I'm about to embark on a radio change, and the faceplate on the replacement unit is kind of beat up. Is it possible to do a faceplate transplant from my old unit?

 

Yup.... I found these pics on eBay

 

Thanks. I actually asked that seller how he did it, but it was done in a separate facility and he didn't know how it was done.

I ended up ordering what turned out to be a defective unit, so experimented and was able to remove the faceplate.

Once all the screws were off, the hard part was getting the knobs off the jog wheel -- they snap off (always a worrying way to remove something).

 

I received a replacement 4XL2 unit from an refurbisher. First step was to plug it in and see if it functioned -- it did! But the faceplate was extremely gunky, and the jog wheel was scratched. It was pretty easy to remove the CD unit from the faceplate and reattach it to my faceplate. I eventually had swap the rear mounting bracket because the original one was bent. Now its all put back and seems to work so I can listen to my CDs and audio DVDs again! I hope it lasts for a while. I guess I'll hold on to my old CD player in case this one goes out I can perhaps send that one in for refurbishing.

When you work on the radio, you have to disconnect the battery, so there's lots of reprogramming to look forward to -- like the remote, and sometimes the auto-window function. Plus all the presets when there's a new radio unit. And don't forget all the secondary plugs (jog wheel, seat heaters, accessory power, "not an ashtray" light").

 

Sweet! I know a lot of electronics shops do CD changer refurbishes. You might able to find one cheap.