I have a 93 DX Hatchback and I'm having some serious electrical problems. Number one (in order of importance to me) is I cant get my radio to work. Here is the deal, There was an old radio installed which was in the car since I bought it over 2 years ago. It was an old cassette/am/fm unit which was fine by me until the tuner went out and I dont have too many tapes. Now, the unit still had power and would play tapes and light up, everything was fine, but when I pulled it out to install a new head unit with cd and tuner, the unit will not get power. It wont even turn on or so much as blink or beep. I have tried two diferent head units, one I know worked because it came out of a diferent car the day I tried to install it. Ive tried three diferent wiring harnesses (two from wal mart and the one from the cassette that was in the car. I have also double and triple checked fuses. I have no idea and I need a radion. My commute is hell. Please help. Also, my dash and climate control backlights have been out for about a year or two. All of the individual lights still work such as check engine or seatbelt as well as the lights on the climate control buttons for vent, defrost, mix, etc... But the actual dash lights so I can see my gauges dont work or the climate back lights for hot/cold etc.. They used to come on for a little if I would hit my dash very hard, but not anymore. Now I just hurt my hand

Please help, I can't go on without a radio, and dash lights would be nice.

 

for the radio- try making ur own ground and also try getting ur power from somewhere elso also too see if thats the problem ...

dash lights- check ur dimmer switch.... unplug it and then try connecting two of those wires together sooo its directly without the dimmer.. get it?

 

Was the OEM harness plug cut off when the radio you took out was installed? If so, I'd say all of your problems stem from this. The illumination wire from the harness used to probably touch ground. Maybe at first, your banging the dash would get it to work but after a while, you probably burned out the rheostat (dimmer ****) if the fuse did not blow.

With a volt meter or test light, verify you have power and ground (obviously, one of the 3 is not working). Put one side to a known good ground then test the memory wire and the switched ignition wire. One or both of them will probably be dead due to shorting out on the dash structure. IF they do both work, put one side to 12 volts then put the other side to the radio ground. If you are using a volt meter, you should see near battery voltage. If you are using a test light, you should have a bright light; this applies to all the wires you'll be testing.

Last, make sure to tape up or cap off all unused wires in the factory harness.

 

Ill see if any of this works. Thanks guys, any other ideas? RyanA, Im confused about this...

Was the OEM harness plug cut off when the radio you took out was installed? If so, I'd say all of your problems stem from this. The illumination wire from the harness used to probably touch ground. Maybe at first, your banging the dash would get it to work but after a while, you probably burned out the rheostat (dimmer ****) if the fuse did not blow.

Im not sure what you are saying here, and it seems to me you are joining the two problems together. The dash lights and radio were two unrelated problems. I could just not understand what you are saying, so a little clarification would be great. Thanks again, Ill let you know if it works.

 

theres a wire that is in the factory radio harness for the dash light illumination. on the factory radio when you adjust the illumination, the radio lights follow accordingly. most aftermarket radios dont use the illumination wire. maybe it didnt get capped or taped off? it touched metal or a ground and popped the fuse.

 

and if its not the fuse then the dimmer switch/noob whatever you wanna call it got burned soo now it doesnt work .... soo like i said try connecting it directly and see if thats ur problem

 

What I was asking is this:

Is the factory radio plug still in the dash or did someone cut it off and "hard wire" the sweet tape deck in there?

If they cut the factory plug off, there are wires that would not be used. Many shadetree installers tend to leave the illumination wire hanging there which would cause your dash light issue. This would also cause blown fuses for the radio causing it not to work.

Ryan

 

Ok, I understand what you are saying now. Like I said, ill mess around with all of this stuff tonight or tomorrow morning when Im home, but all of this seems like it should or would blow a fuse which hasn't happened, ever. But hopefully you are right. We'll see if I can get it working. Thanks guys.

 

Oh, RyanA, I forgot to answer your question in the last post, but as far as I can tell, the factory radio plug is still in there and has not been hacked up in any way. If it is a diferent plug, it was done well enough that I cannot tell the diference and there has been no splicing or anything as far down on the wores as I can see. Any other ideas guys?

 

Ok, heres the update: I checked all of the fuses for the 4th or 5th time, and they are all good. I bypassed the dimmer switch and it did not work. The radio harness is the original harness. I checked the harness with a volt meter to see if I could get power but couldn't. However, I suck with electronics so that can't be counted as a reliable clue. However, I did get continuity between black and red if that means anything at all. What now?

 

morning

 

bump

 

are u sure the stereo/cd player you are putting in the car actually does work????? why not try connecting it directly to see if it work

and about the dimmer switch did you have the parking lights turned and i dont know if you will be able to tell much during the day ...

 

I had the parking lights on and then turn the headlights on fully. Also, it was in the evening so it wasnt to bright out. I definently would have seen the lights if they were on.

Im positive the one player I tried worked because I literally pulled it out of one car, walked the five feet to my car, wired up the harness and put it in my car. After that did not work I tried another player that I'm not sure about, but out of those two Im pretty sure it isnt the play, but if you tell me how to "hook it up directly", I'll certainly try it.

Im lost man, I don't even know what to try because I don't know how to use a volt meter with the harness and use it correctly to make sure Im not testing the entirely wrong wires with the entirely wrong settings.

Thanks for all your help, hopefully we'll get it eventually. Im open to any suggestions.

 

bump

 

bump.... ?????

 

still need help and ideas bump

 

Find someone with a factory Honda radio and plug it in. See if it works.

 

ok, ill try that. anyone have any other ideas?

 

My other idea would be you getting a voltmeter and doing it the way I told you the first time. If you are looking for someone to come fix it for you, I don't think there will be anyone suggesting that here....

Not trying to sound like a dick but you were already told how to do it right. Gets frustrating when people keep asking for more options because the ones they were given (and are the right way to troubleshoot a problem...) seem to hard to them.

Last option would be to get an LED flashlight and tape it to your steering column so you can see your gauges at night and get a boom box for your radio. Problem fixed.

 

Hey, thanks for the smart @$$ reply. I appreciate it, it is really going to help me alot. If you would have read my responses you would have seen that I tried what you said:

I checked the harness with a volt meter to see if I could get power but couldn't. However, I suck with electronics so that can't be counted as a reliable clue. However, I did get continuity between black and red if that means anything at all. What now?

and:

because I don't know how to use a volt meter with the harness and use it correctly to make sure Im not testing the entirely wrong wires with the entirely wrong settings.

Now to be honest I really appreciate you trying to help me, but after reading those two posts you can either elaborate on what I do with the Volt Meter to make sure I did it correctly the first time or wash your hands an walk away. Im not a mechanic or an electrician. Thats why im on here asking questions, trying to get help.

 

like I said, the only thing i was sure i got correct was continuity

 

no power to harness, where is the most likely place to have a loose connection or what else could be causing this?