follow up to radio removal

I was just scaning ebay for a replacement radio should I not find the
problem with mine and I have a question for you guys.
I have a 94 Civic. Will a later model radio fit if I can change the
connector. There is a dealer on ebay that has connectors for $2.99?
Any advice here would be appreciated. It would be nice to replace the
plain radio/cassette with a CD.
Russ

 

Do not under any circumstance change the connector. It is just about the
biggest f*ck-up you can do on a stereo replacement. What you do is use
an adapter. When you buy a new stereo, it will come with a plug with
wires attached (usually about 12" in length). The plug fits in the back
of the new stereo. You then need a plug that plugs into the factory
wiring harness. These are a few bucks at most, and usually come with
about 4" ow wire attached. You splice this harness to the one that came
with the stereo, and you have yourself an adapter to fit between the
factory wiring and the new stereo.

The '94 Civic has a standard DIN size opening, so you have plenty of
choice when it comes to replacement stereos. You can look at
http://www.crutchfield.com to see what fits in your car. Their prices
are good, but not rock-bottom. They have very good support, and they
include all adapters and trim kits you will need for your car. I have
bought stuff from them for over 15 years.

I have a '94 civic as well. The factory FM/Cassette was replaced with a
Blaupunkt FM/CD many years ago, and more recently with a Harman Kardon
TrafficPro navigation system. Never had any problems with the
installation.

On the practical side, the factory stereo has two power connections,
direct from the battery and switched through the ignition. Power to run
the factory stereo comes through the ignition switch, the direct from
battery wire is only used for battery backup of FM presets etc. That
wire is fused with a 7.5 amp fuse under the hood (fuse shared with clock
and ECU memory).

The after-market stereo will be different, it will draw all its power
from the wire that is always on and use the ignition switched one only
to sense if the ignition is on or off. In most cases installers don't
care, and use the factory always-on wire because it is easy to do. Most
of the time it works just fine, but if you are cranking up the volume a
bit, an after market stereo can easily blow the 7.5 amp fuse. (This is
more an inconvenience than a disaster; The car will still run just fine.
Clock will stop working and the ECU will relearn some settings etc.) If
you want to do it properly, pull a wire from the fuse box under the dash
(it has auxiliary outputs just for that sort of thing) over to the radio
for the always on connection. http://www.geocities.com/ng_randolph has
photos and descriptions of the fuse box connections.

A minor inconvenience is that the ignition switched wire in the factory
stereo harness goes dead while you are starting the car. This means if
you are playing the stereo with the engine off and then start the car,
your music will be interrupted for as long as it takes to start the
engine. No big deal at all, but if you are motivated you could find an
ignition switched wire that is live even while cranking the starter (the
power windows relay is fed with just such a signal).

Amen. I can't believe even high end vehicles still have that stupid
cassette player in them but many do.

 

You can make any stereo work in any car... problem is how much you wanna
mess around with it... if the connectors are different, a matching
adaptor/connector should do the trick.

 

Thanks Randolph,
Lots of great tid bits in there. You have good taste in cars. I have
over 276,000 on mine. Turns out I had the removal details all along
in the main shop manual. I was thinking they would be in the body and
trim manual which I never purchased. One of the few screw ups Honda
made on that car. BTW, I think I found the problem to the the FM
going out so I will be testing it for a week or so.
Thanks again,
Russ

 

Sound advice! After your post I also checked the Crutchfield site but
noticed that most installation instructions included these words: "The
factory pocket is eliminated when using the kit provided with your new
receiver." Well, I find that factory pocket under the radio quite
useful in my '94 Accord LX and I sure would not want it eliminated,
unless I wanted to install some extra accessory there. How is it in
your '94 Civic?

Rudy

 

:

The '94 Civic did not have a pocket under the stereo, so it does not
apply. Looking at the 94 Accord instructions at
http://www.installdr.com, it seems they are able to replace the stereo
while retaining the pocket. See
http://www.installdr.com/walkoffhomerun/installdr/installdr/InstallDocs/Honda/PDF/466037.pdf

Looking at the Crutchfield site, they have two mounting kits for the
Accord, Item #120997892 that comes with a pocket, and Item #120997890
that seems to replace the pocket with a blind cover. They are priced the
same, so perhaps if you buy from them you can talk them into giving you
the kit with the pocket instead of the one without. Give them a call,
their phone reps are surprisingly knowledgeable.

The usual suspects for installation kits and wiring harnesses are:

http://www.americaninternational.net/
http://www.metraonline.com/
http://www.scosche.com/

In addition, you can often find things at http://www.partsexpress.com

 

Oh yes, I looked at your Civic install pictures and indeed it did not
have that pocket.

Whoa, what a detailed series of pics! I wish I had seen them before I
fiddled with my car radio recently when I installed a manual antenna
motor override switch. The official Honda Service Manual does show you
most of the radio removal process, but not in the detail your pics are
showing. For instance I did not realize that the small top panel over
the radio, containing the hazzard warning light and the clock can be
removed as a unit, instead of what I had to do by removing the warning
light and the clock separately which was a bit more complicated,
especially because in the right side of that panel where originally a
blank covers a square hole, I have my aftermarket Clifford alarm warning
light and key toggle.

Well, I think their site should indicate both options with each radio,
instead of just one. You really have to do some digging to discover the
preferred second option.

Thanks for the pointers; they really look like useful sites for the car
tinkererers.

Rudy