johnny danger

I have a 1985 Honda Accord Hatchback LX-i. The original radio hasnt worked for a long time so I decided to put a new on it. While doing this I shorted something. The radio fuse blew so I replaced it and now the radio works. Here comes the problem. Now the following dont work, the light on the dash, the switches to change the vents, the rear windows defrost and thats all that I know of, now. When I was putting in the new stereo I accidentally connected the ground wire to the wrong wire. When I shorted something, thats when everything stopped working. Anybody have any idea how I can get this to work. The thing that has got me confused most is that, there are two wires within all the others that connect to the radio. When you touch them together, the Dash lights come on. I dont know what I should do. Please, someone help me.

John G

gokuson

sounds like you touch the car's illumination wire to ground. I think your problem is a burnt fuse. Try to look at all the fuses. There's a fuse panel by the driver side and another one in the engine bay.

I think when you connect the two wires together, the wire supplying the power is probably a constant or accessory wire that you needed for the install of the HU. The other wire you connect is the illumination wire(which you don't need to use just tape it up).


[Modified by gokuson, 3:26 PM 11/26/2002]

Mr.Fixit

I know for a fact that in most domestic cars, there is a fuse in the underdash block called the curtesy fuse. This control all of the non essential features of the vehicle collectively like dash lights, defrost, climate control etc. Imports may work a bit differently, ill check into it for you. If you read this before i do, look for that fuse. Some radios change the brightness of the display when the lights are turned on, if this is the case with your car, that may be why you needed to deal with this wire. To avoid this problem in the future, Disconnect the Battery Before messing about with the electrical system !!!!

johnny danger

Thank you gokuson and Mr.Fixit. gokuson, I didnt even realize there was a second fuse box. Mr.Fixi, I would appreciate if you can find that information for me. Unfortunately I dont know a whole lot about cars so im no use to myself. Thanks for the help from both of you.

John G

Mr.Fixit

after checking into your problem, ive found that there isnt much in common with the above mentioned sustems except for a few ground wires here and there. If one the of the wires that is arching is Blk or Blu with a yellow strip then you may have cut a wire that you shouldnt have and it is now just floating around inside your dash. The best thing i can suggest, aside from going to a mechanic, is to go buy a maintenance manual on the civic ( haynes book # 42024), a test light and start chasing wires around using the wiring diagram. Its a huge pain in the *** but it is sometimes necessary. If youve got a friend who knows wiring thats a plus. If youve got one that knows wiring and cars thats an even bigger plus.

good luck

johnny danger

The only wires that i cut are the ones that were going to the original stereo. One the stereo was a diagram that stated what each wire was for. I just cut those ones and connected them to another stereo I had to the corresponding wires. I dont think I cut anything wrong, but then again, I dont know much about cars.

John

philly-O

if you cut all the wires at once that would have blown the fuses also.