Awesome, I'm pretty sure that I have everything accounted for and know exactly where to connect it all - thank you!!

Yeah it seems like the VSS isn't worth the trouble looking for it, so I won't bother connecting it. I'll just have to look up where exactly to find the wires for the reverse lights in the trunk in order to tie the backup camera to - it shouldn't be too hard to find I just want to make sure I don't tap into anything else by accident!

No your explanation of the crossovers was great, I was able to visualize it perfectly. I'm going to cut the harnesses that I purchased in half. Then I can plug the harness's gray plug into the car's gray plug that should be currently going to the woofer.

I'll then splice speaker wire into the harness and run it to the crossover (I still have to look at other threads at where people have recommended mounting the crossovers within the door panels).

From the crossover, I'll run new speaker wires to both the woofer and tweeters. I'm planning on saving the other half of the harness that I cut so that I could reuse those clips that attach nicely to the woofer's terminals.

 

the wire for the reverse light in the trunk will be easy to find. pull the bulb and you will have two wires going to it. one is hot one is ground. You can use a DMM to see which is which. If you dont have a DMM I highly suggest getting one. they can be purchased for as little as 10 dollars at walmart to 500 dollars for a fluke.

a cheap one is all 90% of people need.

 

Oh that's a good idea, I don't have one so I'll pick one up. Where do I place the probes in order to test whether the wire is hot or ground and on what should I set the **** on the DMM to?

 

you want to set the dmm to on the dc side. most will have the numbers 20m, 200m, 20, 200, 1000. or something similar. for your purposes either the 20 or the 200 will work.

you will need to put your car in reverse. I dont know if you will have to leave it running or if you will be able to kill it once in reverse and your lights stay on, but you will need your reverse lights on. If its running make sure your parking brake is firmly set and you should probably lift the front wheels off the ground on jack stands.

take your black probe (doesnt actually matter but for consistency) and find a spot on the car that is bare metal. I usually just scratch the paint with the probe in an inconspicuous place behind a piece of carpet or something. Take the red probe and touch it to one wire at the back of the reverse light. (you have to get to the wire so either inside the pin in the harness or poke it through the insulation. You can usually get to the pin pretty easy.) and then do the other wire. which ever one gives you a signal on your meter is your hot wire.

Edit: A test light will work just as well for this application, but they are about the same price and a DMM gives you more functionality for other purposes.

 

Ok that sounds pretty straightforward, thanks! I'll just pick up the DMM since I may need one in the future and you're right, they're about the same price.

Plan right now is to solder almost everything Friday night and then install it all over the weekend. I'm hoping it all works!

 

it should be pretty straight forward. I am online more during the week than i am on the weekend, but I will try to keep an eye on the forum this weekend in case you have any issues so you can ask.

 

Thank you I really appreciate that, will post pics of the final install once I'm done!

 

Thanks to the nor'easter, my plans were delayed and I wasn't able to complete the install today. I was able to mount the backup camera and route the wires throughout the car, remove the necessary interior trim, remove the factory HU, and install the new head unit into the dash kit with all its proper soldering.

Now all I have left is to connect the plugs back together and make sure everything works before putting the trim back on.

I do have a question that I was unable to figure out online. When removing the factory dash there are 2 plugs higher up for the hazard button and climate control and 4 plugs connected lower to the stereo. Out of the 4 lower ones, I know that one is the stereo harness and the other is the antenna. However, I am not sure what the other 2 are for and don't have any other plugs coming out of my HU that we talked about.

I have included pictures of the back of the head unit and was wondering what A, B, and C are and if they are necessary to connect with my head unit?

This is an above view of the stereo while removing it, the factory plugs are still connected:



This is a view of the back of the stereo with all the plugs removed:

 

The 8th gen dash is very different than the 7th. I have never worked on an 8th gen. So to be completely honest I dont know.

Have you hooked up the steering wheel controls yet? some of that may be in there. I have worked in a civic that was about that year. One of the extra harnesses in there was for the factory amp. I had to pull a remote line out of there when I installed a sub. Being that you have an aftermarket radio you wont have that issue.

My honest suggestion at this point would be put it back together and see what is not working. and go from there.

I found this for a civic. Its probably similar although the pin locations may vary.

and this. compare this with your pins and see if it matches I am almost positive it is a diagram for your radio.

 

Everything is plugged in and working except for the audio, I'm not getting any sound out of the speakers!

Ok based on your diagram and my picture, I have figured out what those missing plugs are for:

Connector A is for the factory amp (which I didn't think my car had one since it's the base model, either way I was planning on using the Alpine amp), it attaches to the amp for ANC features (16 pins).
Connector B is the GA-NET II for XM/Nav/CD changer/iPod (my car did not have a plug for this) (14 pins).
Connector C is the External Device Connector, this attaches to the HVAC/audio subdisplay unit (20 pins).




So the 2 plugs that I have unaccounted for are Connector A (factory amp) and Connector C (External Device Connector). Do you think either of these are causing me to not have any sound?

I came across this thread and I was wondering if you could take a look at it, especially post #13: Someone help me! Headunit connector - Drive Accord Honda Forums

It seems as if they tapped into one of those plugs in order to gain power and that seemed to restore the sound. However, they seem to be discussing the GA-NET connector which my car did not come with and I don't believe that my car has the premium audio package.

Is there a way to figure out what the problem may be by using the multimeter while the car is running? Would I use the same DMM settings I used before to check if I was getting power to my backup camera (set the DMM to 20 DC). I don't know what's the best way to troubleshoot this issue.