jimfski2008

The radio button console back lights on my 2008 Accord LX have gone out. I can't seem to find a fuse for it, can someone direct me or have a wiring diagram?

0TorontoHonda

there is a bulletin for this from Honda Canada. Radio display dim or not illuminating. You can replace the PCB board for your radio.

jimfski2008

Thanks, any idea how difficult it is to do myself? I read some older post and evidently this has been a problem for a while.

Accordman1

It is fairly difficult to get to it since you have to remove the center console to get to the CD/radio player. I had similar problem with my 03 Accord and I thought they fixed it in the 05 and beyond. There is a control board that sits atop the CD/radio and controlled the backlight of the center console and the LCD. Everything still works except I can't see the button and the radio LCD at night. Brought it to a Honda dealer and there was an extended warranty on it but I just missed the date. It took the dealer about 2 hours to replace the board which cost $115 plus labor. Honda pitched in and pay for the labor but I am still pissed. This should never happen in the first place and Honda should pay for the whole thing since it was a known defect from the start. You should check with the dealer to determine if there is a TB that Honda would pay for the fix. If you are mechanically inclined, you may be able to do it in 2 hours with the part and the service manual pages to disassemble and reassemble your console radio.

robthebuilder72

Hello,

Sorry to bump this old thread, but I was struggling with this issue on my 2008 Honda Accord LX and I had to post the solution somewhere. Here were my symptoms:
- When turning on the headlights in the car, the radio lights would not turn on.
- Climate lights work
- The radio still fully works
- If a CD was inserted, the CD light worked

The model number of my radio is 39100-TA0-A01, which I found out once removed.

I apologize that I don't have a through step-by-step with images, but I'll tell you what I did.
1. Find a copy of the 2008 Honda Accord service manual and follow the instructions for removing the radio.
(The manual I had was page 23-115.)
2. Once the radio is removed, remove the screws that hold on the buttons. You'll have to lightly pry along the top after the screws to pull off the buttons.
3. Then, remove all the small screws holding the black bracket (I think there's 9 of them) and remove the bracket.
4. Remove the screw holding the black top cover and remove the cover.
5. Remove the screws on the back holding the black heatsink.
6. Remove the two screws holding the CD drive in, pull the ribbon cable from out of the main board (please be delicate, these can be fragile and suck finding a new one) and remove the CD drive.
7. Remove the two screws on the side holding the heatsink (that's soldered to the board) to the radio frame.
8. Remove the six screws holding the main board to the frame. Put the frame aside.

Whew. That's a lot of screws. Now that the board is out, here's where to find the problem. This picture will make more sense once the board is out. Please look here at the red box.



The problem is the surface mount resistors underneath the metal heatsink. It's easier to see the resistors on the other side of the heatsink near the edge of the board. The resistors are labeled R108 to R111. If you look close at the four surface mount resistors, the solder joints are bad. I try to show it below boxed in red.



If you fix the solder joints by heating up your solder iron of choice and put a little more solder on the connections, this should fix the problem. Make sure you check both sides of the resistor as I had one bad on the other side. The edge side joints are super easy to fix. The ones under the heatsink are a little more difficult. I had to fix three joints and the lights are back to working on my Accord.

Please let me know if you have any questions.

t_revver

I registered just so that I could thank robthebuilder72 for this info about fixing the radio back lights. Thanks for bumping that old thread. I had the same problem on my 2009 with the single disk CD. Resoldering those resistors fixed it. THANK YOU! That was a ton of screws! I also have to add that you gotta have some pretty strong soldering kungfu to solder those things. They are TINY. I actually had someone at work solder it for me because I knew that I would just make it worse.

Ryan Franzese

Thank you SO MUCH, I also joined just to say thank you. It took me maybe 2 hours, I learned how to solder just for this. It worked, have never been happier. Thank you thank you thank you!!!!!!!!

Kyu Han

I don't know what I missed, but I could not find the screws that hold the CD player onto the radio. Any clues would be appreciated.

wingrove@roadru

I agree it's a lot of screws. In order to gain better access to the resistors, bending all of the tabs that holds the plate that's in your way the plate can be removed. This allows plenty of room to solder the resistors. Worked great for me.

joking777

Thanks for posting this and the close up pictures. I had the same problem on a 2010 Accord LX. After removing the heat shield by gently bending the tabs, I was able to get access to the back side.

emanation

Hello to everyone.
I just was removing radio/AC assembly to replace some bulbs and was digging into radio light issue. I was able to trace from those tiny bulbs on front radio panel back to main radio board and saw those resistors. They showed signs of overheat but I didn’t have time to dig deeper and assembled everything back hoping that I rather make web research later. Hopefully found this thread.
my question does anyone know what Ohms are those resistors? It’s because while I was testing them with multimeter one of them R109 felt off. And there is no way to measure its resistance now.
other looks like just 1 Ohm. But I’m not sure they are all the same.
now I’m thinking to replace them all maybe.
thank you for info