Ok, I have a 2004 TSX with Navi and I modified the audio system. I basically took the RCA feed from the radio and routed it to my amps thus removing the stock amp from the car. A few weeks ago my upper display (the white letters/numbers that shows the time, preset station, temp settings) went almost completely black. I understand there is a TSB for this problem.

Question: Can anyone think of a way that my sending the signal to my amps somehow shorted out the system? I'm asking because the one dealership I talked to about this pretty much said if you modded it you're fucked - $3000 please. My understanding is that if the mod cannot be shown to have caused the failure then they are still obligated to fix it. I want some informed opinions concerning possible ways/arguments that could be made saying that my modification was to blame before I make a fool out of myself with Acura. If it matters, nothing else has gone out, everything else works just perfectly. Thanks


Cliffs notes: took my RCA output from the head unit and sent it to my amps instead of the stock one - any way this could short out my radio?

 

familiarize your self with this Magnus Moss Act . If you can find an actual copy of it take it with you if not take a copy of that with you. The thing is they have to prove two different time that what you modified caused the problem. That thing is the car modifiers bible against the car dealers. To begin with they hate doing Warranty work cause they dont really make money on it. So when you modify your car the first thing they say is you caused what ever the problem is. The government is your friend on this cause you can legally take them to court if you know otherwise or have another shop that will prove otherwise.

 

well.. you know.. it is possible but doubtful. I did the exact same thing you did, installed ipod, snhond3, to the cd-c. I remember there was one instance my cd-c was flickering. It was probably because of a bad connection to the snhond3.

However, if you DONT have anythign to cd-c (aux) then I would say take a look at the friendly tsx repair manual. Your situation sounds sort of dire so I provided some scans of the relevant pages..

lets get this party started...


This diagram pretty much shows you the clock console. Here you can see it has one connector


So this leads to audio-hvac display panel connector. So that wireharness is going into an amp powering your clock display.


Here is the description of what each wire is doing


Now here is the important diagram. Here it basically asks you to test the connection of each wire.

So.. honestly.. your problem doesn't look that hard to troubleshoot. Even if you didn't want to go through the steps if troubleshooting it, there is no way it would cost $3,000.. shiet..

So basically here.. it seems like after reading their troubleshooting methods..

a) the wire harness could be bad in between your clock to the amp to the audio unit (what powers your clock)

b) connections from the audio unit could be bad

c) your clock display could be bad

d) and one last scenario..


This is only half of the page..

Take a look at the audio unit. What you are doing is tapping
a7/a17, a8/a18, a5/a15, a6/a16 to rca wires.. that's it. It really shouldn't affect your connections of what's going out of the audio-hvac display panel to the clock.

 

The only thing I can see happening is you would blow your HU outputs. It shoudln't short out the radio though.....at least I wouldn't think so.

 

OK, now looking at the diagrams you posted I'm getting nervous - I physically removed the stock amp from my car - I spliced my RCA's into the RCA's from the head unit and taped off the two power leads from the head unit to the amp. Is that diagram suggesting that the stock amp sends power to the HVAC display? If so, why didn't it go out as soon as I made the changes?

BTW, thanks for the diagrams and input - I imagine that took a little bit of time.

Also, WTF happened to the Cowboys on Sunday? 10 points in two minutes? Gimme a break.

edit - NVM, I never touched the wires that go to the clock - all my stock controls work perfectly.

 

Removing your stock amp doesnt have anything to do with your hvac display. If you look at the diagram its powered by something called the 'audio unit.'

Dude.. 10 points in 2 minutes.. crap.. missed a crazy game hehe.