The stock cd player in my '00 Civic stopped working. The am/fm works fine but it wouldn't read discs. I'd get an E message and it would eject the disc. So, I bought a used player (exact same one) off Ebay. It worked great for a month but now it's doing the same thing. Is this a common failing in that model? Should I just get a brand new player?

 

Good aftermarket radios are so cheap now, it's hard to justify buying OEM replacements from junkyards or online. The Pioneer DEH-150MP is all over the internet for $50-$60.

 

Will that plug right into the wiring harness without having to splice anything? I'm new at this

 

you get a wiring harness adapter. That will splice together with the aftermarket harness (that plugs into the radio), the other end will plug into the factory wiring harness. No cutting of the factory harness. Much more reliable and clean. The adapters are made by Metra and Scosche. If you order an aftermarket radio from Crutchfield.com they include all the install instructions and the wiring harness! Definitely a good start for a newbie.

Oh and there are a lot of great aftermarket options for you. What's nice about the 99-2000 civic, the keyless entry module is separate from the factory radio. Where like mine, the 96 it's part of the radio so we gotta wire it in and hide it to keep the keyless feature! But back to the aftermarket, usb inputs for thumb drives, control of smartphones, etc. Plus you can get some real nice ones for about $80-100!

 

There is no need to do that. Factory keyless feature is garbage anyways.

 

General idea how to do it.