Retrieving Your Honda Pilot’s Stereo Serial Number

These days, some car stock stereos have a security system whereby, if it’s disconnected from the power source (aka the battery), it locks out and becomes unusable until you enter in a secret code. I didn’t know this existed until recently, when the battery in my wife’s 2005 Pilot conked and had to be replaced. Assuming you don’t actually have the code, the cost associated with retrieving it is due to having to pull the stereo out to view its serial number (see post by “partsiam” in this thread). It’s only with the serial number that one can obtain the code.

If you have a Honda Pilot (or other models like the Civic…don’t know what years), one way to avoid having to physically pull the stereo out to get at the serial number is this:

1. make sure that when you power on the stereo, it says CODE (not ERROR)
2. turn it back off
3. press the preset station numbers 1 and 6 together and, at the same time, turn its power back on

The display will now show the first five characters of the serial for a bit, then the second five, and then cycle through it once (maybe twice) more. Copy that down and have it ready for the mechanic/dealer.

(I cannot seem to re-google my source for this info…sorry)