Outrun

My coworker just had a battery replaced in her Accord (I think it's a 2000, not sure). Anyways, the dealer charged here $300 for the battery replacment and to "clean the alternator belt contacts". She's an old lady and I think they took advantage of her.

Anyways, she gets home and realizes that her radio doesnt' work. She called the dealer and they were gonna charge her about $100 for the code! She was going to go to the dealer too! But I heard about it and I ended up getting the serial number from her radio. A friend of mine who works at a dealer got the code for me.

However, I tried inputting the code but nothing happened. When the radio is turned on the display reads "Err". Entering the code did nothing. It's my experience that when the radio is turned on after a new battery it will say "Code" on the display.

Any Accord owners here know how to input the code correctly?

akgurl23

I am having the same problem with my 2001 Accord. I went through this once before and they put my radio code on one of my service receipts, which I have since lost. I think I can get the serial number without pulling out the radio, so if I have that can someone help me? I'm new to this forum and was referred here by another car forum... akmotorsports.com

Thanks

iam7head

first thing first, your friend at work got bend over, the battery is around 80-100 plus tax, cleaning of the alternator terminal? with a towel? geez, that's sounds mightly hard to do.

did you get a number followed by the ERROR or ERR code?

there's a serial number on the back of the deck and there's one in the glove box(for most honda), if she got the car used, the previous owner could have the oringal radio replaced and put in a similar radio with different code, so the serial number on the glove box isn't matching up.
try disconnect the battery again and try input the code, maybe there's a thief-proof feature that limits the number of time you can input the code.

the dealer should able to get the code in less than 20 seconds, it's a shame that they screw over people like that.

Outrun

Totally forgot about this thread.

At the time I forgot that "Err" meant that the 3 code attempts were used up and the radio had to be powered on for an hour before the lockout was lifted. What I did was took off one of the battery cables for a few seconds. I then put the cable back on and the display changed to "Code". I entered the code and it worked!

Now, for Honda radios (newer ones at least) you can get the serial number without pulling the deck out. To do this you need to make sure the radio is turned off. Press and hold the "1" and "6" keys and turn the radio on. The display should flash some numbers a few times. This is the serial number. For my coworker's radio it read "U 1234" on the display, then it changed to "L 1234". It then repeated the two alphanumeric strings a few more times. U1234L1234 is the serial number.

There's a number of members here who can get the radio code with the serial number. Or just call the dealership. Some dealers may require proof of ownership, such as registration or invoice. Other dealers may charge a fee. Hang up on those dealers.

I told my coworker that she can call me anytime with car troubles. I'm kinda pissed she got taken for $300, though I think most of that was from the towing fees.