Diming dashlights and CD player stopped responding

JBARONE

MEMBER
2003 HONDA ACCORD
4 CYL
AUTOMATIC
150,000 MILES

I have an 03 accord and the dashboard and radio lights dim and brighten constantly. It seems random, sometimes it happens rapidly, other times not as much. I'm not sure, but sometimes it seems that they dim when I accelerate up a hill from a stop or low speed.

Recently the 6 cd player seems like it short circuited, and does not respond to the CD button being pushed so the CD player does not work at all. The load and eject buttons also stopped working. When I turn the car on the discs shuffle inside the CD player then stop after a while. I replaced the battery thinking it might fix it but it has not helped the diming lights or CD player. After replacing the battery, the 6 CD's that are stuck in the CD player do not even show up on the radio anymore (1-6). Please help, thank you!

1 Reply

CARADIODOC

MECHANIC
33,916 POSTS

Flickering lights is a common symptom of an intermittently failing generator, usually due to worn internal brushes. You can do some basic testing with a voltmeter but a thorough test requires a professional load tester.

CD changer mechanisms often do weird things when the battery is disconnected. If it's the cartridge type, remove the cartridge, then remove any discs in it. Stick it back in and allow the unit to cycle through all of them. If a disc was stuck in the player, it will get slid back into the cartridge, often in a different slot. At that point you can reinsert the loaded cartridge and the player will initialize and learn which slots have discs in them. You can also try unplugging the power wires to the changer mechanism, then reconnecting it with the cartridge still out.