nubciviclx

Hi everyone,
I'm new to the site....... I have a question about my ground wires. First off I have a 1993 civic LX sedan. I just bought the car and my issue is I have headlights, parking lights, lic. lights, brake lights & reverse lights but no dash lights. First I checked the dimmer switch......it has power to the power and the ground wires I took the cluster out and checked the bulbs and power.........same thing.......power and a powered ground. I'm stumped.

It has an aftermarket alarm and an aftermarket radio........I don't know if this helps.

Please help.

nuB

Sonia's Driver

You need to explain what you mean and how you measured it.

Cars use a negative ground to save weight and reduce galvanic corrosion. This might be confusing, but although the (-) terminal is where the electons come from, it is referred to as "ground" on a car. Hard-core electronics people might call it "common", which is really more accurate, because it's not truly connected to ground.

Anyway, on an automobile, voltages are customarily measured between some point and the ground. If you measure between two grounds, you should get 0v. If you do not, something is very wrong, such as your car having rusted completely in half. If the starter motor was shorted to ground, and you measured the voltage between the starter ground and some other ground, you might get a small difference, but if that was the case, your battery would have exploded by now.

I think that the most likely problem is that your dash bulbs are burned out, and you measured the wrong wired on the dash panel.

Former User

The connector for the dimmer switch has three wires, Red, Blk, and Red/Blk. If you unplug the dimmer switch and use a jumper wire to short the Red wire terminal to the Blk wire terminal in the connector, do the dash lights now work when the light switch is turned on?

GReeser

No response to this one yet? I'm curious b/c I am also installing glow gauges into my EJ8 ('98 Civic EX). I need to know what wire(s) I should tap into 4 power & (-) ground...???

virgineg6

Then why dont you start your own thread asking, what wires you need to tap into instaed of thread jacking!?

adam4211

After much deliberation and effort i learned the following info that may be useful to fixing the dashboard light problem you guys are having:

How to test whether your dimmer switch is working (having no shorts and proper connections):
- get one of those power testers with a light in it to show that there is power.
- get a volt meter or amp meter

first find out which of the three wires behind the dimmer switch is the power wire:

- First connect your amp or volt meter with a clip to your power light tester, on the other end of the amp meter connect a bit of wire to the ground

- now touch the end of the power tester to each of the dimmer switch outlets and the one that sparks and shows a reading on the amp meter is the power wire (for me this one was red and black)

if you cant find the power outlet on the dimmer switch then it could be a faulty connection, dimmer switch or a broken fuse. i recommend buying and replacing all your fuses prior to all of this.

Next, you need to find out whether they are all proper connections:

- strip a bit of wire on both ends and connect one end to the power outlet on the dimmer switch

- now bridge the power tester to the other end of the wire using the clip

- now touch the power tester onto the ends of the other two outlets to see if they are creating a circuit (light should light up)

if the light doesnt light up, again it could be a faulty connection, dimmer switch or fuse.

if the power, and the other two outlets are all working then now is the time to test if your dimmer is working:

- first bridge your power tester from the power outlet on the dimmer switch and see if the tester lights up on the dimmer inlets to find out which one is power.

- connect one end of wire into the working power outlet on the dimmer switch and the other end onto the corresponding inlet on the dimmer (power inlet)

- now connect another bit of wire to one of the outlets on the dimmer switch and bridge it to the power tester using the clip

- if all the other two inlets on your dimmer are working then the power tester should light up when you touch them and you should be able to dim that light using the dimmer

- if this fails then your dimmer is shorting somewhere and will need replacing

How to fix a short on the dimmer:

- First you need to figure out how to open the dimmer up (This is very hard and took me around 10 minutes)

- then find the corresponding inlet/s that are not working on the dimmer and turn the circuit upside down to see if there is a short

on mine there was rust inbetween the solders and this was the problem

to fix i simply but carefully scraped away the rust that was creating the short

- next i plugged the dimmer back into the dimmer switch and YOU BEAUTY she worked and the dashboard light was working once again

- next just figure out how to put the dimmer back together without ruining any of the components inside and reconnect to the dimmer switch once again

And thats the end of that story
I hope that i made no mistakes while typing all this out but you should be able to work it out as you go with the aid of this info
this whole process may save you ALOT of auto-electrician costs and make you feel very good at the end so i reckon it was all worth the effort in the end

regards
Adam

Former User

In the FAQs sticky at the top, there are diagrams showing how to test the dimmer switch wires. It's in the Electrical section.

GReeser

Don't be so sensitive Virgineg6. Didn't realize I was thread jacking... I'd like to think of it as a b/c was looking for same info. If I'm not mistaken, not considerate to post so many new threads when some already exist with the info you're looking for, regardless if it is pertaining to a different subject. Besides, I am still trial user & don't have privilege 2 post new threads yet... gheezsh

Axatax

The failed dash lighting/dimmer is common on Hondas with aftermarket decks.

Reason being:

At least one popular manufacturer of aftermarket integration harnesses (Metra, maybe others), have the dimmer wire labeled in such a way that it is mixed up with the industry standard dash lighting color (orange vs. orange/white).

The deck manufacturers use the opposite color scheme, and the dimmer wire ends up tied into the illumination lead, OR, the deck lacks dimmable backlighting and the opposite mismatch occurs.

To make this situation even more confusing, every other wire from the aftermarket harness and deck match up, so the illumination lead situation is easily overlooked.

Even if you're done 1000+ stereos, you need to study the pinout diagram from the aftermarket harness like the Koran and pay special attention to the illumination lead - verify it with a DMM, twice over.