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?

MTONGOL

same problem 2003 Accord EX with no lights on the radio and clock. I can't believe Honda does not have a recall issue for this problem.

It seems ridiculous for a radio light to die in less than 3 yrs and for that problem to cost the consumer >$300 to repair a lighting issue.

Anyone found a cheaper solution to getting our radio lights to come back ON?

jmrmba

Any suggestions on what to do first with this faulty radio situation. Mine just went out today and I called the dealer to make an appointment to check it out. He sounded as if he knew exactly what the problem was and said the whole unit would probably have to be replaced. He asked if the car was under warranty, which it isn't, and went on to say that maybe Honda would be able to "help me out" whatever that means. I go in a couple days, but I wasn't sure if I should call Honda of America first and try to get a case number or wait and see if the dealer will try to help me out.

shoopdj

I think you are doing what needs to be done - keep the complaint volume up to the dealers. This particular radio clearly has a fault, corrected on subsequent models, and needs to be rectified in all 2003 Accords so equipped. I have a hunch that Honda is betting most of the cars with the defective radio will be traded off or sold before the radio fails, thus saving on general recall costs. I was lucky in that mine failed while still under warrantee.

dgainer1

jmrmba: Call Honda America and get a claim number. I am the second owner of my vehicle and it was out of warranty when the radio backlighting failed. Honda still replaced the radio for free. You do still need to take the car in to your dealer to have the defect confirmed. So, in the meantime keep your appointment, call Honda and let them know which dealership you are taking your vehicle to, and Honda will work with the dealership from there. In fact, my dealership called me back the day after I brought my vehicle in to have it looked at (at no cost) to schedule the repair/replacement of my radio. Honda moves very quickly once they are aware of the problem. Trying to save you some time. Good luck.

jmrmba

I am going to call Honda now. Thanks for the advice.

Divasquez

I also had a problem with my Accord this past September. I bought the car used and three months afterwards the backlight failed. I took it to a Honda dealership thinking it was a fuse but they told me I had to replace the unit for $600. I told the dealership which I bought it from (not a Honda) and they said that they would change the radio with an aftermarket radio because the asking price was too expensive. I agreed to have it replaced being that my sister was their employer and she said that the radio they were putting in was nice, NOT TRUE. When I saw my car I wanted to cry. Anyways, I recently wanted to replace it back with the original radio and I ran into this forum. I called Honda America and they were willing to change my radio. But, this is the fun part, I needed the OLD RADIO. I don't know where that radio is and I am going insane. I was very disappointed because their own dealership wasn't able to tell me this was an ongoing problem and I trust their better judgement on replacing the unit then. Had I known this, I would be a happy camper, unfortunately I am not. Does anyone have any idea what should I do or say so that I can have the radio replace. I love my accord, I just hate the radio.

cownate

The lights went out on my stereo last night. It was very odd to me... nothing made them come back on. My first though was to check a fuse, but that didn't really make sense either since I would have expected the whole radio to be out if it were some kind of fuse issue. It also seemed weird that all of the lighting (including the stereo) would be on their own isolated circuit. Well... I hopped on the ol' net think it seem just weird enough that someone else might have seen something like it and this here forum is what I found. THANK YOU ALL FOR POSTING and letting everyone know what your experience has been and what SOLUTIONS you had found. Thanks to this posting I called Honda America today and then a dealer. I took it in for about an hour this afternoon so they could officially diagnose it. They topped off the fluids, adjusted the tire pressure and (for a small charge on my request) changed the oil for me while it was there. They ordered the new radio FREE OF CHARGE and told me it would probably be here in a couple of days and that it would probably just take about an hour to switch it out once it came in. THANKS NEIL HUFFMAN HONDA OF LOUISVILLE... YOU RAWK!!! I am the second owner of my car. I bought it used from Carmax and it is out of Honda Warrenty. The dealer authorized the swap out at no change with no problem at all. AWESOME. CALL HONDA AMERICA AND CALL THE BEST HONDA DEALERSHIP IN YOUR AREA. No worries...

MTONGOL

I called Honda USA and I worked with a Brian Kumiyama. He was adamant about me visiting a dealer first to confirm the problem. I visited a Honda dealership to have them confirm the problem. Brian contacted the dealership. Brian called me back to inform me that Honda would replace my radio at no cost to me. Honda USA would cover 100% of the cost. I need to schedule a time for the dealer to perform the replacement. The dealer will have to order a replacement radio.

I also found out that the replacement radio is the same model and brand as my existing radio. I had some concerns that this may happen again. Brian told me that the issue has been brought up to their vendor, Alpine. Alpine has made changes to this model of CD/Radio to address this issue. The replacement radio is a rev-up. Hopefully we will not be experiencing this issue in the near future.

I have to give alot of credit to Honda for addressing my problem at no cost to me. They people I spoke with at Honda USA were all very polite and easy to deal with.

I think the issues with posting a recall is something no car manufacturer wants to do as they leave a negative mark on the quality of their product. I really think this is the main reason they have not done a recall. The radio is not made by Honda but even so the negative publicity would harm them the same. Atleast we are getting the issue resolved.

Good Luck to all with the same problem.

hlwanmoe

Thanks to many of you. As many of you suggested, I called American Honda and now they are replacing my radio for Free of Charge. The dealer tried to charge me $139 for diagnostics. I told them I had called American Honda and wanted to talk to service manager. After that everything went smoothly.

Again, thank you all.

shoopdj

What?!! Are they using PhD rocket scientists to diagnose your (well known and documented) radio problem?

Good thing he backed off on that one, sheesh!