Hooking up an MP3 player to the 2003 Honda Accord

I am wondering if there is any creative people out there that have figured
out how to jack in their mp3 players using a "line in" type of
configuration to their radio. Unfortunatly the configuration/design that
Honda chose to make the radio makes it impossible to put in an aftermarket
stereo and it actually look good. Anyone have good hack sites or projects
they have heard about?

 

Please note: I know nothing of Honda radios but have hacked a fair
amount of stuff in my day:

The first thing you'll have to figure out is what kind of levels this
"line in" supports.

Is there a radio button that switches to this line input? Or do you
think it switches when the power button on the player is touched.

If the latter, you'd have to fake generating this signal. This would
require you to have a honda player to monitor what's really going on -
that might be cost prohibitive, unless you already have one.

If the former: If it is a 5 pin DIN or shielded banana jack (both
easily bought at radio shack), make an extention cable with all wires
exposed. Turn your radio to "line" and just touch all the wires, one at
a time. If this connector is an analog line in, two wires will be left
and right. If so, you'll hear a buzz in the appropriate speakers when a
specific wire is touched with your finger.
After that, identity which wire carries your ground using a multimeter.

If it is indeed an analog line, you should have a ground, left and
right connection. Connect the ground directly to your player.
Determine what kind of levels come out of your player. Unless it has a
line out level, you most likely cannot directly connect the left/right
to the stereo.
If you want to use the headphone output, I'd run them through a 4.7K
resistor first. Determine if the levels are good and undistrorted. If
distrorted, you may need to increase your resistor. If too low, you may
need to decrease your resistance.
You could use a potentiometer instead of the resistor but note that it
may introduce noise and static over time (especially while being bumped
around in a car).

That's how I'd go about getting it to work for me - again, I have not
done this on a honda, so proceed with caution.
Post your results -- I am sure others here will be interested in
knowing about it.

Remco

 

I don't think it's worth the effort. Just use a cassette adapter (if
you have a tape player). They sound fine and only cost $15-20. At
driving noise level, it's not a noticeable difference.

 

Remco had quite the interesting and very drawn out process...which after
further research, would probably work. Bucky, sorry but I don't think cars
made after 2000 even come with tape players anymore...Unfortunatly I had to
spend more than I would have liked to, but I found a product that does all
the crap that an electrician would have to do. I'm awaiting the product in
the mail in a few days. I'll snap pics when I install it and let you know
how it sounds. There are more sites out there that have this product and
others just like it..I found this one by searching automotiveforums.com,
it's http://www.logjamelectronics.com/auxinpconv.html. I paid $107
(including shipping) for the one for my 03 Accord. I have the other cable
it request you to purchase so I didn't buy it. Plus you could get it way
cheaper from Radioshack. I think this is a great alternative to ripping
out your stereo (if the sound quality is good enough). This also helps
make your car less of a target for thieves because they won't think twice
if they only see a stock stereo. Plus you don't need to carry around your
cds and scratch them all up or leave them in your car for an added bonus
to the thief that was after your stereo. see my Honda at

 

1) You still have to rip out your stereo just to install this

2) I used one very successfully in my 2000 Accord EX, right up until I
took the car in for its 30K service. The only thing I can figure is
this: as part of the coolant change process, the car has to run with
the fan on and the engine off. To prevent the battery from wearing
down, they hook up a battery charger.

Something in this process caused a buzz in my AUX input, and I couldn't
get rid of it. I tried a second one; same thing. I called the
manufacturer, who suggested that I solder a ground into the connection;
I think it would have helped, but it was way too difficult.

So I just got rid of the converter. Then I got rid of the car.

I now drive a car with a cassette deck, which happily plays my XM Radio.
A cassette deck is now a requirement for me.

 

My grandfather has a 2003 Ford Crown Victoria that has both a cassette
player and a CD player.

I believe you can still get a cassette player in a new Honda as a (horribly
overpriced) dealer-installed option.

 

Looks like a good way to go. The inside of that box probably has a couple of
resistors in them.
You could have hacked it for sub-$10 (box, connector, wire, resistors) but
the hardest trick would have been to find the connector to fit the radio.

Enjoy your tunes!
Remco

 

I read some of the, um, "interesting" ways to do this. I found my way
the simplest. I bought an Aiwa deck with the aux input in the front. I
plug my mp3 into it using a standard 3 ft cable from radio shack and
it's worked fine on my 2000 Civic for the past 2 years. Radio cost me
$100.

There's a bunch of decks available at all price levels that do this.

 

Or replace the deck with an MP3/WMA deck that has an aux in or i-Pod
adapter. OEM decks that play only CD audio are obsolete. I pulled
the 6-disc change from my RSX in favour of a Pioneer MP3/WMA deck.

 

They sure do. But now it is an extra option, not worth buying. Go to
Accessories, Electronics and you will find an option for cassette
player. =)

http://automobiles.honda.com/tools/buildandprice/frame.asp?step=trims&VIEW=34FRONT&SERIES=5&YEAR=2006&SERIESNAME=Accord+Sedan&RURL=http%3A%2F%2Fautomobiles.honda.com%2Fmodels%2Fmodel_overview.asp%3FModelName%3DAccord%2BSedan%26bhcp%3D1%26BrowserDetected%3DTrue

 

I know about the Aiwa radios.. In fact my old Buick that burst into flames
(the reason I now have a Honda) had a CDC-X504MP one of the newer Aiwa
decks. It survived the fire and I was looking forward to installing it on
the new car but when I got a good look at the setup for the radio for the
03 accord it just looked like it would be a very ugly install unless I
forked over 150 for the install kit from crutchfield.com. Since the
quality of the radio was pretty excellent on the new car I just figured I
would find a way to unobtrusively install my Creative Zen Touch player.

To see what I mean you can see how the radio area looks on an 03 Accord
here;

http://www.hondaworld.ru/images/photos/accordSedan-2003.jpg

The image is far away but you can see what I’m talking about..the large
knob that is in the center is the volume button for the radio and the 2
small ones are on either side of that large knob.

Here is the crutchfield.com install kit;

http://www.crutchfield.com/S-fa0dOK76h3q/cgi-bin/ProdView.asp?g=751&I=120997864&id=review

Earlier I was trying to say see my Honda at …. And I hit enter… Here is my
photos..

http://www.flickr.com/photos/got80s

I will upload the install pics with notes when I get the part…

 

one other site worthy of linking to this discussion is this guys nifty
project he did with his Accord and his Ipod..
http://members.aol.com/hillstones/private/ipod.html

I don't have an Ipod but I'm sure the chances that other people do..this
might help them out...

 

I didn't have to pull the radio out of my 2003 Civic Hybrid.
After lifting out a piece of the console, I reached in behind the radio and
plugged in the adapter. I couldn't see what I was doing, but it's a 14 pin
keyed connector, so it's pretty easy to do.

http://www.logjamelectronics.com/piehon98aux.html
PIE HON98-AUX Auxiliary Input Converter

http://makeashorterlink.com/?C1D73243B
remove the standard Honda stereo

The newer adapters come with a ground connected. On mine, the audio was
very buzzy before I attached the ground, and had a severe AGC cycle, where
the volume would cycle up and down every second or two.

The cassette adapters introduce quite a bit of hiss, and the ones I've
tried also have a little gadget to fake out the auto-stop or auto-reverse
that I can hear rattling or scraping inside the cassette shell.