2003 Honda Accord Wiring problem

tgardner · #1 Mar 25, 2005, 02:27 PM

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?

labman · Mar 25, 2005, 07:39 PM

Could be a bad connection. Likely you will have to pull the panel off. Usually that is easy once you find the trick. It is a matter of finding an out of sight screw or 2 and then pulling the right place. I don't know the trick, and you may have to buy a manual to find out. I think the expensive factory shop manuals are much better then the books from the auto parts store.

papahurls · Apr 11, 2005, 09:33 PM

I have experienced the exact same problem. $300 and two weeks to send the unit out for repair. $700 for dealer to install new one. E-bay has a few used ones but they don't last long. I paid a little over $100 and got a piece of junk. It's going back tomorrow. There is a service bulletin on it, but I have not been fortunate enough to find someone willing to give me a copy of it.

jkp · Apr 26, 2005, 03:32 PM

We have the same exact issue. Car is barely 2 years old and Radio light does not work. I called Honda and they have opened up an Incident report to see if they can offer anything. As all ways it's not a recalled. Also there is no way to find out how to fix it without major expense.

papahurls · Sep 11, 2005, 06:09 PM

My local dealer was willing to repair the unit (out of warranty) for about $400.00. They were going to ship it out to a repair shop that turned out to be someone I'll mention later.
I then purchased an EX radio from bronco_buddy on Ebay for $185.00 plus $15.00 shipping (he knows their value). He generally has a unit up for sale on a regular basis. They are coming from wrecked cars.
I checked tonight and there was not one unit for sale. Some joker is trying to pass off a face plate as a dim light solution. Stay away from that one.
I then was able to download instructions on how to remove the old unit. It took me about 90 minutes.
In fooling around with this nightmare, I discovered that the part that is bad, is inside the head of the unit, not the face plate. It is some kind of transformer.
Make sure that if you buy a unit, that it is the exact one for your series (EX, LX, DX), it really makes a difference. A local radio repair thief wanted $286 to repair my old unit and they hadn't even diagnosed the problem.
If you have any other questions, drop me another note. I hope this helps!
Pat in Cleveland

Here were the directions that I used:

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

mickey1214 · Sep 23, 2005, 06:43 AM

I feel lucky to have found this message thread a few weeks ago. I had this same problem with my 2003 Honda Accord EX and thought it odd that it wasn't just a blown fuse. In this instance, I was fortunate to have purchased an extended warranty from the dealership. Consequently, they kept me somewhat shielded from the specifics of the problem fix. It was not easy, though. After about 30-minutes of diagnosis I was told that the problem was with the radio (hard to believe that the radio can cause backlighting problems, but, oh well...). The dealership was simply going to take the radio out of the Accord, send it to get fixed, and call me when it returned (the idea was to keep me in posession of my car while the radio was being fixed offsite). About an hour later, the service technician told me that things had unexpectedly "snowballed" and that by removing the radio the Accord's defrost function was unable to operate. He then went on to explain to me that the dealership could not release the car with inoperable defrost ventilation. Next stop, Enterprise Car Rental. From what I then understand the dealership spent the next three days trying to repair the radio. On the forth day, the dealership called to tell me that they had fixed the problem. When I arrived at the dealership, I learned that "fixing" the problem was achieved by installing a new radio. The service technician told me that he could go into the specifics of my problem if I wished, but that, with the new radio solution, it would most likely be a waste of time to explain. In hindsight (about 18-hours of hindsight), I would have liked an explanation. At the time, however, I was just glad to ditch the rental and get my car back. And everything works fine...

dmmastro · Sep 23, 2005, 12:00 PM

I also have this problem. Has anyone had the dealer replace their radio without cost using the extended warranty? or otherwise? Thanks.

thejuice_24 · Sep 26, 2005, 06:49 PM

Has anymore heard any updates on a possible recall??? I have a 2003 Honda Accord EX with the exact same issue.

dmmastro · Sep 26, 2005, 07:39 PM

I'm taking my car in on friday. I'll let you know what they have to say.
dm

madtpkr · Oct 3, 2005, 07:52 AM

I'm experiencing the same issue... no lights in the radio display... also no lights in the AC button wording. The green light that says if the A/C is on Auto works, but at night, you can't see what any of the buttons are since you can't see the actual word "Auto". It's also really dark in the car at night now :-(

I've barely had the car for 2 years. Bad luck? Or do they need to recall this thing?



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