iPodMyCar - 2005 Honda Civic

I decided to add an iPod to my 2005 Honda Civic This is my story. I went the direct connection option as all the FM or Tape deck options have too many drawback for my liking. However the direct connection means taking apart my new car. :-(

I started with this web site. I bought some different parts (to save $$$). These are the parts I used.

Total costs about $62 plus 4 hours research and 6 hours to actually do it. Of which I spent two hours drinking beer, one hour waiting for it to stop raining and that was just the researching part.

This is what my car looked like when I started.

Next is to sit in side and see where to start. The plan is to remove that console and go under and behind the CD player. It seems easier than taking the CD player out.

The instructions say to put the car in neutral and disconnect the power. I decided not to disconnect the power and if you put the car in neutral it pings you every second which gets damn annoying after a few seconds, besides it activates all the power (which I did not disconnect).

The first step is to take the cover off the gear stick. It is really easy to do and really really easy to scratch. You need something that is not sharp (like George Bush) but also not too thick (so George wouldn't work after all). I scratched my car in the first 5 seconds, it is really really easy to do. You might be able to do it with just your fingers. Once it is off it looks like this.

Here is a close up of the scratch. My car has less the 2,000 miles so this pissed me off.

Removing the next piece is the hardest part. It is also easy to scratch. Looking at the PDF to see where the clips are helps. Here is a photo of the clips. I used a small and a large screw driver to do it. The clips are simple, finding them without scratching was hard. This part took about 30 minutes. I used two flat head screwdrivers.

Once that is done all the scratching parts are done. Others found the next part hard, I had no problems. It took a good 10 minutes to work out how the clips went on to get the large part off. I decided to pry the metal part off with a small screwdriver. It seemed to work rather well.

Before

After

I did not have to use a lot of force and I lifted it up as I pulled. The lighter is connected via a cable so don't pull it out too far. Here is a picture of it off with the cable connected. It is simple to unplug the cable.

This is what the clips look like. I tried to take a photo of what the metal covers around this clips look like but they were too small. You may need some pliers to bend them back into shape afterwards.

Now it is just a matter of reaching up and plugging in the cable.

I am about 190cm tall and there was no way in hell my hand could reach in there to do it. Eric's comments were

"My hand was able to fit, barely, into this space, and up behind the CD player. It took a bit of feeling around, but the CD changer port is on your right hand side. Feel around for the empty port. When you insert the cable from the HON98/AUX, the clip should be at the top."

Eric must be a small guy. It took my wife about an hour to do it. For the record the Yankees lost to the Mets while she was doing that. She was very bruised on the hand and forearm after finally getting the cable plugged in. It was a lot of hard work in a very very tight spot. I was thinking of taking the whole CD player area out but that was a lot of work that was very likely to scratch the car (and it was not my arm) so I kept watching the baseball.

Once it was finally plugged in it worked perfectly first time. Pressing the CD button on the CD player switches to CD. Pressing it again switches it to the iPod. The car thinks it is playing track 1 from a CD-Changer.

I'll take a photo of where the cable ended up going. I was going to drill a hole and put it in the CD tray but decided not to.

After putting everything back together I took this last photo.

Those two screws are now in my glove box until I feel like taking the car apart again to put them back in.

So here is the fished product. You can see the cable here. I like the fact that it is black. I put the iPod on the passenger seat when I am using it. I could get a stand or put it in the cup holder but why bother. It would make me a good christmas present.

The cable come out under here. Mainly because here is a nice gap that required no drilling.

 

I was going to make the cable come out this CD holder but it was a lot more work in a very tight space. I am glad I did not do it in the end.

I have a lot more photos. You can email (brade at this domain) if you want more pictures or if anything is unclear. I'll post a picture of where the cable goes next weekend or when it stops raining.

My commute is no longer scanning the radio and scratched CDs. I now have 3,500 songs and a lot of podcasts and books.

May 2005.