Anyone know how to remove the center section that contains the cup holders...? I'm trying to mount RCA audio plugs inside the arm rest near the DC outlet, but am having a hard time gaining access there... I saw a photo of that top section removed, so I thought it might be possible...

 

I just did it this weekend....

Pull the crap out of it. (Gentle but firm...like your girl...or man....whatever) There are like 8 of those plastic/metal pressure clips that hold down the top of the console...the cupholders and the shifter boot (M/T) all come out as one piece. If you have the M/T, grab underneath where the shiftboot is secured...it provides a sturdy lip to hold onto and pull from....THen you can get to the screws for pulling the lower console out (4 underneath the top console, two inside the armrest. There are hook type things that hold it to the front of the dash, so you will have to lift the rear of the armrest almost to the roof while gently pulling backwards. Pull apart the armrest and the inside box (6 screws - 4 on the side, 2 underneath) and you will have a nice area to work with for drilling 1/4" holes for your panel mount RCA's. Careful when hiding your RCA's after reassembly...my cupholders didnt want to open smoothly, so i had to rearrange where i put the wires. Now everythings cool. BTW, if you took out the lower "not an ashtray" compartment...its a pain to get re-centered. i suggest keeping the lower two screws loose and then snap the top console back in, then align and tighten the top two screws...undo the top console and tighten those. I had this stupid not-even gap when i just tried to eyeball it. Good luck...its well worth it

 

Thanks for the great instructions Redline!

Now does anyone have pictures?

If my SNHOND3 arrives this week I'm gonna try the install this weekend. I've never done any mods to cars before so I hope all goes well. I just can't live without the iPod in my car anymore!

 

So right, you wont believe how hard this is the first time. Grab the lip inside the shift knob, and definately work front to back. To get the back off I held the thin piece between the cuholders and ebrake.

 

There are some pics in the tape/mp3 player instructions:

here

 

nice... I'll try this out tonight... and while I'm at it, maybe I can figure out how to get rid of this buzz I get from the SNHOND3 when the engine is running... it's perfectly clean when the engine is off, but driving around produces a buzz in tune with the RPMs... no source is connected to it at the moment, just the GLI line hanging off to the side until I can get it mounted properly...

 

That's what the GLI line is supposed to eliminate. A minor one will almost always be there unfortunately.

Try connecting a source (portable unit, etc.) to see if it goes away...mine does.

 

This might sound a bit odd...

I hooked up a GLI as I did the install, just figured I would need one... When I turned everything on, I had horrible amound of alternator noise! I was pissed about this of course, thinking the GLI was crap. I took it out, hooked everything back up, and I had no noise! The GLI was the source of the noise, lol

 

Wow...odd. Mine was exactly the opposite.

 

wow... that center console panel did NOT want to pop out... "gently pry" indeed... I must have spent a good half hour wrestling with that thing... I have the A/T, and there is NOWHERE that I could tell to get a good hand hold on it... I finally got the first clip to pop open by levering up the cupholder section through the DC outlet... after that, it was cake...

As far as the buzzing goes, I think I got that figured out... it had to do with the placement of the GLI... initially, I had it placed near the head, and as I moved it around there, I was picking up MAD interference from it... so I turned the line around so that the GLI was near the armrest, and the buzzing dropped significantly... ideally, to get rid of the buzzing, I'd have to suspend the GLI in midair away from everything... but realistically, I managed to position it so that I just got a very faint buzz with the volume cranked up to 40, and thats good enough for me...

 

I never heard of a GLI causing interference. But if it works well without it, that great it just saves you $20.