Removing Phone Cradle

[ddave05]

hey people,

I have a b5.5 highline which came complimentary with an oldschool phone cradle, who's locating metal clip is wedged into the dash. The picture attached shows where the cradle is located (the thick red line). I thought by taking the climatronic unit out, I'd be able to gain access to the area where the metal clip is screwed into. This wasn't the case as there was an area of plastic blocking the recess. I think i may need to take the facia cover off but i'm not 100% sure how to do this and if i'll be able to gain access to where the clip is screwed in. To my knowledge, it's a factory fitted item. Any help is welcome. Cheers in advance.

[chucky28]

i have just done it yesterday myself,
first of all u are in the right process. i had to take out the whole thing to get at mine. my climate control is at the bottom so that came out first then the cd changer. you will find 2 screws at the top of inside the cd changer is. once you take them off the whole surround will pop off. all this to get at one screw to remove the metal holder, its a nightmare.


but i have a problem aswell, i have the metal bit off but i cut the 2 wires from the holder that sat on the metal bit and now my radio will not work. it displays "phone" on the bottom left of the cd screen? any help will that 1?

[ddave05]

Yea this is one important thing my electronics mate told me about before attempting it. He said whatever you do, DONT CUT THE WIRES THAT LEAD TO THE HANDS FREE UNIT (-he said it in capitals ). He mentioned something about not knowing where the wires were earthed etc which would leads to problems later. What i suggest is for you to re-solder the wires together and bung the hands free part under the glovebox area or behind the console where you can't see it. Now your metal clip has been removed it shouldn't take too much space back there.

I understand you have taken the climate out and the cd changer (and i presume the radio too). Did you need to remove the wires from the back of all of these to remove the cover? And how the heck did you take the switches off - do they even need to come off? I tried on the heated seats switch but I think I came close to snapping it. Is it just the radio/climate/cd changer that need to come out? And a final question-where is this one screw that needs to come off?

[chucky28]

the whole surround came off for me so the buttons came with the surround. the carbon fibre bit, i thought myself if i took the bottom bit off i would be able to unscrew the metal clip, but i found out that the whole thing had to come out. all for a stupid metal clip. i was able to pull the whole thing out a few inches to unscrew the clip.


i was thinking of soldering the 2 wires together to see if that will work, but yes i thought of putting the mobile phone holder back on. the radio light comes on but i get a muff sound in the speakers. i took the fuse out as the radio didnt turn off, or none of the buttons worked. everything else in the car seems fine. my front pass headlight bulb blew, but dont know if that has anything to do with me cutting the wires or not. i will change it tomorrow to see. the bulb i took out doesnt look blew tho.