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Hey guys, about a week ago I posted asking about installing the P.I.E. HON98-AUX in a 2004 Civic.

Fast forward to now, I just finished installing it! For the record, my Civic is a 2004 LX 4-door, and it does have to correct port. Onto the install!

For the disassembly of the car, I followed Honda's instructions on how to replace the head unit. It's fairly clear, it just doesn't tell you that you do need to use quite a bit of force in taking these pieces off.




First, I took a normal RCA(M) to 3.5mm(M) cable, cut off the 3.5mm side, and soldered it to a panel-mount 3.5mm(F) jack. The RCA cable had 4 wires inside: left, right, and one ground for each. The grounds were just soldered together to the ground tab on the jack, and left and right to the tabs respectively.



Here's the ring around the shifter (there was a name for it, but I've forgotten) taken off. This just took a little bit of prying.



Next, the bezel came off. This takes a little bit of wiggling and prying, but eventually it does come off.



Next was this piece. This one took me the longest to take off. The tabs at the bottom are very, very tight, and I thought I was going to break it at some points, but they did eventually come off.




There's a picture of a tab and of the center console with the piece removed. When I reassembled the console, the auxiliary converter box and cables just shoved right in there in front of that metal bar you see behind the cup holders. It was pretty tight in there, so I didn't tape it down. I'll let you know if there's any rattling or anything.

Next was the "easy" part: reaching up in the hole and plugging in the converter box. It's tighter than I thought it was up there, and my hand and wrist came out scratched and bruised. It took me a good 10 minutes to actually plug it in. Once that was done, the rest was cake.



There's the box plugged in, coming out from my dash.





These are some pictures of the panel-mount jack mounted in my panel. I used a drill to drill a 1/4" hold (as dictated by the jack), sanded it down a little in the back to get it flat, and screwed the jack on. I know the back is kind of hard to see, but you can see that I put some tape over the soldering. There's not that much to see, the panel-mount is a pretty simple deal.



Everything snaps back together in a matter of seconds. Really.



Close-up of the jack. I know there are some scratches around the panel there, but it's not very noticeable.



I didn't have my iPod on hand, so I used my phone instead to test. That's a normal 3.5mm(M) to 3.5mm(M) cable that plugs into the jack I just installed and an adapter for my phone. Pressing the CD/TAPE button toggles between CD and CD-C, where CD-C is the auxiliary input.

The entire process took me about an hour and forty-five minutes, mostly taking the panels off and plugging the thing in. The drilling and mounting didn't take much time, and like I mentioned before, the panels snap back in very easily.

Overall, it was pretty fun, and I'm really glad it worked out well, and am pleased with how it turned out.

Let me know if you have any questions!

 
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how much did you pay for that aux port? why didnt you just get a aftermarket deck? they have a ipod hookup on most new decks. but i guess you wanted to keep the factory deck, but great install though.

 
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Very nice. Clean install. I have a very similar adapter from USA Spec, but I have the ipod cable hooked up to it, coming out of the side opening on the passenger's side. The only problem with that sometimes is when I disconnect the iPod, the cable just hangs on the floor...but I'm happy with it. Props to you.

EDIT: I forgot to mention your cupholder is filthy. lol.

 
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Very cool, looks nice and clean.

 
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nice job

 
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I paid $49.95 for the converter and about $3 for the cable/jack, so price-wise, I think it was cheaper to go with this. I also kind of like the stock look, as well as the fact that installing an aftermarket deck would be more work.

Yeah, I know the cupholder is filthy (it's not my fault! My brother also drove this car). I've tried and tried to clean it out, to no avail. it's melted wax stuck down there; if you have any suggestions, please do tell!

 
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Sorry to thread jack,
But jeffyeh, Does your audio work correctly?
Only my left side works for some reason.

 
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You didn't put in a mono jack or use a mono cable did you?

 
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yep, you need 3 wires, not 2. if you have 3, then you likely have a bad connection or open wire.

 
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I finally got it to work.
Thanks guys.

 
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neat!

 
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Got it out! i'm so proud of myself.

now i'm just confused about what kind of adapter/wiring/harness i need to connect to my ipod headphone jack. do i seriously need to buy the '14 pin behind the radio' adapter for $120? one is $120 another is $66, i can't tell what the difference is & can't imagine there's a $60 difference between the two. any wires come with your converter? i took a picture of the back of my stereo. anything look right? do i plug an adapter into the existing port on the left or can i use the already existing wires on the right?
and what were you guys talking about 3 wires instead of 2?

the other picture - i was trying to figure out what this little black box is that says 'honda abs' on it. it doesn't identify itself otherwise. the wire on its left is for the cigarette lighter (they are taped to eachother). any idea what this is?

thanks

 
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I just registered in this forum simply to thank jeffyeh for this walkthrough.

Following this walkthrough, it took me less than 20 minutes to install the HON98-AUX in my 2005 Honda Civic LX.

Thank you jeffyeh.

 
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Nice work jeffyeh. My brother bought the same HON98-AUX adapter for his Civic, but you have the better install.

 
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Nice clean install, i'll try it myself, going to look for one in ebay, also is that a stock head unit you plugged into, i have a 2001 LX in canada, not sure if it has the CD-C option

 
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Wow! This is a really cool diy! I'm definitely doing this over getting an aftermarket deck. I like the look of the stock deck. Plus it looks better at night with all the back lights being amber. Thanks for this, didn't even know the converters existed.

 
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Could you please explain the wiring process a bit better for me. You took your RCA cables, cut one end off of them and soldered them to the jack?? Sorry im a bit confused..

 
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So I talked you a guy at Crutchfield today about this auxiliary input and he said something to the extent of losing CD player capabilities with this unit because the CD player is a different unit. Is this true? Can I still use the CD player?

 
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he prolly meant you lose the ability to add a cd changer, since this thing prolly plugs into the open factory cd changer connection in the back of the stock radio. regular cd player should work normally.

 
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Just wanted to bring this back from the dead to give you +rep.

took me just over 25 minutes to do it all with this write up. Thanks!

the only thing I did notice is when I crank up the volume on the headset I get a repetitive beep about two times a second. Not sure if this is normal, maybe the crappy amplifier in the head unit is just maxed out.

Can anyone else confirm? To confirm basically just turn your radio on to the aux input (CD-C) and crank up the volume (nothing needs to be plugged in).

Also just to help facilitate anyone else doing this. I bought the 'isimple IS335' kit on ebay for $11.95. Its a great complimentary kit to the adapter. It includes the RCA jack to 3.5mm adapter, the panel mount 3.5mm jack, and a 3.5mm extension.

Enjoy!

 
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Hey! A big favor, I want to install an aux port to my civic but I can't see your pics in this thread. I can only see a black box with a minus sign in a circle, instead of your pics. Could you attach them to a new message or repost them? Do I have to do something I don't know of? I'm new to this page. Thanks!

 
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It's because they aren't on the server that he hosted them on anymore. I doubt he is still around to reupload them for you.