I bought a 91 civic that had hit a pole. put a new radiator and bumper on it. Runs well, all the gauges work, the exterior lights work. but no instrument lights. I unplugged the guage harness and found that the red/blk wire is hot when I turn on the lights but no lights energize. also the dimmer has no power to it. the clock dims when i turn on lights but still no lights to the dash. radio light wire is hot (red/blk) wire but no gauge lights? what am I missing?

I also could use the schematic for the dimmer on the 91. I can find every other year but not a 91. the three wire colors are red/grey red/white red/blue(pink?) but why does the red/blk wire not come through that circuit?

What am I missing?

 

I have looked for a schematic on this site and the one that is missing as far as I can tell is the 91 ef. not the 90 but the 91. can someone help me with the dimmer switch?

 

If you unplug the dimmer switch and then short the red wire terminal to the black wire terminal in the connector, do the cluster lights now work?

 

Sweet. I will give that a try. thank you moderator RonJ@HT

 

I did find that the lights do come on when I jumper the red and black wires together at the control unit. when I turn the lights on I find the red/blk wire hot at the radio and the clock dims. also when I unplugged the dash I found that the red/blk wire was hot at the plug and the red also. the chart above says the red/blk wire should be hot at the control unit but it is not. options are a bad switch or fuse, both of which are unlikely since the lights come on elsewhere and at the radio.

 

Not sure how to resolve the issues with the open wire red/blk from the control unit? Can I just do away with the dimmer altogether?

 

Run a new Red/Blk wire from the dash fuse box to the dimmer switch. This way, the dimmer switch will work.

 

thank you much. that seems like a no brainer but sometimes I cant see the forest through the trees.

 

well, it worked. there must be an open wire somewhere in the red/blk because when I ran it from the fuse panel to the dimmer control unit the dash lights came on!!! yeah! I was one happy camper. BTW how long will I be a Trial user.

 

Look under your username.

 

Thanks so MUCH for the help. Roger