Yesterday I took out my stereo and began swapping the faceplate assembly but noticed that the buttons on mine were in much better shape. So instead I swapped just the circuit board and reinstalled the stereo.

Seems to work fine but I think $25 is a lot to pay for just the on/off-volume switch.

I can see that the switch is an ALPS brand but I have to desolder it to find the part number. I will call ALPS tomorrow to see if that can help.

I noticed a label label on the stereo unit that says Pioneer and not Alpine unless they are the same company.

More when and if I have more.

 

Was the issue with the button or the board.

 

Issue has always been the switch. The on/off function lost its springiness and the click or snap action. It’s a little hard to explain and it still worked but barely touching it would turn it on or off. It lost its tactile feel of the switch action.

 

And the switch is soldered to the board?

 

Sure is. Take a look at the pics, top and bottom.

 

Looks fairly easy to replace just the switch if it could be found on market. Until then a faceplate will have to be purchased. Thanks for the photos.

 

Thank you for sharing and to both of you for working together for the solution. Nice work.

 

Here's the bottom line as I see it now. I unsoldered the ALPS encoder switch from the honda stereo faceplate and took it completely apart by carefully bending 4 small metal tabs on the bottom. By the way, there is no part number anywhere on the encoder switch.

It turns out that my problem is a small round rubber piece that the shaft pushes, which in turn closes a momentary contact to effect the on/off function. The rubber thing also acts as a spring to push the shaft back out to its rest position. My rubber piece is torn which prevented it from performing this spring push back function and that's why my switch was not functioning as it should. Its not what I consider a good or sturdy design at all.

I spoke to ALPS distributors, ALPS company and to Honda company and discovered that the encoder is a custom design for Honda and not available as an individual new part from anyone. Nice way for Honda to sell very expensive faceplates along with very expensive installation. Very frustrating.

What I have discovered though is that you can buy a new ALPS 30 detent, 360 degree momentary switch encoder on eBay for about $5, take it apart and substitute the longer, custom length shaft for the shorter one on the new switch. Everything else is the same. I will order one, just to make this work out.

On the other hand, I was able to purchase a used and fully functioning faceplate on eBay for $25 from discountoemradios . A couple of buttons were scuffed up and my originals were better so I just moved the circuit board with the good encoder over to my original faceplate... maybe a bit more **** for some folks but that's me. Works like a charm and I can vouch that discountoemradios stands behind their products very well.

So if you can buy a used and fully functioning faceplate like I did, it might be a worthwhile tradeoff for all that hassle I am going through trying to find a replacement encoder, taking the old one apart and buying a new one to cannibalize for its guts and soldering it on my original board. Lots of time and work. If I had to do it all over again I think I would just stop with the $25 used faceplate and be happy.

So no thanks to ALPS or Honda and in fact, shame on Honda.