I went to two car audio shops today looking to replace the factory car radio in my 97 Civic.

One of the shops told me that the factory remote keyless entry will no longer work if I replace the factory car radio.

The other shop assured me that they have a harness that will maintain the remote keyless entry functionality.

These are both professional shops, but they can't both be right.

What's the true story?

 

Both are correct. The second shop just plans to hide the old factory radio behind the replacement radio.

 

RonJ is correct. The story is the keyless entry module is built into the radio for the 96-98 model years (only for the LX and HX/EX radios, the dx does NOT get keyless entry capability). for 99-00 it's separate so you can replace the radio without worrying about affecting the keyless entry.

Both shops were correct, I like the 2nd shop as they gave you a solution to the problem. Yes, there is a wiring harness that allows you to keep the factory radio plugged in, but of course nothing else works. There is plenty of room behind the dash for the factor radio to be hidden/mounted and still allow the keyless to work. I'm looking into this as well as I'd like to keep my keyless entry.

 

all the harness is is a factory reproduction radio plug with a ground, switched, and constant wire. very easy to make it yourself. do it, hide the radio in the dash, and install the new radio