[Baltyfg2]

So I’m new to accords and have a question. I see the dim lighting at night is a problem that’s very common. The fix seems annoying with the little amp on the motherboard. Would it be better to change the stereo like an aftermarket one? I wanna upgrade the stereo anyways. Just seeing is it’s the same fix. Thank you guys.

 

[TX Accord]

Search around for others' experiences with aftermarket radios in these cars. There are some available, but the problem seems to be operability of the hvac controls and sometimes the steering wheel radio controls. I wanted to get a newer radio for mine, but after seeing several bad experiences with aftermarket radios, I got a new block for my OEM radio which fixed my light issue.

Welcome to the forum!

Here's a write-up about my experience:

One owner '03 Honda Accord EX V-6 6-spd trying for...

Got the front lower ball joints replaced just now. Big thanks to @JohnNH for a great writeup to follow. I want to share a few pics about what worked for me. Total time spent: about 3.5 hours I opted to put my doughnut spare tire on and lower the car back down to the ground so I could break...

www.driveaccord.net

 

[hillstones]

Back in the day, Honda replaced the entire head unit for free under a goodwill policy. Your mileage may vary with an aftermarket head unit. It would depend if you were doing the lower pocket install and keeping the factory head unit for the HVAC control, or going with a full dash kit that replaces the HVAC control with aftermarket controls. If you have an EX-L with dual zone HVAC, you can run into problems with the dash kits that replace the HVAC controls. Some don't support the dual zone and try to convert your dual zone to single zone. I would avoid the cheap Chinese stereos on eBay. You might be better off finding an OEM replacement stereo from a Honda parts store or eBay. If you can find just the radio/CD 'block' to replace with yours, that would be the easiest solution.

 

[(K)]

I've been down this road a few times with the 7th gen and the best course of action is to send it out for refurb/repair. There are services on ebay that can fix issues with the radio and display, CD changer, etc. The issue with buying a used replacement unit is that you don't know how much life is left in them before they go again. The cost for repair is about $80-$120+ depending on the what you want fixed (so comparable to buying a used unit) but the repair is warrantied. Reach out to a seller that provides the repair service, tell them what's wrong with the radio, and send it out for repair once you have a price. You would be without a radio for about week (tops).

For the aftermarket units, I genuinely don't trust their quality and support is limited.