Civic Mk9 radio locked

DazQ87 · 27 May 2021 at 22:12

Hi all,

Bit of a shot in the dark but I'm wondering if anyone else has encountered this issue or similar with honda head units; Just fitted a new battery to my wife's 63 reg civic 1.8 petrol but now the radio is locked.

it appears to be this head unit

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=5mnDxx1qPaI

When you start the car it just says that the anti theft has been enabled and to enter a 4 digit code, we had a good look through all the paperwork and found a security card which has a blank space for a security code and a serial number under it which is 5 or 6 letters which we can't enter into the unit as it only wants numbers.

I've been looking through various forums and Facebook groups which seem to indicate that the head unit should be VIN locked to the car, and to just hold down the power button to make it reboot and check back with the ECU, however pressing the power button on our head unit has zero effect, it just stays on all the time asking for a code.

I found the manual

https://www.honda.co.uk/content/dam... Owners/manuals/EN-SD-owner-manual-119391.pdf

Page 37, in conjunction with some other forums has me worried, I'm starting to get the impression that the previous owner may have set an anti-theft pin which has now been triggered, and that the solution seems to be that the head unit has to come out and get sent to the manufacturer "Clarion" to be factory reset (which just so happens to be in France is is probably going to cost £££££!)

I'm going to try contacting the local main dealer tomorrow unless anyone has a magic solution or knows how to find the code easily?

Armageus · 27 May 2021 at 22:18

Sticker with code may actually be on the unit when you take it out (has for me on several ford units)

Cyber-Mav · 28 May 2021 at 08:35

do you have the serial number of the headunit?

DazQ87 · 28 May 2021 at 17:00

So to update, I called our local Honda dealer and said I wanted a radio code and had the serial number for the system, they told me to come down with ID to prove ownership of the vehicle etc. and they would charge us £20 for the code, which I though was fair enough.

We got to the dealer, who took one look at the unit and confirmed that the particular type has a pin number which is set by the original owner, and if it isn't written down the only way to unlock the system is to extract it and send it back to Clarion for a factory reset.

Now we're stuck between a rock and a hard place as I'm waiting for pricing information over the next day or so how much it will be to send it back to clarion, but they did mention it was about £200 the last time they did this for a customer. Although that did involve the cost of removing and refitting the head unit (which I will do myself). The other option is to replace the head unit with something aftermarket, but looking at loom adapters and kits it's going to be £130 in adapters just for the head unit, an extra £20 for an adapter to reuse the existing USB port, and it also turns out that Honda use an unusual voltage for the reversing camera (which my wife really wants to keep so losing it isn't an option) so I'd have to replace that whilst I'm at it, so it wouldn't exactly be the cheaper option after factoring in a decent head unit.

We did try getting the contact details of the previous owner, but the dealer we bought the car off won't tell us anything, and I doubt they would remember anyway.

Moral of the story is get a memory saver when you change the battery or you might end up with unwanted expense

gc123 · 28 May 2021 at 17:48

just a thought i havent done radio decoding the old way for a long time but used to do the first kenwood and clarions that had the owner only input code, they are a pain but try a few local car audio specialists they may be able to offer the same service for cheaper usually just reading a eeprom or micro and sometimes just resetting to a known code , i always had the option of resetting the code to zero or replacing it. most sets nowadays are vin coded and they can have vins changed strangely on our honda it has a code for the head unit and one for the sat nav computer but they were not activated so can be swapped out whenever.

other than that i suppose you checked the document for the last owner?.

once had a galaxy that didnt have the service books or spare key, bought it as salvage and repaired it. spoke to the dealer who supplied it new and he said he wasnt allowed to give last owner details, but if i wrote a letter would pass it on to the last owner. imagine my surprise when a week later i recieved a package with everything in it and a nice covering letter from a duke from down south (was a while ago ) ..

JMG · 15 Dec 2021 at 22:34

Thank you all for the info in this thread. I've had a very similar experience to DazQ87. About to change the battery..thought I'd better make sure I had the radio code in case it was needed...found the official Anti-Theft Radio ID Card Honda card with a sticker in the code box saying "CLACFD". Assumed this would be the code if I needed it...but no, this card was very misleading - the 'code' sticker is of no use. Frustrating is an understatement. DazQ87, if you're there!...what did you decide to do in the end?

Jokester · 15 Dec 2021 at 22:36

I had this issue when mine was just a year or two old. Ended up having to take it back the dealer.