Hello,

I just purchased a Prelude and need some assistance. The previous owner had a crappy Clarion head unit installed and well it would skip over ever bump. I pulled the HU out to install my Pioneer from the pervious vehicle and hit a brick wall. Seems like the pervious owner had the plug from the Clarion HU spliced onto the main wires from the car....effin duh!

Now the only thing I can do is yank that plug off and splice in the plug from the Pioneer..however the problem is that I don't know which wire goes to what. It would be great if anyone could help me out with this. I don't need any crazy install or insane amount of power. I just want to install my Pioneer in the car so I can have some tunes while driving to work and school.

Thank you,

 

id reccommend getting a reverse harness metra part number 71-1721 to put it back to stock.

 

if the clarion harness is connected to the factory harness in the prelude well enough you can re-use their connections and just cut the clarion plug off and add the pioneer plug. the clarion, if its new enough, should be all aftermarket colors, just match the colors up to your pioneer harness, and post if you have any extra colors left over, you probably will.
or take it to circuit city and they'll do the wiring, you'll know its right, but it's like 26 bucks

 

yeah older clarions didnt use standard coloring. I think it was like 00 and older clarion radios. It was such a PITA

 

Could I turn the wiring back to stock and than just get the connector from crutchfield.com and splice it on the pioneer connector?

 

That would be the best way to do it, most would. Is the factory conection completly gone?

 

Yes sir. It's completely gone. Is there anyway I could buy a factory connector and splice that back in? I see member "incubus" mentioned something about a connector but I don't know if it's a factory connector or not.

 

I think that it's a waste of money to get a stock connector, just so you can buy an aftermarket one to plug into the stock one. Hook up the head unit to the wires just like the clarion was.

Hope this helps: http://www.installdr.com/Harnesses/HA-Wiring.pdf

 

yes, the stock connector is metra part number 71-1721. they run approx 15 dollars.

How are they a waste of money? if he doesnt fix it now every time he puts a new stereo in his stock wires are going to get shorter and shorter and be almost impossible to work with. If he fixes it now, while they are still kinda long, he can wire the other harnesses together in his house.

 

Whatever works for him. I just said what I think. If he's gonna be changing the radio every 2 weeks, then yea, it's probably worth to get the connector. But if he's gonna keep it for 2 years or so, I don't see a problem with hooking up to the factory harness.
<TABLE WIDTH="90%" CELLSPACING=0 CELLPADDING=0 ALIGN=CENTER><TR><TD>Quote &raquo;</TD></TR><TR><TD CLASS="quote">If he fixes it now....he can wire the other harnesses together in his house.</TD></TR></TABLE>
And how does that help? He has to wire the connector to the harness in the car. Then he has to wire the 2 connectors together. Or he can just wire the radio connector to the car harness.

So you're saying it's better to spend 30 bucks and waste time wiring the connectors together?

 

<TABLE WIDTH="90%" CELLSPACING=0 CELLPADDING=0 ALIGN=CENTER><TR><TD>Quote, originally posted by incubus &raquo;</TD></TR><TR><TD CLASS="quote">yes, the stock connector is metra part number 71-1721. they run approx 15 dollars</TD></TR></TABLE>

I don't mean to sound like an idiot but I could use that part number at a honda dealer ship and acquire the connector?

And also I appriciate everyone's help. I understand 02 accord's perspective and incubus' I'm still debating which route I should take. The link that 02 accord provided to the wiring of the stock radio helps alot and can get me to hook the HU without the aftermarket connector and yet im still debating if it will be more of a clean and easy install to just get the stock connector and go that route.

Thank you all.

 

No. That part number is for metra only. It's a connector with wires that you hook up to the factory harness. I'm pretty sure that a honda dealer will not have anything like this, because it's an aftermarket part. They would sell you the whole harness with the connector already on it, but I know that it's not what you're looking for.

Clean install? Depends on what you mean by clean. With the stock connector, you will have these wire connections:
car harness------connector, and harness plug------radio plug
or without the stock connector:
car harness------radio plug.

To me, the second option would be cleaner (less connectors). Also, it will be less work than doing the first option because you would need to get the stock connector on the harness and then connect the 2 aftermarket connectors together.

I'm not trying to force you to do this my way. I'm just pointing out the differences between the 2 ways of doing this. What you're gonna end up doing is up to you.

 

True. Also save me money. I doubt I will be pulling out the pioneer head unit out of the car anytime soon. Might as well just go ahead and splice in the connector.

Anyways, what does this "metra" mean?

 

metra makes dash kits and wire harnesses for cars when installing after market radios.
The part is only $15 retail so its not like its going to save u a lot of money to half *** it.
You can get part at any car stereo place.

 

$15 for the original connector that was in the car, and another $15 for the one that plugs into it. Seems like a waste of money. Especially now with gas being $3 a gallon.

http://www.metraonline.com/

 

Well I put in the part number on their website and it says that the part is compatible with honda prelude 1999-2001...would this work with a 1998 prelude also?

 

No. Just did a quick search and found the correct part number. 71-1720 is the original connector that came with the car, and 70-1720 is the one that plugs into it.

 

So I installed the Pioneer head unit with the help of this document http://www.installdr.com/Harnesses/HA-Wiring.pdf

I went with the middle configuration and everything seemed to be in order. I disconnected the old HU connector and spliced in the connector from the Pioneer. Hooked up the Pioneer and it seems to be working fine. Now the problems:

I went to open the car door and night and realized that the light inside isn't turning on with the door opened....i sat in and everything seemed to be in correct position. I pressed the map light button and wham the head unit turned off....also I realized if the doors are not closed and locks not engaged the HU will not turn on. This is not a big deal since when I put the key in the ignition and turn the car on the car itself locks the doors automatically. I'm assuming all these problems are caused by this stupid *** alarm that was installed by the pervious owner....I do not know the information on it and what kind of alarm it is but the only thing I know is that on the remote for the alarm it states "VIPER".

I know I didn't connect the pioneer connector incorrectly...but it's frustrating that now i have all these little problems.