How-to Guide
How to Trim the Dash Tabs When Fitting a 9 Inch Head Unit
Quick answer
If your 9 inch unit won't stay in and keeps popping back out, it's almost always the four plastic tabs in the dash opening, not a faulty unit. They hold it proud, so the lower clips never reach far enough to engage. Check the lower clips are intact, then cut the four tabs flush with side cutters. It's the same four tabs on the MK3 and the MK4.
What this gives you
Your unit sits back far enough to seat properly and clicks in, instead of springing out again. The fascia clips down flat, so you're not left with one edge standing proud.
Before you start
- The factory radio and centre trim already out. If you haven't done that yet, the fascia guide covers it.
- Side cutters or flush cutters. You don't need a power tool, and you don't want one this close to the loom.
- The battery negative terminal off, because the dash is open and the loom is exposed.
- A late 2009 onwards 70 Series with the 200 mm opening. If yours is the early narrow steel dash, that's a different job.
Step by step
- Check the lower clips before you cut anything
If the lower clips are broken, trimming the tabs won't hold your unit in, and you'll have cut the dash for nothing. Look at them first. Broken clips are their own repair. If the clips are intact and your unit still pops out, that's the case this guide fixes, so carry on from here.
- Get the opening clear first
You need the factory radio and the centre trim out before you can see what you're cutting. Pull the loom forward out of the opening and rest it on the tray below, so nothing sits between the cutters and the side wall.
- Find the four tabs
Look at the inner side walls of the opening, not the face of the dash. There are two moulded plastic tabs on the left wall and two on the right, one above the other on each side. They held the cage the factory single DIN radio slid into. You'll see all four circled below.
The four tabs you're removing, two on each side wall of the opening. - Cut them flush with the wall
Use side cutters, one tab at a time, cutting at the base so nothing's left standing proud. Close the cutters through the plastic rather than levering or twisting, because levering loads the side wall and can crack it. A stub you can still catch with a fingernail is tall enough to hold your unit forward and stop the lower clips engaging.
- Catch the offcuts as they come away
A cut tab drops straight down inside the dash. Hold each one as you cut it, or fish it out before you move on. A loose piece of plastic in there turns into a rattle you can't reach later without pulling the dash apart again.
- Check both walls by hand
Run a finger down each side wall from top to bottom. You should feel it smooth the whole way. That takes a few seconds, and it's the last easy chance you get to find a tab you only half cut.
- Dry fit and feel for the click
Offer your unit up with nothing connected. You should feel it go back far enough to click in and stay there, with the same gap down both sides. If it still springs out with all four tabs gone, stop and look at the clips and the loom rather than cutting more.
If it does not work
- If it still pops out with all four tabs cut flush, the lower clips are broken, or a harness bundle behind the stack is holding your unit forward.
- If you've got a gap down one side only, one tab on that side is cut short rather than flush. Run a finger down that wall again.
- If you hear a rattle in the dash afterwards, an offcut went down inside. It has to come out.
Worth knowing
The tabs aren't structural. They located the cage the factory radio slid into, and that cage isn't going back in. You can't undo the cut though, so rule out the clips first and cut flush the first time.
The MK3 and the MK4 are both 9 inch units and foul the same four tabs, so the job's identical whichever one you're fitting.
Still need help?
Tell us your vehicle and send a photo of the opening, and we can tell you what's fouling.