I’ve got my iPod hooked up in my 2004 Civic. It wasn’t nearly as bad as I thought it might be. I used these instructions, and took these pictures to act as a companion.
Total cost was $133, using these components:
Buy.com had good deals on the charger and the TuneDok. I chose the Monster charger because I was afraid that a larger one would somehow block the cup holder cover from opening completely. The TuneDok manages to fit nicely into the armrest when you need your second cup holder.
Owners of slightly older civics should check out this blog post, which is what got me on the right track.
Update Aug 14, 2006: See lun’s comment for what is now a cheaper and more elegant solution!
21 Comments
So im doing exactly the same hook up. one question.. When your iPod is on, does your stero automatical take the sound, or do you have to hit a button?
Can you email me your reply?
gautch at gmail dot com
I just did my 2005 Civic. I used this site as my only guide. Thanks Eric.
Here are my photos.
http://www.rightclick.com.au/brad/ipodmycar.html
I just installed one in my 2005 Civic as well.
All went smoothly.
Thank you.
I bought a AB-HON cable that has the 14 pin Honda AUX plug. My problem is – which wires are used to tell the radio that the AUX is being used?
Must be one of greatest “Trade Secrets”. No company wants to say.
the best purchase ever….things went dandy.thanx!
p .s top right! use your middle and index fingers to find.
I was wondering if anyone has done this on a 2005 Honda with that built-in 6-disc changer/mp3 player/radio that mine came with as part of the LX package. I definately do not want to pull the radio without knowing if this is possible or not, since it has the 6-disc changer built-in, would it even have an available port on the back of the radio I could use? Obviously, on this model, there is a headphone AUX-in port right on the front, but how clean is that. I want to hide everything as best as possible.
The URL posted for me is a path to the files of my 2005 4-Door LX Civic. Any comments are welcome.
Brian
’75 Nova LN “Ellen”
’05 Honda Civic LX 4-Door
Has anyone tried something like this?
http://www.mp3yourcar.com/productdetails.asp?type=FACTORY&make=Honda&model=Civic&carYear=2005&productID=176
Its an all-in-one solution.
Brian
’75 Nova LN “Ellen”
’05 Honda Civic LX 4-Door
Hi,
I just wanted to say thanks to Brad for his website. I used it as a guide for working on my Honda Civic 2004, and my mp3 player works perfectly!
**A note of warning to other people, though. If you decide to disconnect the battery in order to do this project, make sure that you have the radio code for your car! Honda stock radios have an anti-theft protection system–if the battery is disconnected, then the radio will have to be reactivated using a five digit code.
I’m having trouble downloading the pictures and the directions…are they still up?
The link to the gallery was broken, but it’s fixed now. The directions are a link to a PDF, so beware. -Eric
Lot easier to buy this single cable now which charges the Ipod and feeds audio.
http://www.autotoys.com/x/cust/product.php?productid=5517&cat=0&page=1
Here is some more info I dug up.
Pinouts for the blue 14 pin molex connector (from the pdf version of the service manual, (called cq-jh8061_62z.pdf -probably can google it for the whole file with schematics and all, I forgot where I got it from)
1 audio common
2 CD R channel input
3 no connection
4 bus out
5 power supply, ACC
6 illumi.-Shide
7 illumi
8 Shide-ground
9 CD Lch input
10 Bus- Shide
11 Bus- Ground
12 Ground
13 Power supply +B
14 Illumi -cont
Pin 1 is on top furthest from larger main connector, 2 and up in ascending order to 7 towards connector, then ascending from 8-14 on second row from furthest to nearest to the main connector (1 is above 8, 2 above 9, etc). I’m almost certain the radio on the 2000 Oddy with nav uses the blue “hon98″ plug, not the white “hon03″ plug, as when I took my radio out to look at the back, it had the grooves on the bottom of the 14pin connector, and the manual also shows them.
Also from the manual-
Model number is CQ-JH8061Z: (part number-39100-SOX-C010)(Odyssey), CQ-JH8062Z (part number: 39100-SOX-A210) (w/NAVI).
I’m going to try hacking an “AB-hon” cable to add a mini plug (like for headphones) instead of the relatively more clunky RCA jacks, using these pinouts. I think that you can just apply signal to the cd-L and R channels and common, and use the CD button on the radio dash to select the aux input. I’ll have to find out, unless someone already knows the answer. If anyone wanted to reverse engineer the hon-98 AUX for those of us who have more talent with a soldering iron than cash to let us know where the pins eventually go on that device, it would be much appreciated. I wanted to post this because it was hard to find, and your blog has been helpful.
I used the ipod connector for my Kenwood sterio in my Civic, it works but you control the ipod as if it was a cd changer not like an ipod. I had to create tons of playlists which worked but it’s kind of a pain.
Hi,
I just got an ipod and am looking to do something similar for my civic. I just have a question, why do you need to take off the cover around the gear stick? I looked at the instructions and what Brad (above) did in his installation (http://www.rightclick.com.au/brad/ipodmycar.html ) but can’t seem to figure it out.
Thx for info!
Thanks for this awesome tutorial — I was going to shell out for a new stereo with a line-out option, but this saved me big bucks.
I bought a single cable that charges the ipod in addition to transmitting audio. Control stays with the ipod, which is frankly easier than having to create new playlists to fit the car stereo interface. I got my cable from here: http://enfigcarstereo.com/shopsite_sc/store/html/HON_MLINK1_1.html
The cable is a Blitzsafe HON/M-Link1 DMX V.1 — $69.99 with free shipping. I was going to buy from autotoys.com, as suggested by another commenter, but the reviews for them were terrible. Christian from Enfig.com was very helpful — he confirmed that this cable would work for my 2004 Honda Civic Hybrid. Shipping was very fast, and the cable works great.
After consulting this site, installation took less than an hour! Thank you!
I forgot to give props to Brad (above) — his pictures were really helpful!
http://www.rightclick.com.au/brad/ipodmycar.html
THANKS ALOT for the pinouts to the back of the OEM CD player, i’ve been looking for that for months.
Here is a quick URL to the site with the stereo service manual http://link-protector.com/185660/ (link protected).
Where did you order the 14 pin connector from? TIA
Eric,
Thanks for the site. Thanks to the link to the Honda directions and your pictures, I had my Grom adapter for my IPOD in place and working in less than 30 minutes, start to finish.
The only recommendation I would make is to use a 4 inch thin-blade putty knife to spread the parts and disconnect the clips and tabs. I used a Warner #34647 from Lowes hardware and didn’t leave a single tool mark.
For anyone who’s interested, I used a Grom Audio MBUS adapter I got off eBay but you can get it from them direct (an unpaid advertisement (g)). It worked fine the first time.
Thanks again
I just did this to my 2005 Acura EL. But I went the extra step and bought a panel mountable female cable, drilled a hole in one of the blank plugs next to the lighter/12V socket. So it now looks like it was put there by Honda. I bought the cable from Datapro http://www.datapro.net/products/1228.html
a little expensive considering I have many of the male cable lying around the house, but worth it for the neatness.
thanks for the help.
I did this whole process in less than 30 minutes in my 2004 Honda Civic Hybrid.
The dash pieces were way easier to remove than I had thought. I took the rca to miniplug cord and threaded it through the fuse box area to the coin holder below the cruise control button. I have a air vent mounted ipod cradle on the left side of the steering wheel. I can see the road and my ipod at the same time on this side. It took a bit getting used to “ipodding” left handed, but I did it.
When I’m not using the ipod I can coil the cord up in the coin holder, take my cradle out of the vent and you can’t even tell that I modified anything.
The only issue I had was that the interface “box” had to be in the correct position for the sound to come out of both speakers or come out at all. It was a jiggle the cord and see what happens sort of thing. All in all I am very satisfied.
Thanks for the directions and pictures everyone has provided.
Thanks man…was a simple install thanks to you! YOU THA MAN!!!
I have a 2005 Civic and I bought an iSimple from best buy and plugged it in the back. It actually says it only works with up to a 2004, but the radios are obviously the same. It took me close to an hour in the car with 15′F weather and scraping up my hand a bit to get that mother plugged in the back, but it was worth it when it snapped in. I ran the cable through the glovebox and that seemed like the best place. Thanks for this page, which got me started researching this mess!