My 2003 Honda Accord EX has a problem with the backlighting on the radio and the ac controls. All the lights have gone out, but everything else on it seems to work still. I have looked for a blown fuse but could not find one. Any suggestions?

darnel

For those in Canada, and beyond their warranty, Honda Canada Customer Relations will begin by telling you "tough luck". However, similar to some other contributors to this thread, I reminded the service rep of the fact that I was a long time Honda customer (who also does all the service work at my original dealer) and that because it was faulty wiring, rather than general wear and tear, Honda needed to take ownership of the issue. After all, there should have been a recall. The rep put me on hold, contacted my dealership, and came back on the line with an offer of a 50% discount. Curiously, this took only 2 minutes, which struck me as odd after the initial response was "there was nothing they could do".

I accepted the offer because of their willingness to meet me half way, and clearly not a lot of more favourable options, but at the same time am left wondering why Honda would risk alienating this many Honda owners over an issue relating to quality. Isn't that their trademark and the reason that 95% of us bought Hondas in the first place? Isn't that reputation worth protecting in age where they are head to head with Toyota and Hyundai is getting larger and larger in their rear view mirrors? There must be a smarter guy than I at Honda with an answer to that, I surely don't.

ia728

Regarding the 2003 Honda Accord radio ---

One day you turn the ignition on and all functions of the radio are dead plus the display doesn't light up, though if you look closely you'll see the faintest trace of the display.

This happened to me and I went back to my dealer where I was told there was a defect built into the radio and a replacement would cost $800. My warranty had expired a year earlier and I was three thousand miles over the mileage component of the warranty.

My service person said on the basis of my low mileage and that it was Honda's fault, they would comp the radio -- which they did. The radio was rebuilt -- probably one of the defective ones with the defect fixed. My dealer was Kramer Honda, Santa Monica CA.

So my suggestion is to push the dealer, explain that other dealers are comping the replacement and see if Honda will do the right thing and comp a new radio for you.

PS: My EX is almost four years old and NOTHING has gone wrong with it so far except for the radio.

Michael

January1479

I have a 2004 Accord Coupe EX. As so many of those before, my backlight went out on my radio screen at 36,000 (When my warentee expires). Had I known it was not just a fuse problem, I would have taken it right then. But now I have 38,700 miles. I took it to the dealership and they said I would have to replace the entire radio, which costs around a GRAND with labor and other charges!!!!
They suggested I call the customer service number in the manual and tell them how few miles I have on my car and they may "good will" the replacement radio, which I did yesterday and have a case number out. Obviously this is an ongoing problem that they do not intend to fix. I encourage everyone to call and demand Honda pay at least half, if not full.

Halee

I was told about 2 years ago that this was a recall, and my radio was replaced. Guess what?! Now, it is out of warranty and my display went out for the 2nd time. I'm taking it in today, we'll see what they say. They should relpace it. A radio display should last for more than 2 years!

Leper Man

Thanks to mystified and hypo I too fixed my CD dim light problem
Just to summarize the problem is a resistor bearing the number R797 on the surface of the circuit board. It is a little black box next to the heat sink.

Here is how to remove your CD player in two different versions. They helped me remove my cd player.

One has pictures but you really need to read both as some of the steps involve pulling on things till the stupid clips let go. The ones that seemed hardest to me was removing the top cover on the dash and the "faceplate" of the cd but both came off with no damage and went back on easily.

http://www.cardomain.com/ride/561772/3

http://www.cdplayerrepair.com/Remtips/accord_rem.htm

After removing the cd player from the brackets attached to the "faceplate" part, the bottom plate is taken off by the obvious screws and removing all of the screws in the heat sink.. following mystifieds original procedure

"Open the bottom by first taking off the heatsink and some screws. Pry the bottom off carefully and remove the circuit board. Unplug the ribbon cable and look at the Parts side of the board. Located very near the heatsink is a resistor labeled something like R727 (sorry not exact) You can't miss it... it is black and located between two other parts that appear similar."

As pointed out by hypo and I can confirm the number of the resistor is R797.

I removed the resistor from the board and soldered a small wire across the holes where the resistor was. Probably easier would just be to just cut or crush the resistor and solder a short wire between the two resulting wires in the board which were previously leads on the resistor. Anyway assuming you have some ski8lls at soldering you will solve this problem and putting it all back together is easy.

Works like a charm

bhayne

Resistors always fail as an open circuit. There is no need to crush or remove the original resistor. Just bypass it!!

Leper Man

BHAYNE is correct. However due to the small size and cramped quarters crushing or cutting the resistor will lead to two small studs which may be easier to solder to. Any of these suggestions will result in a fix as long as the burnt out resistor is bypassed with a wire.

firstandlasthonda

Repaired mine in early May of this year. Bent a short piece of solid copper telephone wire into a horseshoe and tinned it with solder. Placed it over the defective resister and heated it with a low wattage iron until it stuck. Still working!

It is very tight quarters, as noted above.

Buying a new SUV today, and it's not a Pilot!!

stacyd7

I just purchased a 2003 Honda Accord and yep, you guessed it, the backlighting went out on the radio/ac controls. Has there been any progress on dealing with Honda about this issue?

edhastings

I'm glad I found this thread, as I've spent the last week looking for the burnt out fuse. I have a 2003 Accord V6 and the display went out, but all else works fine. I just called the Honda number (800-999-1009) and played dumb. The person I talked to said that it was very strange, but it wasn't on any recall list. She also wanted to make sure I understood that I would have to pay for any fixes to the problem. I'm going to call back and point out all the people here with this problem and point her to her own Service Bulletin (04-027).