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Hey everyone!

I am a huge Honda fan, and between my parents and I, we have 2 Civics and my Accord.

Our 2002 Civic we bought new has been in this family for ages, and now that we all have newer Hondas we drive daily this car has become a spare for us when needed. It doesn’t get out much, usually once a month. After letting it sit for over a month I took it to the dealership for its routine maintenance today, and noticed the radio doesn’t work. I thought that was funny but then upon parking and leaving I see the power locks, mirrors, windows etc all don’t work as well. (They all still work when the car is running except for the radio.) I was conveniently already at the dealership so I had them check it out and it seems to be a blown fuse, but every time it is replaced it blows again. That leads me to think it is a shorted wire somewhere. They want $200 to diagnose the problem. Does anyone have any experience with this issue and if it’s something I can do myself? I can do very simple wiring and replace parts but any heavy electrical work I would leave to a professional. I would appreciate it if you have any thoughts ideas on how to go about fixing this before I go crawling back to the dealership.

Thanks!!

 
Rep Power: 224

Telling us what fuse is blowing would be a great start.

 
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Honestly I’m not sure, I will have to see for myself later. I assume it’s the “backup light” fuse, that fuse covers everything that is having issues.

 
Rep Power: 518

How many different components share the blown fuse?
The back up fuse is shared by 5-10 different components.

Got kids? Kids like to stuff coins in the piggy bank slot in the radio lol

 
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Basically it’s the radio, key fob, power locks etc. I’m thinking it’s the radio causing issues since that’s the only one that won’t work even when the car is on. I’m gonna replace the fuse after I disconnect the head unit and hope that works!

The car is only driven by me which is basically once a month, and it’s never had this problem before.

 
Rep Power: 518

Radio won't power up at all?
or is it locked because it lost battery power


Yea disconnect it and see if fuse no longer pops.

 
Rep Power: 133

Is this an aftermarket radio? The illumination wires on aftermarket radios can wreak havoc with dash lights and shorting if not properly capped off to prevent shorting.

 
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I fixed it (I think!)

it was the backup fuse that was blown, so I disconnected the radio and replaced the fuse and everything seems to be working (except for the disconnected radio.) It’s the stock radio head unit but it at one point did have an aftermarket system that we took out a few years ago. We replaced it with the original one again, but I think the wiring is a little shotty now which causes the radio to short out.

I probably will just leave the radio disconnected or buy another stock radio off of eBay and replace it.

Thanks everyone !!

 
Rep Power: 224

Was the stock harness cut up or is it all original to the connector? You could go to a junkyard and pull a radio for about $20. Just make sure you grab the VIN from the car so you can lookup the unlock code.