Getting the sodding car radio out

It's a stock (I think) Ford Mondeo radio casette. Radio works fine but the casette is bust. There's one stuck in there and the eject button doesn't work, neither does the pressing of the rev/fwd buttons together do anything at all. I want to remove it and either fix it or get a new one. Or even botch in a 3.5mm jack around the dash so I can plug in my iPod. I don't have the radio removal thingymabob but haven't needed it in the past. The innards of four biros have worked wonders on all radios I've removed (one)



There's a little blanking plate which sits underneath that I've removed, slip each biro into each hole and it should ease out, right? Wrong. Very wrong. This thing is secured in pretty damn well. As you can see from my photo I can maneouvre the unit up and down in the slot but not pull it out. I can do the sliding up and down without the biros in place which is the worrying thing, tells me they aren't doing anything. When I slide them in they feel secure and I do get resistance enough to tell me they're doing their job.

I've eased (wrenched) the unit (little *******) as much as I dare without causing any plastic to break, and it won't budge. I've tried with ignition on/off and keys completely out to no avail. I am insulted I am not able to remove the little blighter and for every minute that thing stays in my car I die a little inside. Help please

Just give it a good tug mate.

It looks like it's nearly there tbh! It looks as if you've tried pulling it out at a funny angle, try adjusting that...

I had the proper tools from Halfords to remove mine (Fiesta). They were fairly sturdy. Not sure biros would do it :/

Yea, you need some force, biros just ain't gonna cut it - buy or borrow the little U shaped tools. You could try broken up coathanger instead I guess.

Use 4 nails if you have them. I have the correct tools I found out a while ago but before that I used 4 nails.

The angle was purely illustrative. I tried pulling it out straight.

How much am I looking at to buy a radio removal tool? Do they differ at all?

My Radio is similar to that (I have a Fiesta) and it took me 30 seconds to remove the radio which makes me almost 100% certain that your stereo doesn't want to shift because of the angle it's sitting at.

Wiggle it about, or put it back to where it was, use your biros again and pull it out at the proper angle.

I used small flat head screw drivers and then used one flat headed screw driver to lever one side out then the other and so on till it slid out.

Sorry I couldn't be any more helpful but it looks like you're almost there bud.

Mine had little catches on the end.

Ford radios need the thingies pushing outwards to release the catch. It isn't released just by pushing something in the holes.

Gilly said:

Mine had little catches on the end.

Ford radios need the thingies pushing outwards to release the catch. It isn't released just by pushing something in the holes.

Click to expand...

That's how I got mine out by putting 2 small flat headed screw drivers into the holes and sliding it out mate.

Gilly said:

Ford radios need the thingies pushing outwards to release the catch. It isn't released just by pushing something in the holes.

Click to expand...

This is correct, looks like you need to do this on the right hand side.

Old Metal coat hanger.
Cut the two round corners off and bend them in to U shape tools. Stuff them in keeping your fingers tight producing inside pressure to the bends of hanger.
Once firmly jammed in ease the whole cassette out in one clean pull. Job done.

When i removed the stock radio from my rover, I used 4 small drill peices and it worked a treat.

Maybe give it a go?

malc30 said:

Old Metal coat hanger.
Cut the two round corners off and bend them in to U shape tools. Stuff them in keeping your fingers tight producing inside pressure to the bends of hanger.
Once firmly jammed in ease the whole cassette out in one clean pull. Job done.

Click to expand...

This is how it's done, I did it at the weekend on my old escort. Was easy as, you just need to have something that you can apply a reasonable amount of pressure with.