I noticed that over time my stock Bose CD players lights were dimming, some buttons were competely dark at night. I was curious how to resolve this.

Also, i tried to take off the plastic (wood grain) dash and didnt know there were screws behind it. So i popped out all the screws and have no clue how to replace it.

I checked alot of posts but saw nothing that could assit me.....All help is appreciated. Thanks all

I have the woodgrain that frames the Head Unit (including the drawer if that's the piece you broke. I could sell it to you for cheap ($5 + shipping).

Here's a quick write up on removing the stereo.

1. If it's an auto, shift it into neutral, apply your parking brake and take your key out (the jingle annoys me).

2. Take a thin flathead screw driver (a warn out one with rounded edges works best) and pry the woodgrain cover around the shifter off (use a thin cloth to avoid damaging the woodgrain). When doing this, be careful. Once you get the hang of it, you'll know how much pressure is too much. There are two clips on either side of the shifter near the back (closest to you) corners.

3.Once the cover pops off, disconnect the cigarette lighter and turn the cover widthwise to get it up and off of the shifter (this is why you shifted into neutral).

4.Now use the same technique to remove the a/c vents above the thermostat. They should pop out fairly easily, but be careful not to damage the vinyl dash material.

5. Remove the screws holding the thermostat in place. There will be quite a few connectors on the back of it if you have the thermostat and not just the a/c controls. Get a small piece of electrical tape or a twist tie to keep those together.

6. Remove the ashtray. BE CAREFUL! There are two screws that hold in the ashtray AND two clips. The clips don't like staying in place and if you lose them, you'll be hard pressed to find them again in the hole below your shifter and CD player. If you lose them, that section might start to rattle when you're driving over bumpy road (could be my suspension, not sure). Mine are gone. Maybe someone else can chime in here on how to remove the ashtray without losing the clips. You will also need to disconnect the light connector.

7. Remove the 4 screws (two on top, and two on bottom) that hold the CD player/drawer unit in place.

8.The whole center section should now easily pull out. There will be 3 or 4 connectors on the back of the CD player. For convenience, they should be removed and bundled.

Now you can access the woodgrain cover and/or pull out the stereo.

Thanks for the walk-thru.....i didnt know it was so complicated, i thought i could just pry off the wood grain surrounding the cd player. i didnt break any pieces, not that i know of yet. i have to go thru the stepsand see. thanks again.

Does anybody have any suggestions on how to fix the lights that are out?

Once you actually start the process, you'll realize it's not that time consuming and fairly straight forward (except those damned clips).

Also, I know this sounds dumb, but have you cleaned the buttons? Mine got dirty with hand oils and dirt and was hard to see through until I cleaned it. That helped a little.