CD Player installation

[Pharaoh]

Hey,
I've got a 98 Civic LX. I have the opportunity to get my hands on a CD player to put into the car, I was just wondering if I can do it, and the difficulty involved. I'm not new to wiring, but installing radio's I've never done before.

What do I need to check to make sure I can do this? Nothing has been changed on the car since the factory (console wise). It came with the cassette player by the cup holder, and then the radio display higher on the dash.

Hopefully someone can help.

Thanks

[alphalanos]

yeah its really easy. you should allow yourself 1-2 hours if you are unsure about your abilities. heres what you need:
1) a wiring harness for your specific vehicle (BestBuy, Circuit City, any audio shop, even Wal Mart has them)
2) a pair of wire strippers (or you can be cheap and use scissors)
3) wire crimps, at least 20 (easy, RadioShack or any electronics store)
4) Soldering iron and solder (optional, use instead of wire crimps for the best connection)

Basically this is what you do: Be patient!!
1) remove the plastic cover from around the shifter by removing the screws that hold in various places on the sides. you may have to look around a lot to find them.
2)After you remove the plastic cover from the shifter area, and the piece under the ac controls, you should have access to the area under the radio. remove the casette player also, if there is one. remove the cupholder if you have not already done so.
3) Once you manage to gain access to the inside of the dash, look up and you will see two screws that are attached to the bottom of the radio. sometimes these are really tight, so be careful. once you get them out just slide the radio out and unplug it.
4) you may need a dash kit to make your new CD player fit snugly. plug in the wire harness to your cars stock wiring, then just use the wire crimps to attach all of the colored wires from the wire harness to your new CD player harness together. just match them up. make sure you make the connections tight. pay attention to striped wires and similarly colored wires, you dont want to mix them up.
5) with all the wires attatched including the antenna plug, , fit the CD player into place and make sure everything works before putting the dash back together.

if you have any other questions just ask.

[Pharaoh]

Cool. Thanks.

You mentioned I might need to change the dash cover, to make it fit snuggly.

I've been told that all aftermarket radio's are the same size. Any clue if it should be bigger or smaller? Or a fit?

Thanks again.

[west nile]

you need a metra guide to make the cd player fit properly because while your new cd player is made to pop right into your factory location there are no mounting brackets on your new cd player to mount directly to your stock mounting location. That is where the metra guide comes into play, it allows you to mount your new cd player to the metra guide to your car and fit like it came out of the factory like that.

[96CivicEX06]

If you have keyless entry you'll have to buy a specific wiring harness that allows that mind you.