Love and stars resemble in one way. They stop you looking up every day….

This differs from the instructions for the 2001 Honda listed at the top of this blog above:

First Step:

After obtaining all of the necessary parts and tools, and removing the negative battery cable (Note: You must have your stereo security code prior to removing the negative battery cable – mine was on a sticker on the left outside of the glove box)you can begin on the cigarette lighter plug panel removal. I purchased a door panel removal tool from Autozone for $9.99 to minimize the chance of damaging the panel or dash. Not exactly designed for this but its curved, wide flat head allows you leverage and to distribute the pressure over a larger area reducing the chance of denting or permanently damaging the dash/molding when prying at the retaining clips.

1. First remove inner plastic rectangular ring around the gear shifter. This is retained by four clips. All on the sides. Two near the top (left/ride) two near the bottom (left/right). This plastic is thin so don’t pry to hard and try to pry close to the clips to prevent from breaking this.

Step Two:

2. Remove outer plastic rectangular ring around the gear shifter. Same number of clips, same locations. Again, be careful and pry close to the clips.

Step #3:

3. Once Step #2 is complete you should see two Phillips head screws (at the top of the hole left by the removal of the outer ring in step #2) holding the beige plastic molding in place which is all one piece with the Cigarette Lighter Plug and two switch cut-out covers. You will not have to remove the cup holders so no need to even try. After removing the two screws, gently pry along the left and right side of the molding along the outer edge of the gear shift housing, working from the back toward the front. The left and right side molding is actually along the outer side of the Gear Shifter housing along the top edge. You will find two clips on each side, and then the front (closest to the dash) has one slide-in piece on both the left and right front lower side. What I did is after I loosened the left and right sides along the shift knob housing I grabbed both the left and right side of this molding at the same time and gently pulled toward the back of the car with a slight upward angle. This caused the two clips on each side of the Cigarette lighter housing and one in the top center to release allowing me to gently pull the entire piece out. Don’t pull to hard or to far until you unplug the wires/plug to the back of the cigarette lighter plug. Once the wires are unplugged you can completely remove this piece and set it aside. This will give you access to the two 8mm bolts (which also have Philips heads on them) that retain the stereo rack mount.

Return to step c at top of this blog with photo for removal of the upper panel that contains the stereo and A/C, Heater controls and center vents. The 2003 Honda Civic EX Coupe upper panel is identical to the one pictured. Note: When removing the upper panel, I started with the lower left side, and lower right side first and worked my way up both sides toward the air vents. After removing the side clips, I just gently pulled toward me and with a slightly upward angle and the three top clips released, allowing me to pull the stereo rack forward, giving me access to the rear of the stereo.

Note: Many have written and said they were able to reach the plug at the rear of the stereo by reaching up through the hole left by removing the Cigarette Lighter Plug panel and feeling around until they found it. Just out of curiosity, I attempted to reach up there and found numerous wires in the way. I planned to remove the stereo anyways as I wanted to secure the HON98-AUX device to something as my fear was that if not secured, it would rattle when driving and I did not want to have to go through this entire process a second time if at all possible. I would have been fearful that while \fishing\ around to find the hole without removing the upper panel I may have inadvertently loosened wiring to something else. I have big hands so it did not afford me much room to feel around. I also found that the removal of the top panel only took me an additional five minutes to do, and gave me free access to the rear without having to \fish\ around for the device plug hole.

After pulling the entire panel (stereo rack and all forward) I plugged the device into the back of the stereo and dropped the ground wire and audio jack wire down behind and through the hole behind the cigarette lighter plug panel. I had planned to use double sided tape to secure the HON92-AUX device to the top of the stereo (as someone had suggested)but realized if I did,it would block the vents from going back into place properly. I decided instead to secure it to the top side of the bottom of the rack (below the plastic cd pocket). I utilized two long wire zip ties, making sure not to cover the bolt holes for the two bolts that secure the rack in place (removed in step c above). After securing it nice and tight with the ties, I pushed the upper panel containing the stereo and A/C, Heater controls back into place gently pushing around the edges until all the clips were secured back in place. I chose to install an intermittent switch between my ground wire and the ground, because in reading the numerous posts here, some devices require the ground, some don’t work well with the ground, so I didn’t want to have to pull this all apart again if my son chose to change MP3 devices. I got a low profile push (on/off) switch from hardware store for $4.00 and installed it in one of the switch cut-outs on the Cigarette Lighter Plug Panel. Went with black so you can barely see it. I then grounded one of the switch wires to the existing 10mm Chassis bolt that was directly behind where the Cigarette Lighter Plug was. This bolt already had a ground wire for something else, so I just loosed the bolt, added my ground wire to it, and tightened it back down.

I ran the audio jack through a gap at the front corner of the panel passenger side. It was neat, yet the wire was plenty long enough to reach anywhere on the drivers side, yet could be tucked out of view if not needed.

At this point, I replaced and tightened the two 8mm bolts that secure the stereo rack (Step C at top, original post)and then completed my Step 1 – 3 in reverse order (Don’t forget to plug the Cigarette Lighter Plug wire back in to the back of the plug before replacing this panel). All panels went back into place without a hitch, no damage and looked good as new. Replaced the Negative Battery Cable, inputted the Stereo Security Code (after turning the key on, turning the stereo power on, when the \Code\ word showed up on the digital display). Thing works like a charm. My son is using the new Verizon I-Phone, and discovered that when on speaker phone, the system also works like a bluetooth. He can lay the phone in the center console or on his lap and the sound comes through the stereo preventing him from having to hold the phone up to his ear while driving. Pretty cool, unexpected extra. The ground switch does have to be in the grounded \on\ position for his I-Phone to work properly, or he receives major static, but glad I went through the extra step of installing the switch.

I really took my time with this so it took me about 1 1/2 hours. Could probably have done it in 45 minutes.

I couldn’t find much out there regarding removal of a 2003 Honda Civic EX Coupe Stereo so I hope this helps someone else….