How do you remove the stock stereo from a Subaru Legacy?

Answer 1

The short answer is:

1 - Use a flathead screwdriver to release the clips of the A/C blower panel. Just gently pry it away and rest it on your dashboard. Try not to pull too hard on your wires. You may not have to do this at all, but I found it useful, particularly since it allowed more light to reach my workspace.

2- Push the button on your drink holder and carefully pull it out. Watch from above where the little tab fits into the brace above it (if you have taken out the A/C) - you will have to feed it back in the same place when you put everything back.

3 - Remove the ashtray and take out the brass colored screws holding up the ashtray mounting frame from below. You will need a very short Phillips for this part. (When replacing, you will have to press on the faceplate with your free hand to get the screw holes to line up again, so be aware of where they are.)

4 - Using a flathead screwdriver, carefully pry the faceplate away from the console. Use gentle pressure because the shaft of your screwdriver can gouge the soft foam of the console and leave a permanent dent.

5 - Once you have loosened the console faceplate, pull it away from the top and lift it a little to get the tab out from the bottom of the console. Be aware of the wires on your lighter. It may pop off and you will have to reconnect it before you reinstall the faceplate.

6 - Remove the 6 screws that hold the stereo and junk tray. You will need a long Phillips to remove the ones in the back.

7 - Pull out the entire frame. There are two screws holding the stereo unit in this frame. Once you remove these, your stereo should be ready to disconnect and pull out.

8 - Reverse to put everything away.

Below I describe installing a replacement stereo. (Make sure you check all your wires and screws before you put the stereo back into the console and make sure the tab from the drink holder fits into the slot or your A/C blower will be impossible to get back in).

I just did this last week. It was not "hard", but took me about 7 hours. It was my first attempt at installing a stereo by myself, so I think that's pretty good. Once I figured out that you have to use a very short Phillips screwdriver to remove the screws from the ashtray holder, I thought it would be smooth, but I was wrong. I ended up with the A/C blower unit sitting on my dashboard and loose screws all over the place.

The main problems stemmed from the fact that the wiring harness from the original installation did not match my new unit. The new unit had a wiring harness with 12 wires, but the original had 14. This meant that I had to figure out which of the "extra" original wires were essential. I did not need the wire for the antenna motor on the new unit, so that one was easy, leaving three to match with the old setup. The details are unimportant, so don't worry if you're confused here.

Another issue was that the Chilton manual I have was useless in indicating the wire colors for the speakers (and all the other connections for that matter), so I had to take off all four door panels to determine pos and negs for all of them. The rear wires were easily identified with "+" and "-" marked right on the connector, but the front speakers run through a clip and come out both red with no stripes, so I was not able to map them. Luckily, they were paired nicely in the harness, so once I figured out the locations of the pos and neg of the rears, the fronts lined up the same (neg on the top row and pos on the bottom). (I have the wire harness positions figured out, so if anyone wants them, just email me).

Lastly, the body of my new unit was too wide for the console faceplate. I also figured out that once you remove the faceplate, it does not want to go back in. Between the lighter component being very long and the tab along the bottom (the one that fits between your shifter console and the vertical center console), it just makes things difficult.

To solve both of these issues, I used a strong utility knife to completely remove the entire bottom tab (I figured that the ashtray screws will hold it well enough that it's not going to flop around anyway - this left a little visible gap, but I don't care). I also carefully marked out the space that would be needed to feed the stereo unit in from the front of the console and trimmed the opening. It was about 1/8" too wide, so I took off about 1/16" from both sides, only about 3" long from the top to accommodate the body of the unit. If you have to do this, cut slowly and lightly with many passes. If you get too impatient or use too much strength, you can overshoot your endpoints and damage the faceplate.

Since the stereo is a little wider than the original, I had some trouble getting it into the metal frame that also holds the little junk tray beneath the unit. To solve this, I fed it in straight with the left side going nicely into the frame, and used a screwdriver from above to widen the top a little so the right side could also slide in. Make sure you connect all your wires through the faceplate first, you will not be able to get to them once the unit is in place (but you probably already know this).

The installation - finally - was beautifully done and the new unit works perfectly with one caveat: since I had no wiring diagram, I guessed wrong on one of the wires, so my stereo is not connected to the car's battery. So every time I turn off the car, the unit loses all my settings - clock, radio presets, equalizer preferences, etc. If anyone knows which wire is the missing link, please tell me. I only have two options to chose from, but I would rather not have to keep guessing at this.

Next time I install, I will also make sure to use a magnetized screwdriver - lost about 4 screws down the back of the panel!

Have fun and make sure you have a good flashlight and perhaps a helper. I got a crick in my neck trying to hold the light while using both hands to do the wiring.

I got the following information from another search:

Here are the connections for your 1993 Subaru Legacy:

Radio Constant Wire 12V+: Blue/Yellow

Radio Switched Wire 12V+: Yellow/Red

Radio Ground Wire: Black

Radio Illumination Wire: Green

Radio Dimmer Wire: n/a

Front Speakers Size: 6 1/2″

Front Speakers Location: Doors

Left Front Speaker Wire (+): Brown/White

Left Front Speaker Wire (-): Green/Black

Right Front Speaker Wire (+): Red/Yellow

Right Front Speaker Wire (-): White/Black

Rear Speakers Size: 6 1/2″

Rear Speakers Location: Rear Doors

Left Rear Speaker Wire (+): White/Red

Left Rear Speaker Wire (-): Red/Green

Right Rear Speaker Wire (+): Blue/Green

Right Rear Speaker Wire (-): Red