Removing The Radio

[surrealillusions]

How easy is it to remove the radio, plus speakers and anything radio related, from an S1??

[fentuz]

The radio is easy.

 

the speakers, you need to remove seats harnesses etc...

[surrealillusions]

Are there any guides on how to remove it? Considering I'm not that technically minded when it comes to cars and hacking them to pieces.

[P4N Lotus]

I find that the tools they give you with stereos are rubbish to remove. Easiest way to remove the radio is to have two house hold knifes, slide them down each side until it unclicks from the holder if you then add some pressure from both sides inwards and pull towards you it should just slide straight out no problems

[surrealillusions]

What about all the rest of the bits? Like the wiring and stuff like that, that connects to the speakers. Ideally would like to remove anything radio related.

[Phil S1]

Unless you're on a major weight saving exercise I'm not sure I'd go to the trouble of completely removing the wiring. That said, it would just be a matter of tracing the wires as you go. I would assume the wires from the speakers feed along the tunnel under the handbrake and then up under the dash into the back of the head unit. They'd be the wire to the aerial to remove as well of course.

[surrealillusions]

Thanks. Will need to find some time to do it now.

[Jonathan E]

It would be a major pita to remove all the wiring,my S1 is as nature intended ie without a head unit of any kind,but the wiring for a head unit is still behind the dash and that in turn is wired into the cars loom. To strip all that out would take a huge amount of time.

[surrealillusions]

Ah ok, I best leave it then

[graeme_laslett]

I had the same idea to remove the wires to the radio and it really is a pain. All the wires are tightly bound in the main loom that runs along the centre console / handbrake.

 

However, the speaker cables come back in to the cabin from the engine bay through a small grometted hole. If you cut the speaker cable here the hole is the perfect size to take the tube for a plumbed in fire extinguisher! Just a thought if you are heading in that direction.

 

G

[kayj_prod]

Possibly the issue of ease of resale too, should you want to one day. I know when I bought mine that a radio kit was essential -for those long drives where a bit of entertainment is nice.

 

I reckon a standard speaker driver must weigh about 1kg, and at least removing those is easily reversible.

[surrealillusions]

Possibly the issue of ease of resale too, should you want to one day.

 

Yeah, thats one of the main thoughts. Just remove the head unit, and patch the dash up with something (rather than leaving a hole). Remove the speakers, but leave the wiring in place for when/if i come to sell it in the future.

[Phil S1]

Yeah, thats one of the main thoughts. Just remove the head unit, and patch the dash up with something (rather than leaving a hole). Remove the speakers, but leave the wiring in place for when/if i come to sell it in the future.

 

Rather than 'patching' the dash up, Lotus do an extra long insert specifically for cars without radios....they come up on ebay from time to time.

[chorton_1]

Regarding removing the original S1 radio: assuming it is the original rotating face Kenwood, you do indeed slide th release tooals up either side to release. However, after you slide it out a little bit it gets stuck. After an immense amount of swearing and pissing about, you'll find a little catch in the corner of the unit that you lift to fully remove it.