Okay, here goes:

Yesterday I installed my Pioneer CD Player into my 93 LS Integra. I used a wiring harness adapter which I spliced in wire for wire to the Pioneer plug. The CD player works great. Here's the problem: my dashboard no longer lights up when I turn on my headlights.

My interior lights along with my seatbelt and e-brake idiot lights work fine, but they don't dim like they're supposed to. I checked my dimmer wheel, it has no effect. When I was wiring the harness to the Pioneer plug, i noticed the car side has a (orange / white stripe I think) wire that was labeled as "Dimmer" on the bag the harness adapter came in. The Pioneer side had no matching wire, so I wired the Dimmer wire to ground.

I put my center console back together, the CD player works fine, my car runs fine, but I started my car later than night and noticed my tach and speedo don't light up when I turn on my headlights. Also, I don't think my AC controls are lit up either.

I tried un-grounding the orange / white Dimmer wire and just letting it sit there ungrounded with electrical tape wrapped around the exposed end so nothing shorts out. Still no tach or speedo light.

Anyone have any ideas? My car is perfectly drivable, but I don't wanna drive around too much at night without a speedo because my *** will get a ticket. It's a manual and I can pretty much tell how fast I'm going anyway just from the engine note, but I still wanna get this fixed ASAP!

- Jim

 

Anyone at all?

 

<TABLE WIDTH="90%" CELLSPACING=0 CELLPADDING=0 ALIGN=CENTER><TR><TD>Quote, originally posted by Sylverius &raquo;</TD></TR><TR><TD CLASS="quote"> The Pioneer side had no matching wire, so I wired the Dimmer wire to ground. </TD></TR></TABLE>
That's the problem right there - you can't ground a wire with power!

<TABLE WIDTH="90%" CELLSPACING=0 CELLPADDING=0 ALIGN=CENTER><TR><TD>Quote &raquo;</TD></TR><TR><TD CLASS="quote">I tried un-grounding the orange / white Dimmer wire and just letting it sit there ungrounded with electrical tape wrapped around the exposed end so nothing shorts out. Still no tach or speedo light.
</TD></TR></TABLE>
You probably blew a fuse when you shorted the wire to ground - check your fuse box. If you can access an electrical schematic for your car it will help you identify which one/where. Not familiar with the Integra personally or I would direct you where to look. On my Acura, the same fuse supplies the right tail light & parking lights - turn on your parking lights & walk around your car to see if any of thos are out it may help you to find the correct fuse (not necessarily as your car is different model to mine)

What model Pioneer did you get? I'm surprised that there is no dimmer capability - most have this feature.
The plain orange wire from the head should be the dimmer. Also make sure you wire up the battery & accessory wires the right way round - on my Acura (NSX) they are opposite logic to the car - the yellow wire from the head should go to the battery (constant power) while the red one should go to the ignition accessory switch. To check if you have those correct way round, see if the head retains the memory for the stations etc. - switch it off for few mins completely at the ignition & then see if it comes back on normally. If not, switch the wires to the yellow & red. It will still work the other way but you'll wonder why the memory keeps disappearing for all your settings. (If it has a clock that is quick way to test)


Modified by D'Ecosse at 9:54 AM 6/27/2003

 

Thanks for the ideas. I did in fact blow the dash light fuse. I cut the orange/white dimmer wire from ground and retaped it with insulating electrical tape, then I replaced the blown fuse. Everything seems to be working fine now. Thanks again for the help, Ken.

- Jim