I had the head unit out while trying to track down a loose connection (diagnosed via email by Mart - top man). The problem turned out to be elsewhere but I thought that I'd do a quick pictorial anyway.
This has been done before, but if you are like me and need an idiots guide - this should cover it all.
First, push the red button down and move gearstick into Neutral. It might be a good idea to put the handbrake on for this. I didn't, but only because I have a dead flat surface.
Slide down the plastic gaiter at the bottom of the gearstick, to reveal two screws.
With the screws removed, slide the loose gearstick up to remove it.
Next remove the cup holder. It isn't attached by any screws or anything. I just gave it a good yank upwards.
Now to remove the cover thing (whatever it's called) that has the gear indicators and ECT/POWER switch on it. It is attached by four clips, one in each corner or thereabouts. It didn't take much force to pop it out.
However, there were some bits attached to the bottom. You probably have the lower two in the picture. These are those 'orrible electrical connectors, which I always find a pain to disconnect.
The top one was the indictor for my alarm. That popped out with a bit of encouragement.
Next were the six screws holding the top part of the centre console in.
Once the screws are out, a quick yank towards you will free up the console. Don't pull it too far, there are still some connecters attached.
...which are two more electrical connecters on the drivers side.
One thing that I didn't realise was that I could have disconnected the light in the ashtray and left the ashtray attached to the console that I was removing. Oh well, if you need to disconnect it the screws are shown here. There is only one screw on the other side.
Because I disconnected the ashtray, the remaining part of the console looked like this.
Had I taken it out with the console, it would have looked like this. You can see a blue connector. That was all I needed to disconnect from the ashtray in the first place. D'oh!
With all that stuff out of the way, six bolts/screws hold in place the cage that holds the air-con and head unit. I didn't use a flash for this photo so you can only see four but I have pointed out the locations of all six.
Now you can pull the cage forward. Not very far because of the electrical connections again, but far enough to get at the screws (indicated) that hold the head unit in place.
That's it. Replacing it was just a case of reversing the procedure.
However, be warned - the most useful piece of equipment for this was a telescopic magnet to retrieve the screws that fell into that big hole. I should have said that at the beginning!
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