What is this?

[Wild Turkey]

2022/Feb/24 - New question added about a bracket in front of the headlight retractor.
2021/Sep/7 - Part #3 that I can't identify

Do we have a what is this thread? I couldn't search for it since what is and this are too common.
Took my rear bulkhead off to fix broken tabs and found this. Anyone know what the rectangular box and the round connector (not the speaker connector) below it are?

The (DIN?) connector below it connects to nothing.

I was thinking some sort of receiver from the now defunct aftermarket car alarm (Clifford). A google search on the FCC ID says it is similar to some car alarm parts. It was glued to the back of the bulkhead with a dollop of hot glue in a fairly unHondalike fashion but had fallen down. I'm afraid to pitch it for fear the alarm will disable me somehow.

On a totally unrelated note, Anyone know of a service that removes old alarms and fixes the wiring back to stock?

 

[NSX_n00b]

the DIN connector was for the optional car phone

 

[I_M_Legend]

Pretty sure the DIN connector was for the cell phone. The other box, I'm not sure but it's probably aftermarket

 

[MotorMouth93]

The round connector is OEM, it's for the optional car phone accessory I believe.

The black box is not OEM. I think you're right that it's a part of an old aftermarket alarm or keyless entry installation. To remove it you'll need to follow the wiring and figure out what else it's connected to.

Unfortunately, most (but not all) radio and alarm installers are hacks who have no business being anywhere near a car with wire cutters. IMO the best way to restore the wiring is to do it yourself, and post questions here if you have any. Anything that will disable the car will be fairly obvious, such as a relay spliced into a factory harness or something along those lines.

Edit: Dang, NSX_n00b and I_M_Legend beat me by 2 minutes.

 

[Old Guy]

Unfortunately, most (but not all) radio and alarm installers are hacks who have no business being anywhere near a car with wire cutters. IMO the best way to restore the wiring is to do it yourself, and post questions here if you have any. Anything that will disable the car will be fairly obvious, such as a relay spliced into a factory harness or something along those lines.

Hacks indeed!

After having removed my lower valence and bolster to allow installation and testing of my modified turn signal cancellation unit, I found that my car appears to have had an aftermarket security system or remote starter installed on it that had been removed prior to my purchase. Evidence of the installation was provided by this lovely 'hack' on my ignition switch harness.



The white and white blue wires pulled right out of the butt splices when I wiggled the wires as I disconnected the harness plug. I am surprised and fortunate that in 11 years of ownership the wires did not come out on their own. The section of red wire with the 4 tee taps on it is a particular work of art. I am not sure why the other two wires were cut and had sections added back into them. Perhaps the hacker guessed wrong on the the first two tries - third times the charm you know!

The tee taps, butt connectors and extra wire were all wrapped up in a large wad of electric tape that was so big it caused the lower valence to bulge out below the knee bolster.

 

[drew]

It likely is a good installer that would conduct an install behind the rear quarter panel. The usual hack location is in the driver kick panel or very close by...

You should be able to remove the alarm without too much issue, just post pics and we'll help you out. Probably time to get some crimpers and a soldering iron regardless...

 

[Wild Turkey]

I've got crimpers, a good digital soldering station, & the service manuals. Now I just need the confidence to start pulling apart the interior to expose the wiring! Maybe a summer project when I get the other things off my list. Thanks for the help guys!

That said, this has a connector right there, so I think I'll just unplug it & see how she goes for a few weeks while I work on redesigning the NSX's cup holder which has to have been done by summer intern...

 

[Honcho]

Hacks indeed!

After having removed my lower valence and bolster to allow installation and testing of my modified turn signal cancellation unit, I found that my car appears to have had an aftermarket security system or remote starter installed on it that had been removed prior to my purchase. Evidence of the installation was provided by this lovely 'hack' on my ignition switch harness.

View attachment 169502

The white and white blue wires pulled right out of the butt splices when I wiggled the wires as I disconnected the harness plug. I am surprised and fortunate that in 11 years of ownership the wires did not come out on their own. The section of red wire with the 4 tee taps on it is a particular work of art. I am not sure why the other two wires were cut and had sections added back into them. Perhaps the hacker guessed wrong on the the first two tries - third times the charm you know!

The tee taps, butt connectors and extra wire were all wrapped up in a large wad of electric tape that was so big it caused the lower valence to bulge out below the knee bolster.

Horrible- just horrible.

 

[Old Guy]

As a suggestion, soldering should be an absolute last resort for doing repairs to wires. Two problems with soldering. Copper is an excellent thermal conductor with the result that you usually get heat damage to the insulation adjacent to the repair area. The other problem is that once the copper is hot enough to avoid a cold solder joint the solder tends to migrate through the strands away from the actual repair area. This creates a longer length of wire that is inflexible and more prone to fracture if it is subject to vibration.

If you need to splice wires together, I prefer a closed barrel uninsulated crimp style butt splice. I insulate the splice using heat shrink tubing which results in a much smaller diameter and shorter repair than those egregious pre insulated splices. With the uninsulated splice it is easy to see that the wire is properly located in the splice before applying the crimp - an obvious problem on those splices on my ignition switch harness. Closed barrel splices can be hard to find. Panduit has some nice ones at a reasonable price that have a welded / brazed seam. Digi Key sells them
BS18-C Panduit Corp | Connectors, Interconnects | DigiKey

You pay about 100% more per splice for the brazed seam; but, it is an important feature. The cheap ones from Canadian Tire and others have an unbrazed seam in the crimp area which can spread apart reducing the crimp pressure on the conductors - particularly if you are crimping at the small end of the wire range. Of course, the cheap ones have an insulated cover on them so you can't see the separation in the crimp. A properly sized crimp tool for uninsulated barrel connectors is a must. No Canadian Tire cheapies.

 

[tucsonsx]

Horrible- just horrible.

StereoBoy strikes again.

 

[Jerry@Mobile]

Time for a new ignition harness. In the states they are about $60. If it is over 11 years old, now would be the time to replace it because of dirty and or worn contacts on the switch. Jerry

 

[Old Guy]

Time for a new ignition harness. In the states they are about $60. If it is over 11 years old, now would be the time to replace it because of dirty and or worn contacts on the switch. Jerry

I did install a new one. I have a collection of replacement consumables that I have been acquiring from Amayama for the last couple of years and the switch was one of them. I thought it would be good to have on hand because you do read about failures; but, I was not planning for immediate replacement. That plan changed.

Out of curiosity I removed the switch cover to have a look at the contacts. Here is a picture after cleaning up the lubricant that Honda uses on the contacts.

View attachment 169503

You can see that the plating has worn off the contacts where the contacts slide; but, in general the contacts are in very good condition. The switch contacts are nowhere near the point of becoming dodgy. Since the contacts appeared in such good condition, I did a repair on the hacked wiring harness, applied some Oxgard conducting grease to the contacts and popped the cover back on. I tested the resistance of all the contacts pairs as I ran through the full position range and all of the contact resistances were 0.1 ohms or less and the main contact showed no break as it moved from the II to III position.

I sealed the switch up in the original parts bag and threw it into my box of NSX parts. I doubt that I will ever use it; but, I could not bring myself to throw away a functioning switch.

 

[Wild Turkey]

Found some more...

Thanks for all the info guys. After hours of work, I traced the wiring back to a Clifford Sabre 2 alarm system, which I found while removing the wiring to a Gentex mirror and a power supply to some kind of radar detector on the passenger visor. I also rooted out 3 messy relays, a proximity sensor and the alarm control module and under the dash, a "plain sight switch" and proximity sensor controls in the glovebox, and a siren under the hood. As you predicted, stereoboy did a hack job on the install, under the dash...


Tough way to lose 3 lbs of alarm and 2 lbs of wiring. I left the starter interlock in place, (wired to 87a, so with the leads clipped it won't interrupt the starter.) There was a purple wire that I suspect was to the trunk release.

It all seems unrelated to the microphone hanging down in the picture, if anyone knows what that is. It looks like the microphone from a GROM, but the CD player in the back works, so I don't think a GROM could be installed - doesn't it connect to the CD port? I don't want to disassemble the console to track that down but there is another set of power wires that go to the fuse panel but are now disconnected.

I have a question: Two of the wires from the Clifford alarm went to under the passenger dash and each spliced into 2 different NSX wires. It would seem to me that they effectively bridged some NSX wiring, which seems bad to me, even when the Clifford wasn't supplying voltage. The green Clifford wire went to a white/yellow stripe and to a green/yellow stripe NSX wire. The yellow Clifford wire went to a green/blue stripe and a green/red stripe NSX wire. Perplexing.

I also found a black box bolted to footwell kickplate, which I guess is the (Kenwood? No label except a 8 mm maximum depth) remote locks, and a relay to flash the lights with the locks - this mod is documented on Prime. The remote locks stopped working a while ago. Does a flashing light on the remote mean the remote battery is going dead? Anyone know if you can still get new remotes from Kenwood through the local dealer?

Wow, that's a lot of questions.

 

[drew]

>I also found a black box bolted to footwell kickplate, which I guess is the (Kenwood? No label except a 8 mm maximum depth) remote locks,

yes, that is the receiver for the Kenwood OEM keyless entry system.

The LED on the remote means the battery is working, but try a new battery once you get the receiver plugged back in.
http://www.nsxprime.com/forum/showthread.php/140311-91-92-Keyless-Solved

Chase_Acura can get you remotes, last quote was ~$125ea. Use the serial on your surviving remote to order them. If no serial: the receiver can learn a new serial number.

One can also code/program and match existing remotes too, but it's a bit hokey
http://www.nsxprime.com/forum/showt...entry-the-truth/page6?highlight=keyless+learn

You'll need a harness to go with it. (they can be duplicated, PM me if you need help creating your own or want to buy one)

 

[Old Guy]

I would assume that your Clifford alarm system had a remote lock / unlock feature. If so, the two wires from the Clifford unit over to the area near the passenger footwell may have been the connections for the lock / unlock control. Both the NSX security control unit and the door lock control unit reside in a stack of modules just to the right of the center console and sort of accessible from the passenger footwell (with lots of scrapes and scratches on your wrists). The wire harness for the OEM / Kenwood remote ties into the security system and the door lock controls in this area. If you look you may find it just left hanging because it would be extra work to remove it.

If you need to sort out what is going on with the wiring, your best friend is the Electrical Trouble Shooting manual. I have a paper version of the 1997 - 2002 Electrical Trouble Shooting manual which will have some differences compared to your 1995 model. The ETS has actual pictures showing the location of every plug in the car along with actual pictures showing the location of every electrical device (much better than the line diagrams in the service manual). The wiring diagrams in the service manual are 99.99% functionally correct; but, they are missing physical details such as sometimes a wire going from A to B goes through one or two different connectors on the way from A to B and may have some connections that are not shown in the individual schematic diagrams. The ETS also has detailed pin outs for every connector in the car. If you can't find the ETS that is specific to your 1995, send an PM to member [MENTION=30613]Heineken[/MENTION]. He has been collecting repair information for the NSX electrics and may be able to set you up with a copy of the ETS.

 

[Wild Turkey]

That's what I figured - the thin wires went over to the lock/unlock or window controls. What I couldn't figure out was why either of the 2 wires would each go to 2 different NSX wires at the same time, effectively bridging the NSX wires together. I believe I have an electrical manual as well so I may take a look if I have some free time, but the long and the short is that the alarm is out and the car still works!
All I have to figure out now is the microphone (I was hoping it was from a GROM, but there's no bluetooth signal emanating) and one more set of power wires heading behind the stereo head unit. Winter project I think - I'm going to ditch the CD player in the trunk and just go with GROM bluetooth. That and maybe remove the starter interrupt relay - that's all that's left.

 

[Old Guy]

That's what I figured - the thin wires went over to the lock/unlock or window controls. What I couldn't figure out was why either of the 2 wires would each go to 2 different NSX wires at the same time, effectively bridging the NSX wires together.

That and maybe remove the starter interrupt relay - that's all that's left.

"The yellow Clifford wire went to a green/blue stripe and a green/red stripe NSX wire." The OEM keyless wiring diagram shows that the Gr/Bl and Gr/Red wires are the door switches. The Clifford probably only has a single door monitoring input so it is connected to both door switches. The NSX wiring isolates the passenger and Driver door switch inputs or connects them through a diode OR circuit for the keyless unit. Hard to tell what happens with a direct connection between the two door switches. Can't advise on the other two wires.

Are you talking about the aftermarket interrupt relay? If so, that would probably be a good idea. Removing the OEM starter cut relay (which serves the same function as a starter interrupt relay) would disable the starter interrupt function on the OEM security system. It is also difficult to do because the relay is well buried in that center electronics stack behind the dash.

 

[Wild Turkey]

Are you talking about the aftermarket interrupt relay? If so, that would probably be a good idea. Removing the OEM starter cut relay would disable the starter interrupt function on the OEM security system. It is also difficult to do because the relay is well buried in that center electronics stack behind the dash.

Yes, the Clifford interrupt relay; everything else is out but I clipped the relay off and left it so the starter would still work. It's using pin 87a (default on) so with the inputs clipped, it can't interrupt the start signal. It works fine, but my OCD may be enough for me to pull the relay, shorten the pigtails that stereo boy installed, and replace it with a butt connector.

I'm trying to eliminate add-ons, not OEM stuff, so I have less stuff to break. I'm definitely not brave (or dumb?) enough to attack the OEM one.

 

[Wild Turkey]

Another question: Just behind the front splitter is a thin plastic part that goes under the frame and protects it/?smoothes air flow? It's about 2' wide. I can't find it in any parts diagrams on amayama or OEM. Any ideas?
I'll post a picture next week when I can get to the car.

 

[Honcho]

Another question: Just behind the front splitter is a thin plastic part that goes under the frame and protects it/?smoothes air flow? It's about 2' wide. I can't find it in any parts diagrams on amayama or OEM. Any ideas?
I'll post a picture next week when I can get to the car.

I think you might be talking about the bottom of the black plastic radiator duct/shroud. It's supposed to be part of the entire duct and fits under the radiator support frame, but I've seen it ripped/torn away on several NSXs.

 

[Wild Turkey]

Hmmm. I don't think I described it well. Here is a picture:
https://photos.app.goo.gl/vTwJR4XVMJM5WEsb7

It is the black plastic piece with the blue arrow marked on the photo. It is about 2' wide.
Does that help? Part #? I need the clips that attach it.

Thanks

 

[Wild Turkey]

Installing my LED's, I noticed this odd rusty part with its rusty bolt.
I still can't figure out how to upload photos, so here's a link.
https://photos.app.goo.gl/BrY6Vi1hiUD53xUp7
It's hard to figure out what it does. Keep the wiring out of the headlight retractor mechanism?

I've spent a good bit of time on OEM Acura and Amaya without success. Anyone know what the part numbers for this part and its bolt are?

Thanks,

 

[Wild Turkey]

Another part I can't find in the service manual:

The round plug that plugs into a white plastic circle, just below the cross brace bolts.
What is it and how do I remove it so I can get at my spark plug #6 ?

Solved:
Looked underneath with my borescope and there's nothing to detach from underneath. The white circle has two retaining clips that you wedge out to remove the cap. Then it's a 12 mm bolt screwing into an aluminum cylinder. Ground wire.