98 Accord stereo issues

Following your post here tells me that you may have a damaged BCM unit ( ??? ) I'm not sure what you did with the installation , but I have installed in to alot of Accords ( 1998 + ) and have never attached any of the illumination wires to the aftermarket decks ( dimmer either ). Go to your local Honda dealership and get them to plug in the diagnositics computer and it should be able to tell you if there is damage to parts of the BCM.

    Check the voltage at the dimmer switch , assumeing that all fuses are good , you should have one wire that reads 12-14 volts when parking lights are on , and a wire that reads 0-14 volts with position of dimmer , I dont remember if the accord has an analog dimmer or not , but if it des its an easy check.       

Have put many head units in these cars and nothing special about wiring.    

Solved.

I took someone's advice and got a Honda Dealer involved.  It was painful to know that I probably could have saved a few hours of their labor time if they would have listened to me, but they said they wanted to be thorough and did their own diagnosis from the beginning.

It was the Multiplexor Control Unit that was burned out.  I think several of you predicted this one.  It's the Dash and Console one ($90) that, you guessed it, drives all of the lights on the dash and provides the capability to control them all thru the dimmer hooked up to it.

Fortunately (!) it was just this.  It could have been the instrumentation cluster that was burned out in some way, which would have required replacement ($?!) and 6 hours of labor (!).  So, I got away with the $90 part and 4.5 hours of labor ($72 / hr).  Could have been worse, but the biggest lesson I learned was to not do this kind of thing myself in the future.  I'm far better off going to someone like yourselves that know what they're doing.  I think I paid double what it would have cost me to get this all installed, plus the needed custom work on the front door speakers.

For the person that said they were following this thread because they have a similar problem, the unit that was replaced was under the steering wheel area near the fusebox.  Personally, not an area I'd want to get into, but most likely a pro could replace the part for you without going thru all the diagnostic work so it could turn out to be a cheap fix in the long run.  Again, it was the Dash and Console Light Multiplex Control Unit (Driver's) on a 1998 Honda Accord LX.  Your situation may be different, I only know this from the circuit diagrams they provided for me at an earlier visit at my request.  They had no problem bringing up part diagrams on their computer for me, but I don't know if the circuit diagrams are available that way.

Thanks again for all the help everyone, I have really appreciated your help! 

Rich

Thanks for the follow up Rich !! Very detailed and I hope everyone learned a lesson from your installation..... if your not sure of a connection , don't connect it. USE A DMM for verification .

I have the exact same problems as described above.

I just don't understand what I did wrong.  I didn't connect ILLUMINATION wire at all..  I grounded the deck properly too.

tom

Hey Tom, you will probably have to do what Rich did and take it to the dealership to get it on the diagnostics computer to trouble shoot where the elctrical problem is coming from.

Hey rszymczak and tomcom...

     I have the same problem that yall are having w/ the dash lights not working.  What exact did yall do to cause this problem? I cant figure out what I did.  The first time installed my subs I had this problem...I brought it to the dealership to fix and they said my multiplex control unit needed to be replaced.  I have a 02 accord and good thing it didnt cost me anything b/c it was still under warranty....and good thing they didnt blame it on my new installation! that happened like 3 months ago and it happened again yesterday after i installed my new head unit , amp, tweeters, front , and rear speakers! Like i said i cant figure out what i did for this to happen again...i disconnected the negative terminal from my battery prior to installation.  If yall know what cause the problem please let me know....i have a feeling the dealership will blame it on my stereo system this time if i bring it in....

hey rszymczak ...they really charged you that much to replace the mutliplex unit and labor? I was charged $80 for the part (i didnt have to pay this b/c my car was still under warrant) and it didnt take them 4.5 hours to put it in!! They surely jipped u! u should complain...