[Joseracer]

Hello, I have 96 Civic coupe EX and Im having the same problem as the 03' honda accords, radio controls, center console and dashboard light go out when I turn on my headlights. Has anyone heard civics having this issue?

[aframpton]

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?

There is a transistor burnt out. It will cost 300.00 to fix at the dealer or 1.50 to buy the transistor and do it yourself. Total time hour.

[aframpton]

Thanks for advice. Unfortunatelly I am in Canada and have to deal with Honda Canada. They were not satisfied with diagnostic that my dealership did (probably because they did it for free and visualy) and to open the case they require me to do full diagnostic ($95 + tax) and after that they would consider doing something for me.

I am not sure what they do during "diagnostic" and what the result of diagnostic would tell them what is wrong. I will try to get that info from the dealership. For me it is obvious just looking at the unit. Everything works normally except it doesn't have light, so to see information on the display I now use battery lamp. Not convinient but at least it is cheaper.

They know that it is a transistor gone and it is known issue. The Radio is made by Panasonic and will cost $300.00 to fix at the dealer. The transistor cost $1.50.

[pdxhonda]

Just wanted to give an update on the repair. The radio (refurbished?) came in after 14 days and it took the dealer a mere 1 hour to put it in. Now I can tell time while driving again. :D Again, zero cost from my end.

[Zarah27]

My '03 Accord's (53,000 miles) radio display went dark in the middle of June. I called my longtime dealership to inquire about the problem, and was told they were well aware of the problem, but it would be a $600 repair. I said no thanks, I can live with it. That was before I drove the car at night and had zero backlights on my air conditioning unit as well. I did a little surfing, found this forum and another one that had the tech bulletin link, and promptly called American Honda.

I had a good experience with their representative, especially after I mentioned that I had had a Civic for nine years, love my Accord, and that my parents have a 98 Accord. He did not, however, offer a case number. When I asked for one, he said that he doesn't usually volunteer them because they're so long. I told him that they can't be any longer than the VIN # that I had to give him. After I got the case number, he told me to go to my dealership to have them visually diagnose the problem.

My dealership took all of 2 seconds to look at my display and agree that it was a faulty unit. I think they were surprised that I had a copy of the Tech Bulletin, a case #, and print screens of this forum thread. They ordered the part that day, and it was installed a week later. I was there for less than an hour and had zero costs. All in all, my experience was a good one, and I didn't have to spend $600 to fix a poorly designed radio unit. American Honda even called a few days later to make sure I had been taken care of.

[DJNB]

I live in Canada and had the same issue with my 2003 Honda Accord radio (no backlighting). The warranty had expired by six months and 20,000 km.

I returned to the dealership where I bought the car, showed the service manager the Honda Service Bulletin 04-027, and said that I wish the unit to be repaired under Honda's "goodwill consideration" as stated in the bulletin.

After some humming and hahing, he approved the replacement of the radio, charging me only 1-hour labour ($100).

[CMCKINNEY]

No Display 2003 Accord EX

I have the same issue. My car has 87k on it but I have only had it for 3 years. I am furious at this point. I have made the appointment with the dealer. They of course stated it is not a big problem. However, prior to going there, I am going to call American Honda especially after reading these posts. Can anyone tell me how their experience was with American Honda or any advice they can len me? I would do it myself if easy enough but I do not want to do any additional damage.

[olydog]

I parked my 2003 (with 37,000 miles) the other night and all was well. Got back in the car a few hours later and radio/AC lights were out but everything still works. THANK YOU to all who have shared information here. You have saved me hours of frustation and probably money too. Isn't the internet great? I've printed the advice and service bulletin posted on this thread. I will call Honda on Monday.

[Me2]

I had the same problem w/ my 03 EX. My local service dept told me this was common w/ that model & the entire radio unit had to be replaced. They told me it would cost about $400 w/labor & gave me a number to call American Honda (800-999-1009) about the problem. They said some people had luck getting the units replaced at no cost. When I called American Honda, they were extremely helpful & easy to deal with. They opened a case & within a week they arranged for me to have a new 'free' unit replacement w/ out any arugument (I was expecting one) or out of pocket expense. That was earlier this yr & I've had no problems since then.

[schzad]

Hi people
I have Honda accord 2003 Japanese model, car is amazing but there is one thing I hate about it... its navigation screen is in Japanese... can any one help me and tell me how can I change the language to english.

[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). :mad: 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!! :eek:
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).