I finally got up the courage to rip out the coupe rear compartment carpet/trim and the trim from the passenger footwell to the cargo compartment to install an OEM 12 disc CD changer. 2004 MSG Coupe.

There were no clear instructions on how to remove all that trim - not even here on the forum. Just "remove the trim and carpet" stuff. Most was simple (but scary for a new guy ) - just pull the trim off GENTLY. But the area of the right speaker/seat belt/hatch strut trim was not clearly covered at all.

If you are going to do this there are a couple of pins in that area that have to be removed - one small one in the window area weather seal (don't forget this or you will tear the seal) and a larger one under the speaker trim (very flimsy)- then pull gently until loosened. Even then, all you can do is to loosen the trim piece unless you remove the seat belt upper attachment and the hatch strut. I just loosened the trim and ran a stiff wire from the passenger side area to the hatch area so I could feed the harness through. As an aside, if you need to remove the seat belt upper attachment you will need a very large torx bit.

Once all that was done, the rest of the job was a piece of cake. Epoxy and pop-rivet the attachment plate, install and hook up the changer, fasten down the harness, replace trim. The whole job took 2 1/2 hours.

eBay OEM Changer $50, Fichtner Installation Kit $110, new CD Magazine $25 - total $185 for a $700 factory option. Performance- priceless.

Oh, by the way - the Fichtner-provided installation instructions inluded only the odd numbered pages including French - LOTS OF HELP.


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Congrats on the first major mod.
Sounds like you had fun and things went well.

 

Congrats on the install and thanks for the tips to get the job done.