My Honda Fit is sold (took less than five hours on Craigslist!) and my replacement car, a 2011 Honda CR-V (assembled and registered in Mexico!) is parked in my garage. For the first time in five years, I have the option of installing my empeg in my car. Well, sort of installing. I will have built a custom cradle to hold the empeg in the center console, and will connect to the car's stereo system, such as it is, through the Aux-In audio jack. At least I'll have the empeg UI, which even after, what, 15 years? is still way ahead of any OEM system today.

Actually, the CR-V's stereo doesn't sound too bad. Nothing to get excited over, but listenable. Maybe 1/3 as good as the system in my beloved ShoWagon, which I totaled seven years ago in a six-car pileup in the ice fog in Alaska.

Anyway, in order to do this minimal installation, I need to remove a trim panel on the center console to get access to 12-V ignition-switched power so I can run a wire under the carpet to the empeg. To remove the trim panel, I need to remove the two trim retaining clips shown in the attached photo.

How do those come out? Do I need a special tool or something? Even though there appear to be screw heads in the middle of them, they are not threaded, and fairly insistent prying with a screwdriver accomplished nothing other than putting some small scratches in the trim panel.

Anybody know what to do with these?

tanstaafl.

I would highly recommend getting yourself a trim removal set, I got one from eBay for around £10 (UK) and it will stop you from marking your trims.

Hard to tell from your picture, but they look like the ones where you have to pull out the centre (cross head section) which frees the clips inside so you can then remove the larger clip. The trim removal set will have bits made for doing exactly this.

Cheers

Cris

Thanks Cris. I solved the problem the easy way -- I drove over to the local body shop and for 20 pesos he removed both trim panels for me. I saw how he did the clips, and it was just as you said.

tanstaafl.

As Cris said, those are plastic pop-rivet style fasteners, except these particular ones have some internal threads for easy removal. Use a small Phillips screwdriver to carefully turn the centre portions about half a turn anti-clockwise. This should leave them protruding a few millimetres from the surface, making them easier to grab and pull out.

cheers

12V ignition-switched power to where the empeg will be located is now in place. I had a router power supply that died and salvaged the cord from it as it had the right plug to fit the empeg, and the empeg powers up properly.

Now I have to wait for the RCA --> 1/8" mini-plug cable to arrive, have the sheet metal shop make a simple cradle to hold the empeg, then have the leather shop cover the cradle in leather, and finally drill a single quarter-inch hole in the center console, and I'll be in business.

The empeg will be mounted at about a 60 degree angle (i.e., 30 degrees from vertical) and will swivel left or right for use by driver or passenger. I remember discussion years ago that mounting a hard drive at an angle like that put stress on the spindle bearings and would shorten the life of the hard drive. Is this true, or an old wives' tale, or perhaps theoretically possible but nobody has ever tested it?

tanstaafl.

Which power input are you using? The AC adapter socket or the large multi-pin connector?

I seem to recall the multi-pin connector has separate inputs for 12 volt constant power and switched/accessory power, plus a display dim input for night time.

Since this installation, limited as it is, does not use the empeg mounting sled, I am using the AC adapter socket.

The player will be located at about thigh level between the driver and passenger towards the rear of the center console, with the screen facing up at a 60 degree angle from horizontal. In that location (not optimal, I know, but I have limited options), night-time dimming won't be necessary. I'll be able to use the volume controls on the steering wheel, but the rest of the empeg functions will have to be by remote, probably have to bounce the signal off the headliner. The AUX input for the car stereo system is located two inches from the back of the empeg.

Attached is a paper mockup (1/2 scale) of what the empeg will sit in. It will be attached through the "foot" with a knob that can be loosened so the player will rotate to face either the driver or the passenger. It's a pretty simplistic installation, but enormously better than no empeg at all!

tanstaafl.

I had my empeg mounted at an angle for several years with no hard drive problems. Not a terribly smooth riding vehicle also.