Car stereos are something which most of us cannot do without. It helps to listen to music on the go, and with a smartphone, there is so much more you can do with it these days. Pioneer Car Stereo is one of the industry leaders in this field. They make great car stereos that are user-friendly, reliable, and easy to use.
In this article, we will explain to you how you can remove the Pioneer car stereo without keys.
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How To Remove Pioneer Car Stereo Without Keys?
There are three methods we will talk about in this article. We will cover the first two steps for all of them, and then we will move on to step 3 for each method:
Remove Pioneer Car Stereo Using The Trunk (Method 1)
This is the easiest way to get through this process. Park your car somewhere where you can access its trunk, and simply open it. Now, look at the backside of your Pioneer deck unit. You will find a red release button there. Press it with a flat head screwdriver or a pen’s cap by pressing inwards on it in a downward motion. Once you hear a click sound, pull the stereo out from the vehicle itself carefully without exerting too much pressure or force on it.
Now, the only thing you have to do is to press down on the release button for each of the Pioneer’s wiring harnesses and pull them out from their respective slots. Once that is done, you can separate your car stereo from your vehicle with ease. This method will work in all cases where no visible or physical keys are available. In some rare cases, there might be a visible keyhole present but it would be covered by a rubber stopper. In an instance like this which seems extremely unlikely, simply use a screwdriver or a similar tool to pry open the rubber stopper and then proceed as described above without any problems whatsoever.
This step-by-step explanation should easily answer how to remove a pioneer car stereo without keys.
Removing Pioneer Car Stereo Using The Side Of The Dashboard (Method 2)
This method is slightly more complicated than the last one but it’s still not difficult to do at all. Simply pull your car stereo out from the vehicle using the same process as described in method 1, until you can see its wiring harnesses connected to your vehicle’s electrical system. Now, look at the side of your dashboard where your stereo unit is installed and check for two small keys present on either side of your radio’s release button. They are circular cylinders made of rubber or plastic, with a metal rod inside them. These are commonly known as “secret” keys. Use screwdrivers or similar tools to pop these secret keys off their places gently and take a good look at them. You will notice that one of them has a slanted cut across its top while the other doesn’t have any cuts on it at all.
The one with the slanted cut is the master secret key. The other one isn’t, but due to a lack of differences, people tend to mistake it for the master key and try using it as such, which obviously doesn’t work. In your case, you should use the master key if it fits into your car’s ignition slot. If not, you need to use the other “secret” key present there instead. The reason why this process works is because each of these keys has a specific job to do – whilst of them unlocks your stereo unit, the other one allows you to start your car.
So, now that you know the secret, use whichever key fits into your vehicle’s ignition slot and insert it into place by pressing down on it gently until you hear a click sound. Now, pull out your stereo unit again using method 1 but once you have removed it completely, look at its side panels very closely. There will be three small indents present there which are designed especially for these keys so that they can fit in their respective places without any problems whatsoever. Simply align them with those indents and push the key inwards gently until each of them clicks back into its proper position.
Conclusion
From the above-detailed explanations, it is obvious that removing your car stereo without the original keys is not difficult at all. While some can find these methods to be slightly complex, they are still very easy to use and you should have no problems understanding them clearly. This method works for almost all Pioneer car stereos so you can definitely rely on it to work for your vehicle’s stereo system as well.
If you have any questions, let us know in the comment section. Thanks for reading!