Using an Accord key for Civic?
Well I've got some good news and some bad news...
The good news is the parts guy at my local Honda dealer is REALLY COOL!!
I straight up told him what I wanted to do, and he said, although he did not believe it would be possible, that he had TWO ACCORD FOB KEYS that had been mis-cut sitting in a drawer, and... HE GAVE THEM TO ME! FREE
So I took them home to experiment with the electronics. Now the bad news, it doesn't look possible, or at least, not possible without some more serious work. The reason? The Accord keyless transmitter fob transmits between 313.8 and 313.9 MHz, but the Civic fob transmits between 433.845 and 433.995 MHz
Maybe if an Accord keyless receiver was transplanted into the car? Otherwise component level mods to the key fob circuit board seem a bit much...
The good news is the parts guy at my local Honda dealer is REALLY COOL!!
I straight up told him what I wanted to do, and he said, although he did not believe it would be possible, that he had TWO ACCORD FOB KEYS that had been mis-cut sitting in a drawer, and... HE GAVE THEM TO ME! FREE
So I took them home to experiment with the electronics. Now the bad news, it doesn't look possible, or at least, not possible without some more serious work. The reason? The Accord keyless transmitter fob transmits between 313.8 and 313.9 MHz, but the Civic fob transmits between 433.845 and 433.995 MHz
Maybe if an Accord keyless receiver was transplanted into the car? Otherwise component level mods to the key fob circuit board seem a bit much...
I spent 1425 points to do this.
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Originally Posted by stinkypie
I know for a fact that '03 civic keys look like the one pictured,
and also that the '01 civic has what I would call a 'normal' key design:

and also that the '01 civic has what I would call a 'normal' key design:

According to American Honda parts database, 01-03 Civics used the "normal" key and 04+ Civics use the "Sidewinder" style key.
I think this has become something of a pet project of the moment for me, seeing if this can be done. For anyone who may still be reading this, or just for the record, I've found a few more things out.
As mentioned it seems the most likely route short of component level changes on the circuit board in the fob head would be to swap out the receiver in the car to match the key.
Well searching Honda's parts db it would seem there is no stand-alone receiver in the Accords for keyless, which leads me to believe that function is integrated into something else such as the immobilizer receiver. I do know the '06 Civics will also use the fob head sidewinder key and that the keyless receiver on this car IS integrated into the immobilizer, so from either of those cars, I don't know what effect swapping that out to a 7th gen might have on the ECU or if its even possible - so I stopped looking there for now.
I changed tactics and began looking at the CR-V instead, since the '05 CR-V also uses a fob head sidewinder key. EUREKA - the CR-V has a stand-alone keyless receiver unit like our cars do! It may be possible to swap a CR-V receiver into a 7th gen Civic and thus use a CR-V fob head key on its native frequency
Some other things I've found that are worth mentioning, the Accord fob head key and the CR-V one are in fact DIFFERENT. The transmitter guts as far as I can tell are identical, but the immob chips and key shafts are different. The Accord shaft is stamped with a "V" and is slightly thicker than the CR-V key, which is stamped with an "F" -- which happens to be the same stamp on the '04 Civic key
The Accord "V" key could in theory be made to work but would involve sanding the sides of the key shaft down to fit, and ALSO swapping the immobilizer chip out of a Civic key, where the CR-V already uses the right (type 3) immob chip
It's looking more and more like we should be forgetting the Accord and zeroing in on the CR-V
More notes (from American Honda parts database):
04 CivEX2 (US) keyless receiver PN: 38385-S5A-A01
fob transmitter PN: 72147-S5A-A01
Sidew main key PN: 35113-S0X-A01
Sidew vlet key PN: 35114-S9A-A01
05 CRVSE (GB) keyless receiver PN: 38385-SAA-A01
key transmitter PN: 35111-S9A-305
05 CRVSE (JP) keyless receiver PN: 38385-S9A-A01
key transmitter PN: 35111-S9A-305
05 ACDEX2 keyless receiver N/A (integrated?)
key transmitter PN: 35118-SDA-A11
06 CivEX2 keyless/immob iu PN: 39730-SNA-A01
key transmitter PN: 35111-SVA-306
I think this has become something of a pet project of the moment for me, seeing if this can be done. For anyone who may still be reading this, or just for the record, I've found a few more things out.
As mentioned it seems the most likely route short of component level changes on the circuit board in the fob head would be to swap out the receiver in the car to match the key.
Well searching Honda's parts db it would seem there is no stand-alone receiver in the Accords for keyless, which leads me to believe that function is integrated into something else such as the immobilizer receiver. I do know the '06 Civics will also use the fob head sidewinder key and that the keyless receiver on this car IS integrated into the immobilizer, so from either of those cars, I don't know what effect swapping that out to a 7th gen might have on the ECU or if its even possible - so I stopped looking there for now.
I changed tactics and began looking at the CR-V instead, since the '05 CR-V also uses a fob head sidewinder key. EUREKA - the CR-V has a stand-alone keyless receiver unit like our cars do! It may be possible to swap a CR-V receiver into a 7th gen Civic and thus use a CR-V fob head key on its native frequency
Some other things I've found that are worth mentioning, the Accord fob head key and the CR-V one are in fact DIFFERENT. The transmitter guts as far as I can tell are identical, but the immob chips and key shafts are different. The Accord shaft is stamped with a "V" and is slightly thicker than the CR-V key, which is stamped with an "F" -- which happens to be the same stamp on the '04 Civic key
The Accord "V" key could in theory be made to work but would involve sanding the sides of the key shaft down to fit, and ALSO swapping the immobilizer chip out of a Civic key, where the CR-V already uses the right (type 3) immob chip
It's looking more and more like we should be forgetting the Accord and zeroing in on the CR-V
More notes (from American Honda parts database):
04 CivEX2 (US) keyless receiver PN: 38385-S5A-A01
fob transmitter PN: 72147-S5A-A01
Sidew main key PN: 35113-S0X-A01
Sidew vlet key PN: 35114-S9A-A01
05 CRVSE (GB) keyless receiver PN: 38385-SAA-A01
key transmitter PN: 35111-S9A-305
05 CRVSE (JP) keyless receiver PN: 38385-S9A-A01
key transmitter PN: 35111-S9A-305
05 ACDEX2 keyless receiver N/A (integrated?)
key transmitter PN: 35118-SDA-A11
06 CivEX2 keyless/immob iu PN: 39730-SNA-A01
key transmitter PN: 35111-SVA-306
Last edited by seattlex19; Sep 29, 2005 at 03:54 PM.
Oh yeah, it may also be theoretically possible to modify the frequency of the transmitter on the fob board by simply swapping out the crystal or whatever frequency regulating component, which would probably be easier and definitely cheaper, but I'm not presently sure this would work, because these fob heads are from a different manufacturer than the Civic fobs, so I don't know if the key presses - even if it WAS at the right freq - would even generate the proper response to a Civic receiver anyway...
Still brainstormin'...
Still brainstormin'...
Originally Posted by blackdragon
Not only that but if you got a remote trunk opener from an Acura EL the trunk button would also be functional IMO.
I think the trunk is on a wire (hence why its latched w/ the gas door) but if it would be possiable to hook up an Acura's electronic trunk poper that would b awesome. WTF (Why the ***) did'nt Honda use a button instead of a lever to open the trunk? What is this, 1956?
05 CRVSE (JP) keyless receiver PN: 38385-S9A-A01
https://gullfoss2.fcc.gov/prod/oet/c...8D-344H-B'
05 CRVSE (GB) keyless receiver PN: 38385-SAA-A01
https://gullfoss2.fcc.gov/prod/oet/c...D-344H-3B'
Had the chance just now to dig into the dash of my girlfriend's '05 CR-V SE. It was made in Japan so has the S9A receiver in, and boy was it easy to get at! Got under the dash, removed the cover panel, and there it was staring me in the face! It's really small, about the size of a cigarette pack, with a green plug on it, 5 wire plug but only 4 wires on it. If looking at the plug from the backside (wires going into plug side) and with the clip on top, the order is:
Black (leftmost), Blue w/orange stripe, Yellow, blank hole, and White w/red stripe
Next I'm digging into the dash of my Civic to locate my receiver. Boy it would be nice if it turned out to be plug n play - that would be too easy - we'll see...
https://gullfoss2.fcc.gov/prod/oet/c...8D-344H-B'
05 CRVSE (GB) keyless receiver PN: 38385-SAA-A01
https://gullfoss2.fcc.gov/prod/oet/c...D-344H-3B'
Had the chance just now to dig into the dash of my girlfriend's '05 CR-V SE. It was made in Japan so has the S9A receiver in, and boy was it easy to get at! Got under the dash, removed the cover panel, and there it was staring me in the face! It's really small, about the size of a cigarette pack, with a green plug on it, 5 wire plug but only 4 wires on it. If looking at the plug from the backside (wires going into plug side) and with the clip on top, the order is:
Black (leftmost), Blue w/orange stripe, Yellow, blank hole, and White w/red stripe
Next I'm digging into the dash of my Civic to locate my receiver. Boy it would be nice if it turned out to be plug n play - that would be too easy - we'll see...
Last edited by seattlex19; Sep 28, 2005 at 11:14 PM.
IT SHOULD WORK!!
I've gone over all the paperwork on these transmitters and receivers from the FCC site (great info there) and cross checked all the parts thru Honda db, and it really looks like it could be a straight up swapout!
Civic receiver 38385-s5a-a01
https://gullfoss2.fcc.gov/prod/oet/c...HVWD1U521'
Pull the Civic keyless receiver, plug in the CR-V receiver, get a CR-V key cut and programmed and that's it! Wouldn't even have to shred a Civic key for the chipout because (unlike Accords) the CR-V uses the same type 3 immob chip as Civic! IT SHOULD WORK (in theory...)
For '04-'05 Civic you would need:
1 CR-V kls receiver: 38385-S9A-A01
1 CR-V fobhead key: 35111-S9A-305
For older 7th gens you would also need to mod the key shaft to non-sidewinder (see the TSX mod DIY posted earlier)
I'm going to try it "for real" soon, I will report back with the startling conclusion.......
I've gone over all the paperwork on these transmitters and receivers from the FCC site (great info there) and cross checked all the parts thru Honda db, and it really looks like it could be a straight up swapout!
Civic receiver 38385-s5a-a01
https://gullfoss2.fcc.gov/prod/oet/c...HVWD1U521'
Pull the Civic keyless receiver, plug in the CR-V receiver, get a CR-V key cut and programmed and that's it! Wouldn't even have to shred a Civic key for the chipout because (unlike Accords) the CR-V uses the same type 3 immob chip as Civic! IT SHOULD WORK (in theory...)
For '04-'05 Civic you would need:
1 CR-V kls receiver: 38385-S9A-A01
1 CR-V fobhead key: 35111-S9A-305
For older 7th gens you would also need to mod the key shaft to non-sidewinder (see the TSX mod DIY posted earlier)
I'm going to try it "for real" soon, I will report back with the startling conclusion.......
Last edited by seattlex19; Sep 29, 2005 at 04:20 PM.
IT DOES WORK!!
Allow me to tell you, it works
I put the above listed CR-V receiver in my Civic (just unplug the original and plug the CR-V one in, that's it) went and got a CR-V fobhead key made for my Civ and that's that, it works
Enjoy!
Allow me to tell you, it works
I put the above listed CR-V receiver in my Civic (just unplug the original and plug the CR-V one in, that's it) went and got a CR-V fobhead key made for my Civ and that's that, it works
Enjoy!
FYI, this is now a DIY:
http://www.7thgencivic.com/forums/sh...d.php?t=230092
(Further replies on this subject would probably fit better over there)
http://www.7thgencivic.com/forums/sh...d.php?t=230092
(Further replies on this subject would probably fit better over there)
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