Hi all, I installed an Alpine headunit in my '04 HCH along with the XM Direct unit and the iPod module. New speakers all around, Bazooka in the trunk. All good, sounds good, love the iPod and the XM, blah, blah, blah. Here's the BUT. Can't see the darn thing at all in the daytime, the display is completely washed out in any kind of sunlight. Looks fine at night, but the combination of the dim display and the way the HCH's center stack slopes away toward the windshield combines to make this thing a pain to use during the day.

So my question is this, is it just the nature of Alpine units, or is it perhaps something with the illumination wiring. I used the wiring harness from Crutchfield, and followed the wiring diagram to attach the illumination wire.

I was thinking that maybe the way the HCH's dash lights work, maybe I'm not getting full 12v to this wire all the time. I know I can take the dash apart to test lead it, just wondered if anyone out there knew.

 

All aftermarket headunits pretty much suffer from this. You can blame all that glass surrounding you.

What people have done is mounted the headunit in the bottom slot replacing the pocket.

Here is a thread on another board which details it.

http://www.7thgencivic.com/forums/sh...54321234567890

You may have to register but its worth if if you do. The forums there are great for all things 7thgen civic.

Any non-hybrid related issue you can think of is covered there.