little honda honda going faster faster.....

So, I bought the van the first week of October, ending what had been a summer of frustration trying to get my last car smogged, culminating with me using the “cash for clunkers” program to boost my trade in value. And I love it, it’s already become a good friend, and we nicknamed it “the party barge” ..but there has been this one small “hiccup” .. It was late October, Halloween in fact, I picked up a couple friends to take to a church singles dance, and on the way one asked if she could charge her iphone .. I saw no harm in this, so I went to plug in it, and to my surprise, the whole center panel just shorted out. Radio, charger, clock and heater display. “no biggie”, I thought, it’s just the fuse. I’ll fix it tomorrow. Well tomorrow turned into next week, and finally I got my owner's manual out and looked up the correct fuse panel and then checked the radio fuse.. to my surprise it was still intact, but, just to be sure I removed it and switched it with the sliding door fuse… well, the sliding door still worked, but the radio did not. Fuse was good. Another week went by, and I removed the panel to look at the wiring harness’s to see if maybe I had crimped or unplugged them. NOPE. Still no radio. Well, I got creative and used my phone or laptop for music on longer drives or went without a radio for shorter ones. November ended, December, then January. I got used to not having a radio when driving, which for me is kind of a big deal. Early January I removed another section of the paneling to dig deeper into the wiring, but still nothing. Checked the fuse again, no success. Finally about mid January I decided to take a trip to tahoe with a friend and really wanted the radio to work.. I studied it out again, and finally, had an epiphany, "check the cigarette lighter fuse and not the radio fuse… cause that is what shorted out. " (yes I know, it only took me three months, I’m quick like that) SURPRISE, the lighter fuse was damaged, I quickly switched it out with another fuse … which I would find out later that night controlled my speedometer lights… and PRESTO… the lighter light up and the radio came on… !!!! success, now I could listen to the radio … MY joy quickly turned once again as I pushed the on knob to the radio and the word “CODE” flashed across the dial… sigh.. ok, five digits, lemme try 11111 …. Nope, 22222, nope …. 33333…. Nada.. I went to 99999… still nothing, sigh.. ok , back to the manual. Turns out, HONDA’s factory radios come with a “THEFT PREVENTION CODE DEVICE” that shuts down the radio in the event of removal from the power source… my how clever, So, every time I change the battery I have to re enter the code.. THAT I DON’T HAVE …. After 10 tries the radio shuts down for an hour before you can try again. I read the manual again frantically looking for any random 5 digits written somewhere.. nothing.. but it said if I had the serial number, the dealership could look up the code. COOOOLLLL… I used to work at Enterprise rent-a-car, and I know dealerships have access to that sort of stuff, so I called, I didn’t want to waste my last chance. So, I was transferred to the service department, were a young lady with a very sexy voice asked if she could help me. After remembering why I called I told her my predicament… and she said “sure, bring it in and we’ll take the radio out and get the code for you, as long as the serial number is still visible” YEA, the bells in my head went off… “ well, I’m kinda on my way to tahoe with a friend and, bringing it in isn’t feasible… is there a charge for this?“ “yes sir, it’s a minimum $150 to take the radio out.. “ You gotta beeeeee kidding me……. I hung up the phone, disheartened…and somewhat angry.. then, like a flash of lightning it hit me … THE INTERNET.. I’ll google it. YEA>>>> that will work… The first 3 sites were links to HONDA USA’s website, where, if I had the serial number and VIN number I could enter them and get the code… great… still need to take the radio out, but the fourth one seemed promising… a link to a youtube video “FINDING HONDA THEFT CODES” .. awesome.. I thought.. it will be like some cool James Bond trick were I get to crack the code by entering numbers…. I clicked on the video and the nice man said to me “Each car has a white sticker that the dealership puts somewhere on the car with the code and the Serial number, here are the 7 locations the sticker could be.” And he walks around the car… OK, so I’m happy I’m gonna get the code but I’m a little irked that sexy girl at the dealership wasn’t a little more helpful… but I find the white sticker in the glove box and reset the radio. The music comes on and I am happy. We go to Tahoe, and enjoy some music along the way. It’s fun. The next day, It suddenly dawns on me… those jerks at Honda were gonna charge me $150 to open up the glove box and enter the code….. those RATBASTARDS !!!!!!!