I have an aftermarket deck in the lower pocket in my accord 2003 coupe, the the harness that came with kit allowed the factory HU to work and illuminate (Such a good feature). Well this morning, the clock on the factory HU was bright like normal. Then when leaving school, the brightness on the factory HU faded. U can barely see it, i had to put my head like an inch away from the screen to c wat time it was. Then round the evening time, i went to go check out the car, and the illumination will not appear anymore. wth. i took out the aftermarket HU and check all my harness connections and they were fined. The weird thing is that the security blinking light still appears (that light will only blink when it is getting power. I know this becuase when i pulled out the harness of the factory HU, the light does not blink. And when you plug in the harness, you can hear the 6 disc changer.) So it is recving some kind of power, but the no lights will show up? wth.....Do u think its the fuse or what?????

(All my other interior lights work fine, just the factory hu.) And i just installed a capacitor, so their should not be any power outages in my car!!!)

 

That is very weird. If it was losing power, I would think the display would cut off altogether rather than dim.

Try hooking the factory head unit back up and see if it works. If it does then you know the problem is with the wiring or possibly the harness. If it doesnt you know its the HU itself. Take out your aftermarket HU and take it back for warranty service (cause if they see an aftermarket HU theyll automatically blame it).

 

common problem..thoughi agree about taking the aftermarket out before taking it in for goodwill.

 

well i took out the aftermarket hu, and plug the real harness back into the factory hu. Just as everything look when it was stock and the clock on the factory hu is still dim. i can barely see it. I got the same results as if the aftermarket hu was in there. My car is not on warrenty service, my options are limited. And at night the illumination will not appear. Could it be the radio or interior light fuses?? If so, what is the best way to pull it out? i dont have the correct tools, i think, ive never pulled out a fuse. i am also thinking about callin honda to ask them what happened, and is their anything i can do cuz im not on warrenty.

 

Sounds like the display on the clock is going out. For some reason I could swear I read about this being a common problem with older Accord head units and it was covered under a recall.

My memory is usually pretty sucky so I may be talking out my a** but look into that. If its under a recall, you should still be able to get it fixed. Recalls dont expire like a warranty.