My original head unit has been playing up, shuts down when cold until warmed up. Ridiculous money for replacement of same age and possibly same problem (l suspect ageing capacitors) so l have replaced it with a 6.86" touchscreen android.
Made up a new faceplate and played around with screen angle a little fine tuning trying to retain the general flavour of the original layout.

Fitted with faceplate in place.

Slight trimming and change of screen angle required to fit height.

New android unit out of box. Single din 6.86" touchscreen.

 

Well done....

 

Lovely to see a bit of spot welding ......
Found one for £46 ( $55) so we will see how it fits

 

Could you give us an idea of how the original comes out? All the console out or does it come forwards?
How is the new mounted ? Just a very tight front plate or are there brackets /screws.
The wiring is not a problem (for me ).
Is it tilted about 15 deg for looks or to get good viewing angle on the display?

 

l made up a couple of gadgets some time ago for getting the original out. They insert to full depth and are then moved sideways and then back out slightly thus releasing the catches. A pic of top side of head unit showing catches helps with placement.
The angle of new screen was dictated by slope of original facia and height of space available. New screen brackets stop screen at correct point pushing in but l haven't used any lock to hold it in position just stuck a couple of foam rubber strips to top of body so it's a nice firm hold but not a pain to get back out.

Gadgets used to unlock and extract original head unit.

 

Baxtor
I know there are two clips preventing the radio going out the mounting but everything I read talks about removing the console. Is this right or wrong ? any photo of top of old radio would be useful.

Made two t shaped strips very thin but can only push them in about 30mm anywhere across the front. The picture shows no obstruction ..any ideas.
Everyone says take out out he console but you seem to say NO so can you amplify on the proceedure

thanks

 

Trust me, the radio can be removed in 5 minutes flat. When you insert your strip's between top edge of head unit and bottom of the row of switches above it needs to angle down slightly in order to hug the top of the radio casing, thus guiding it between the casing and the retaining cage. A very slight downward bend on the leading edge of your strips will help.
First time might be a bit fiddly but it will come.
When drawing your strip's back out after sideways movement to "hook" catches you need to pull them back out just enough to park the end of the strip where the catch meets the rear of the cage.

 

Yes I must be above the cage and there is a lip at the rear I am feeling ..will have another go tomorrow !!!

 

When l was trying to fix my original, because it was intermittent temperature related problem it was in and out on a semi regular basis.
l found a strip of thin aluminium (l used piece of old offset printing plate) secured the whole depth of case over top of each lock held the unit securely in place but still enabled the unit to be slid free just with fingers in tape slot.

 

and I used several old 'long' feeler gauges I had from MB ownership days...slid them in and pop out it came, of course I did everything I could to get the volume control to do what I wanted and basically FAILED! So it went back in a bit cleaner.
wj

 

No this bugger is not coming out.
I notice the edges are curved while some facias are very square .
If you have not suggestions I will get it out with a crowbar in the cassette hole!

I have ordered a unit with a 7 inch flip up display which covers all the black facia when UP and goes into its slot when down so as not to attract attention.

 

I didn't realise we had different models. May be similar but not sure about locking on that one.

 

ITS OUT !!
applied a large force to the left and right sides and bust out the front.
I could then see that the cage that holds it is much further in and lower than I thought.
Two strips of 0.5mm steel and pushed down the catches and its out .
I have spent much time researching a replacement so will do a separate post on that with photos.

 

What's the quality / response time like with that? Prices seem very cheap on one site I found in the UK for similar stuff

 

I ran my original through a 5 channel amp via the speaker signals and a few crossovers, the android is using the same and l can't fault it. Certainly a big difference in physical build between old and new, but it all seems to work, whether that's still the case when it has its 21st birthday l'm not sure.