Installing a Car Stereo – 1998 Honda Accord

Earlier this week, I bought two new car stereos…one for Laura and one for me. The Sirius satellite receiver I got for her a few years ago is pooping out, so I decided to upgrade her with a satellite ready deck and a new satellite tuner. I still need to order the tuner, so she will get the install next week.

I needed to get a new radio because I got some audio books and “learn Spanish” CDs for my birthday. My car radio only had a tape deck. The stereo I chose to purchase was a great deal at $109 from Circuit City. It is a Pioneer DEH-P2900MP. I read the reveiws and they were good. Everyone agreed that the sound is great, but the stereo is hard to figure out. When Laura learns how to work it, she can teach me. I’m no dummy.

Anyway, as I sat in my car this morning, looking at the job at hand, I had absolutely no idea where to begin. I found two little screws underneath the big plastic thing and took them out. Boy, that didn’t do much. Everything was still firmly in place. I ran inside and jumped on the internet and found this great webpage called, “Honda Accord installation of a Car radio Pioneer DEHP835.” This, my friends, helped.

Strangely enough, the fact that I took those screws out was correct, but the secret was behind the clock. I had to pull the clock out (which was tight) and take out the screw behind it. There is no way to do this without a little bit of damage to the plastic. I have a few minor marks. With that out, I pulled off the entire plastic piece.

I was pretty proud of myself. I sat there and thought about how good of a job I was doing. I even bought the correct wiring harness for this car and stereo. Back in the day, I would’ve just cut the old harness plug off and used a lot of electrical tape. What a mess. These days, I am much more refined.

I mounted the stereo in it’s holder and looked at the new wiring harness. “Boy, that’s weird,” I said. “It doesn’t look like the correct plug.” I got on the phone with Circuit City and discovered that there was one more piece I needed for my specific car. I thought I had already taken care of that. Guess not.

I drove down to Circuit City in Middletown and picked up the plug. Gee, $40 for the two harnesses. That’s just to get the damn thing hooked up to the car. They really know how to get you. Oh well. They only had one in stock and didn’t have the tuner for Laura, so I was out of luck there. Still have to order them online.

So yes, there are two pieces to the wiring harness. Once they were plugged in and the antenna was set, mounting the stereo was easy. I did that and then plugged the rest of the electrical stuff back into the big plastic piece. I snapped that back into place and things looked pretty good.

I turned the stereo on to see how it sounded. Wow, I was impressed. Great sound, but I still don’t know how it works. That’s ok, I suppose I will learn soon enough.