Stuck Radio

[FatherPaneloux]

My radio seems to be stuck in the dash of my '94 s4. The battery died and the radio went into lock mode. I bought the car about 2 years ago and it came with lots of service documentation, but apparently not the radio code. I took it a dealership who offered to look the code up. After about 25 minutes they were unable to get the radio out to get the serial number off the back. They said something about a security bolt holding it and that it would be several hours of labor to get it out. I searched pretty extensively but didn't find anything about a security bolt on these cars, so I picked about a set of din radio tools and tried myself, but it does seem pretty stuck in there. Anyone know what I should do next? Am I destine to be without a radio?

[UrS4boy]

Post a photo of the radio so we can see whether radio is truely OE. OE UrS radios DO NOT have a security bolt. A 94 Gamma Bose radio can be removed with two pieces of bent coat hanger, each shaped into a square(ish) C.

[GoHeels]

Yeah. If you're looking at something like this, with 2 holes on each side.

I'd say try being more aggressive with it, or try thicker coat-hanger.

[FatherPaneloux]

Yeah, that's what I've got:




I've tried quite aggressively with a pair of these:

[UrS4boy]

Okay. On the sides of that radio, there are two springy metal locking tynes (on each side) that pop out when the radio is fully pushed into the plastic console housing the radio sits in. The locking tynes are now sitting outside the edge of the plastic console housing. To get them to retract enough, you need to insert those metal "C"s (lack of better word), all the way in and then push the exposed ends of the "C"s apart (each towards their respective car doors, Left one towards the left door, right towards the righ). This will help to further retract the locking tynes. At the same time you are pushing the "C"s outwards, pull on them to start the radio to slide out. If that doesn't work, you need a helper to add the third hand to slip it into the cassette door and then pull on the radio while the "C"s are being pushed outwards.

Should work.

[FatherPaneloux]

Thanks for the advice. It seems like the resistance of the clips can be felt when inserting the tools, but the radio does not budge at all.

I guess my next option is to try taking it to an auto electronics place and seeing if they have better luck. I can't imagine what else they'd do, but maybe they would have the touch from pulling hundreds of radios.