I plugged in a proper sized cable into the aux port next to the cigarette lighter to connect my Sony MP3 Walkman which is only a few years old. I could hear the music come out of the speakers, but the music was ruined with scratchy static on top of the music. Do you think there is something wrong with the aux port or is there some special kind of Honda plug that is required? I do not have this scratchy interference when I plug it into my Pontiac Vibe aux port. Thanks in advance.

Z

 

I got a similar problem, only one side of the speakers works when in aux, but when I put the radio on fm every speaker works. I found that having something like a phone or gps charging in the 12v causes static, while using the aux.

 

Those sound like a poor connection somewhere between the music player and the head unit—most likely either the cable you're plugging in (they sometimes take quite a beating), or in the connection between the plug and the jack.

If it's the latter, unplugging and plugging the cable a few times might help (if there's some slight corrosion or crud in the way). Spraying in some electrical contact cleaner might also help. Failing that, replacing the jack shouldn't be a terribly challenging or expensive proposition.

The electrical noise from the 12V outlet could also be due to poor connections at the audio input jack, particularly if the signal ground is not very secure. It's possible it could also be poorly shielded wiring, in which it would be rather harder to rectify (involving, for instance, replacing the audio cabling between the jack and the radio with some better cable).

 

Thank you blaaaackfit and DrewE for the help. Your suggestions prompted me to try a different cord, and as you suspected, it was the cord. The one that was malfunctioning has one black stripe around each male end. The one that works just fine has two black stripes around each male fitting. I blasted ELO's Fire On High to enjoy the sound of my MP3 working in the aux input. Thanks again to both of you. Now if I only knew what a single black stripe versus two black stripes on the audio input cords meant???

 

If the "stripe" you refer to is actually on the connector then a single stripe is mono and a double is stereo. Most music is stereo so if you have a mono cable, that's a bad situation because you will only hear one side (probably left) sent to both sides.

 

It's actually even worse than that. A mono cable plugged into a stereo jack will have one signal line shorted out, so you'll only get one side of audio and the other will have no signal whatsoever. Hearing one channel through all the speakers in a car versus hearing the full stereo image may not be immediately noticeable with some music, doubly so if you aren't paying close attention, but having only half the speakers producing sound sure is!