quote, originally posted by Canadian_VWDubber »

Thanks and good job fostex....I've been looking for something like this...

[WaveMagnet]

very informative. thanks for taking the extra time to do this, with al the smart @sses on this thread, its nice to see someone do somthing helpful for his fellow vw enthusiast. i happened to like the non oem keys

[Trititan]

also instead of taking the radio apart you could have taken the dash apart, its what i have to do, no more radio

[dogger]

Quote, originally posted by Trititan »

also instead of taking the radio apart you could have taken the dash apart, its what i have to do, no more radio

Is the trim bezel on the screen real or is this computer generated? Photoshop? The screen image looks real, but the bezel looks like its not part of the original photo to me. Just curious.

[Trititan]

its real...

http://www.vgdominion.com/100_1000.MOV

[dogger]

Cool. Thats a really nice job. Sorry for questioning it.

[pwnt by pat]

That looks like one of the purchased Xenarc brushed aluminum ones

Gotta be cool and fab your own.


Modified by pwnt by pat at 1:38 AM 8-1-2007

[dogger]

Quote, originally posted by pwnt by pat »

That looks like one of the purchased Xenarc brushed aluminum ones Gotta be cool and fab your own. Modified by pwnt by pat at 1:38 AM 8-1-2007

Haha! Now that I think of it I've seen the Xenarc one your talking about. No wonder it looks so perfect. LOL!

[Trititan]

yup, i got the bezel from jon-g from mp3car.com 20 of them were sent out and i was the first one done. i have not seen any installs of anyone else with this screen

[fostex]

Quote, originally posted by WaveMagnet »

very informative. thanks for taking the extra time to do this, with al the smart @sses on this thread, its nice to see someone do somthing helpful for his fellow vw enthusiast. i happened to like the non oem keys

cheers!

[fostex]

Quote, originally posted by Trititan »

its real... http://www.vgdominion.com/100_1000.MOV

holy heck thats noice~!
Took out my Kenwood deck
LoL


Modified by fostex at 7:22 PM 8-2-2007

[Hashberry]

thank you so much for this guide, i followed it today and now have a new deck installed.....i actually paid 12 bucks for the proper keys, but the damn thing wouldnt come out, i took it to the dealer and they couldnt get it to budge either

[dogger]

Usually that means that someone tried removing it improperly by sticking the keys in the wrong direction.

But I have also heard that some radios don't release properly to begin with. Yet another great German idea. Thankfully they ditched that approach finally.

[fostex]

[Platinum Dubber]

Thats idiotic.. My cars crying outside right now.

[kimbokrn]

sorry to resurrect this, but thank you soooooooooooo much for writing this up 5 years ago. life saver. <3

(especially the first part! one of my stupidass keys doesn't work so i'll be using your facelift method tomorrow.)

[str8valve78]

subscribed!!!

[lovercase]

Very professional post, learned a lot, thanks OP

[lowgolf666]

i also had both of ur problems. the head unit wouldnt release so i took the dash apart, nd drilled holes next to the detents nd pushed on them w a screw driver. I installed a pioneer avic d3 touch screen but have to turn it on and off manually but the screen doesnt turn off completely. thank you for the right up its gunna help greatly.

[str8valve78]

i wanna do the same to my car. i am gonna put a kenwood in place of my monsoon hu and keeping with the monsoon amp. is this the harness i need?http://www.amazon.com/Scosche-VW03B-..._bxgy_e_text_b