A Little bit of History
Once upon a time, aka a long, long time ago, sometime in 2011, I got a 1.3 Myvi SE. Apart from the Engine, the Audio unit was working non-stop everytime VeeChai was on the road. And so, after about 15-years, the front of the audio unit has started to deteriorate.
What is the Happening
It seems that the polarizer has failed or rather, succumbed to the Malaysian Vehicular heat. So, the only logical solution is to buy a ne... er, get another polarizer. After being with the current company for years, maintenance is more of less pulling out and pushing back plastic trims, along with the holding screws. Japanese cars are mostly designed to slip together, helping to speed up repairs.
Removing the Fascia
The first thing I need to do is to remove all the decorative plastic trims and stuff so that the Audio unit is free from any obstructions.
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| There was not much Sun today and so, with a soothing breeze, I figure it was a good time to do this, outside of the house. |
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| The black piece of plastic is the polarizer and the transparent ones are most likely some protective layer. Whereas the solid plastic at the top was a soft protective plastic which I meant to remove some time ago, maybe a decade ago but well, I got lazy. |
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| To remove the three knobs, firmly grip their pointing arrows and then yank it out. You can use pliers or stuff but you need to have some cloth over them and do it carefully in case you slip. Once that is done, remove the two screws on the left and right knob area. |
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| The next thing you need to do is to remove the coin holder so you can remove the two screws. |
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| With that, you are now free to slowly yank out the two front fascia. You need to remove them together as the upper and lower parts are clipped together. |
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| If you want, you can remove the cigarette lighter cables but do make sure which is which since this is DC and some devices can be polarity sensitive. |
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| Once you are clear you can now remove the Audio unit's upper flange by removing the two screws on the sides. |
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| Then take a T10 to remove the bottom two screws. |
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| Like all electronic equipment, do not yank out everything because there are wire and cables still attached.. |
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| Just as I guessed although I was not surprised. The Mechanic who removed the whole dashboard had difficulty putting back the left screw. And it's nowhere to be found in the car. |
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Do note the orientation of the cables but in this case, the smaller connector is on the left while the larger one would be on its right. The thick cable on the far right would be the Aerial. So, if you're replacing the aerial later, you might have to open up even more. Replacing the Polarizer |
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| Putting the Audio unit face down (if you can have some support with a hole for the Volume knob, it was even better) and remove the two small screws. |
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| Using a flat blade, carefully unclip the edges all around the front fascia. |
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| Again, make sure you do not yank the two parts immediately. In this case, carefully remove the small connector by holding its both sides and rocking it left to right. |
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| Slowly unscrew the four screws. Use a big screwdriver so that you do not mutilate the screw heads. Press into the screw and slowly twist. If you hear a click before it gives way, you know that this audio unit has never been opened before. |
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| Carefully lay the two parts as if you're opening a book. This is because there is a small thin pair of cables to the microphone. You can remove it but in my case, I am not going to. |
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| This area is where the LCS' gum kinda messed up. After IPA failed, I used Lighter fluid cleaner but the effect was minimal. |
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| It is not easy because the lighter fluid clears up fast. I am not even going to remove the whole LCD assembly and thoroughly clean the glass with, say, thinner. |
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| Anyway, I cut the replacement polarizer to size and using the fluid lighter as 'lubricant' against the original glue, I slid the piece and slowly remove the remaining protective sheet. The polarizer comes with two sides of protective clear sheets. |
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| A rogue piece of the original polarizer sheet got stuck inside. |
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| Screw #4 had a broken pillar. This is strange as the unit was never subjected to any brute force. I can suspect the Mechanic but there was no prove. |
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| A very beautiful design where the whole A/C unit, the coins holder was lit with these two T5 orange bulbs. |
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| Finally, all is done after 70 minutes. And I am not happy because looking at the screen, I knew I did a boo-boo, most likely because I oriented the polarizer sheet at the wrong angle. When I have the time, I am going to remove that sheet and this time, properly alight the remaining polarizer sheet again. |
