HyadMusic

Never worked on cars before, doing as much research as possible before I become involuntarily dangerous.

I know what to do based on a thread on here about removing the door chime... and these two pics are what the other guy shows on his thread... and this is where I am stuck at...






^ I have gotten to the last part, and I can feel the green box on the back of the Fuse Panel, but I can't seem to detach it from the back. The fuse box cover itself was a pain in the *** to take off and that was something I could actually see. I can barely get my head in there (I'm in a half dive head first under the brake pedal as far as I can go) and I am afraid to just yank for obvious reasons because I don't want to break the plastic fitting to where I cannot reinstall the green box. I tried feeling for the little plastic push flap but unable to tell. Once I get this off I know what to do from there as far as the black circular speaker button and removing it. This guys shows 5 wire connectors he took out... What tool would you recommend in the best tool for taking wire connectors out of the fuse panel without breaking the plastic. 17 Year old car plastic is brittle on mine at least.

This guy seemed to be able to get the green box off without taking the fuse panel off... any suggestions and what should I avoid?... Also, how would I put it back on? lol

Thanks!

-Tanner

t2d2

iTrader: (8)

I feel your pain. I took the back panel off the temperature/volume ***** yesterday to replace bulbs and half the little plastic tabs broke. Same thing has happened to me with the plastic on nearly everything I've worked on on this car. My other cars of within a year of the same age have had no such problems. Toyota used garbage plastics, as far as I can tell.

As for the kick panel fuse area, I tried removing mine recently to see about seat heater fusing. As I recall, there are two bolts holding the bottom of the fuse box in and another up top that I couldn't quite get free, so I eventually moved on to other projects. You probably need to figure out how to get that free to get to fuses on the back of it.

HyadMusic

@t2d2

Yeah I got all 3 bolts off, top, then two at the bottom, but it still doesn't want to get free. And yeah that plastic is awful lol... like i put up in the original post hoping someone comes along with what I need to use to pry off the wire connectors as best as possible. By the way, disconnecting the wires, should I unhook the battery from the terminal or just unplugging there is no danger?

t2d2

iTrader: (8)

Well, you got further than me. Mine felt like there was something holding the top bolt in place, even when I had it loosened, and maybe a hook or something up top holding the whole panel in place.

I wouldn't think disconnecting the battery would be necessary, although I did just pull my ECU and it's one of the recommended steps for that, so who knows. I imagine some stuff could risk setting off the airbags.

I did come up with a trick recently of using a paint can opener to release harness tabs in particularly tough to get to spots. Might be worth a try on the one you're working on.

HyadMusic

@t2d2

I got it!

All you need to do is take the first bottom 2 lugs out with a socket wrench... really easy... so the bottom hangs out slightly where you can tilt it forward a little.

If you still want that issue taken care of, get a small mirror like I did, place it next to the fuse panel so you can see the side where the box is behind it, get a flat head screwdriver, and if you can't take off the cover normally, do what I had to do and break the plastic flap that's luckily facing out towards where you have the mirror so you can see it and the cover pops off, and the box you can kinda pop out, while still connected to the fuse panel luckily. With the cover off, the green box can be moved in front while attached so u can access the small black round buzzer inside. Break off the circular buzzer with a flathead screwdriver like I did, then put the cover back on. The green box will kinda pop back in to the back of the panel, then put the two lugs back on and you're there!.

Go for it man so worth it!

Unfortunately I have a small short in my condition so I had to take the ignition bulb, and courtesy light bulb (Both green) out because they won't turn off. But my dome lights, personal lights, door locks, and theft deterrent system are working now. =)

Thanks for your help!

t2d2

iTrader: (8)

Congratulations! I may have to climb under there for a second attempt... Mine actually doesn't have the cover on the fuse box that you struggled to remove. I don't recall mine having any play after removing the bottom two bolts, however. I wouldn't be surprised if a previous owner did something dumb to permanently secure it.

HyadMusic

I apologize, I re-read my post and I forgot to mention previously that there's a top bolt, that you can loosen,... very top follow the black fuse box up and you can use a socket wrench extension to loosen it I used a 10mm socket on it... very touchy but there's a piece of metal, like a backwards installed screw almost, forged into the metal backplate that the top hole of the fuse panel slides on to, and then a nut that goes over it... loosen the nut, then pull up and forward on the fuse panel some...it was such a pain that I just re-bolted the bottom two bolts and it will keep the fuse panel in place just fine it doesn't tip forward or anything or moves at all.... loosening that nut will allow some play at the bottom, just enough to get the green box off the back. If you want a pic let me know. =)

Sorry for the lack of detail for some reason I thought I typed that in my original post. I am blonde dude so these things tend to happen lol.

As far as no cover on the the fuse box... like the black fuse box? , or the green box on the back side... if the cover to the green box is missing then half of your hard part is done... pry the hell out of that black circle buzzer of annoyance off and you're home free. Either way sounds like the previous owner half assed it like my previous owner did. Damn laziness. =l

Best of luck I hope you manage to fix the issue!

HyadMusic

Yeah i apologize I will post the topic of which I am talking about/working on going forward,. Never been on a forum before.

Thanks for the advice =).