Brand new to the forums. Just picked up a 2009 Accord LX today at a great price, and hopefully will be visiting this site quite a bit with my new project(s). With the LX, I knowww I'm missing out on a lot of the EX perks that came that year, but I'm considering taking the time to gut and upgrade some of the stuff to the EX specs since the body of the car is in such great condition.

The radio is dead, and while looking into the dash breakdown and realizing how the stereo is tied into the Climate Control System (CCS), it got me thinking maybe I could make a project out of upgrading the single CCS into the Dual CCS.

I'm sure there will be a few modules that I'd need to swap out or even add besides just the CCS head unit, but has anyone else on here done it? I did a search in the forums and didn't see anything mentioned, and I tried checking the service manual links under the Sticky that @keep_hope_alive posted to compare wiring, etc., but they're either dead links or the files have been removed from the pages.

On a side note/afterthought, since I'll be looking to upgrade the stereo unit (and I know there are plenty of guides and videos online for that), if anyone has any warnings or glowing recommendations they want to throw my way, I'd appreciate the direction.

Thanks in advance to any/all information,

Edge

(and just in case I did the signature wrong, it's a 2009 Honda Accord Sdn 4dr I4 Auto LX)

 

I would recommend getting a shop manual for your car. You can get a pdf for an 09 on automanualsource.com for ~$22. You can look at the heating system for the LX vs EX in the shop manual and also on parts stores like hondapartsnow.com. I am not sure how the heater unit would be modified for dual climate control, because there has to be 2 blend doors for dual climate control. This may be a major pain to retrofit.

When you say the radio is dead, does anything work? Do the climate controls work?

You should use a volt meter to verify the radio isn't missing power or ground. A test light is a better option as the wire being tested has to supply some current to turn on the test light bulb. I'd also use the test light to check that all of your fuses are getting power. There are some youtube videos that show you how to quickly do this kind of test with a test light.

If the issue is with the circuit board of the stereo, I'd look into places that may repair the board. Older accord units were made by alpine, and alpine would repair them for a fee. It was ~$175 many years ago, but I remember they increased the charge to repair. I'm not sure if the 09 Accord stereos were made by alpine or they may be bose. You should search the web for companies that repair car stereos to get an estimate. Then the installation is plug and play for the stereo.

 

Thanks for the direct on the automanuals.com source. The other links I found on here were dead. I absolutely expect it to be a bit of a pain, but with it being an older car, I'm surprised to see salvage yards selling various parts for pennies on the dollar compared to official part sites. It'll be fun to research either way. I mean, if I price it out and it's a challenging enough endeavor, yanking out the full A/C and heat systems for a swap might make for one fun weekend. I just need to know what parts and wiring harnesses to price out. ANY direction would have been helpful, so here's hoping your recommendation pans out. I even ran up to AutoZone and grabbed one of their repair manuals for $25, but it gives generalities with little to no pictures to cover the 2003-2012 Accords and absolutely no part comparisons. Anything will be better than that.

As far as the stereo, the radio cuts in an out quite a bit, the CD player's motor grind when trying to load CD's, etc.. etc.. It's junk. Part swapping would be cheaper than repair, but if I'm paying that much for an OEM, I might as well go for something that supports CarPlay and the like for a little bit more.

With the stereo, I guess what I'm looking for is the 'horror stories' and learned lessons that come with swapping to after-market. I read that doing so will neutralize some muffler dampening tech that's built into OEM systems, but I don't know enough on it to understand it. That's just one example...

Again, thanks for the reply!

 

I've always stuck with what came stock in my vehicle or something that was plug and play. I know that some issues exist about the dimmer switch when wiring an aftermarket radio. Enough aftermarket swaps have been done that I'm sure the information is on the web. Maybe post something in the audio section on here to get appropriate responses.

For the dual climate control, pay attention to any control units, like MICU, etc, because you may be replacing a lot of stuff in the dash and could be a very expensive and big job. I'm pretty sure this is the first time I've seen this request on this form, and I've been around here for a while. This will take some considerable homework in my opinion to identify what is needed to do this type of conversion. It may be more expensive than you think, vs the reward of controlling the temp on each half of the car. With the right parts and time, it certainly is possible.