My '04 TSX has recently started with an annoying audio problem - I hear sound almost exclusively from the LF door speaker. If I wind the fader all the way to the rear, I hear bass frequencies only. If I wind the fader to the front, and the balance to the right hand side, I hear high frequencies only. All speakers though are producing sound. CD Changer works fine, all the audio sources work as expected, it's just the sound quality.

My first troubleshooting step was to get a replacement amp, thinking the crossovers etc would be there. Ha, fooled me. No improvement.

So next I source a replacement head unit. Both the replacement amp and then the head unit came from a Toronto, Canada auto recycler, so they're legit not stolen - I have VIN and all that. In fact they were from the same donor car.

Now, this is where I mention I'm in Canada, and my climate controls are in C not F. The climate controls are integral to the head unit on the TSX. The replacement head unit, though, comes from a US spec car. In addition to this, my TSX is PWP on black with silver trim. The donor head unit of course comes from a red car with burled plastic trim.

Being of unsound mind, I immediately set to disassemble the replacement head unit. So, in general terms, there is a faceplate with the control buttons, there is a changer unit, and there is a main circuit board for the audio and LCD displays, and a daughterboard with the climate control buttons.

The main circuit board has labeling on it for C and F. The F has two dots next to it, which tells me (as I guessed) that this unit will read in F.

My plan is to combine my main circuit board with the donor changer in the hopes that the crossover/amp is in the changer unit. If that doesn't work, plan B will be to swap the circuit board and changer, keeping my silver trim faceplate (all; the while cursing the guy at Honda who made this one piece instead of two).

Since I will have to assemble and disassemble all of this to test, I'm hoping someone on here might be able to answer some questions and save me a lot of work.

1) Are the crossovers and amp in the changer unit? Since it has a big-ass heat sink down one side, I'm hoping it does.

2) Is the anti-theft code contained in the main circuit board or in the changer unit? (or both) If it's in the main circuit board, I of course have it for my car (original owner) and can get it for the donor car using the VIN and radio code (I think).

Any information, tips, clues anyone can give will be gratefully appreciated. I'll post pics of the disassembly/reassembly of the head unit as I do it.

Thanks in advance!

 

The external amp as the crossovers in it. There are four balanced line level outputs going to the amp, eight going out to speakers - dash tweeters on high pass, front doors on low pass, rear doors approximately full range, and subs with a low pass and some kind of bass boost circuit...

I had problems with my changer, got an entire new radio, and sold my working face plate to someone in Canada. They were able to use it with their changer, told me they now have to get used to degrees F, but never asked for my old radio code...

 

Thanks for the input.

I've gone a lot further with this (unfortunately without solving the problem). I'll post my experiences in case it helps someone else.

I first swapped the amp with a recycled unit and there was no change in the symptom. I then figured "OK, must be the head unit" and sourced a recycled unit from the same car the amp came from.

Now ... the recycled unit had two problems. First, it was from a red car - which means tan leather and "wood" trim. My car is PWP on black leather with "aluminum" trim. So I figured I'd remove the "wood" piece and replace it with my "aluminum" one. To my chagrin, I found that the entire faceplate from the vents to the "wood" trim is ONE piece. Which meant I had to disassemble the recycled head unit and my original one and reassemble the recycled unit with my original faceplate.

In the process of disassembly, I noticed that the main circuit board (there's a separate one for the climate controls which are integral) had an area where there was F and C printed on it. My original (Canadian car) had two dots next to the C where the replacement (from a US Car) had two dots next to the F. So I reassembled everything (US working parts on my "aluminum" faceplate and installed it. Of course, now my temperatures were in F.

I entered the radio code for the recycled radio, everything activated, and ... still no change in my symptom of no sound from several speakers.

So after a few suitable epithets, I disassembled everything again, put my original head unit together with my original faceplate, reinstalled it, and reassembled the US head unit to sell it to someone else who actually needs it.

Some conclusions ...

• the radio code is associated with the changer
• the changer from the US car could have been assembled with my Canadian circuit board if the changer had been the problem
• the head unit is not difficult to disassemble or reassemble (pics on request)

Now, after all this happened, I did what I should probably have done in the first place - contacted an old friend who is in Honda's technical staff in Canada. His suggestion was that these kinds of symptoms are usually a grounding problem.

So this weekend's project is to remove the door panels and look for any chafed wires, failed speakers, etc.

If that doesn't work the next thing I guess would be to look inside the dash, but I'm not looking forward to that (whereas of course removing the console, the head unit, and the door panels is a walk in the park LOL).