So I went to Circuit City to get a harness for this used Pioneer headunit I bought from a friend. I actually got 2 harnesses, one to connect to the HU, one to connect to my car's wiring harness, and then those 2 harness connect right together, so there's no cutting or connecting wires, no soldering, no crimping.

My question is, the harness connecting to the HU has an orange wire labeled "illumination" and the harness connecting to the car has an orange/white wire labeled "dimmer", but they don't line up where the harnesses connect together. Do these serve the same function? Can I de-pin one harness and move the wire over so it connects with the other harness?

 

How old is the Pioneer?
What is the model number?

Older Pioneer HUs used orange for constant power and orange/white as illumination if I remember right.

And I assume it's going into a 94 teg. 94

 

it's a DEH 5500MP from 2003.

There's already a yellow wire coming out of the HU harness that's supposed to go to battery, which I guess is the same as constant power yes?

actually I just looked at the original Pioneer harness (which I didn't use, it's hacked up) and it also has a orange/white wire, but the harness I actually plugged into the HU has just a solid orange wire.

 

get a test light.... and flip yor lights on and look for a wire with power qwhen the lights only are on

 

This one... http://www.pioneerelectronics....0.pdf ?
As long as the the pins are in the right spot, [repining should not be hard] the red/black wire in the oem radio plug in the dash is the illumination, it has 12V+ on it when the lights switch is on. [it is not controlled by the "Dash Light Brightness Controller"], here is the pin-out for your cars radio plug... http://www.installdr.com/Harnesses/HA-Wiring.pdf 94

 

So I can move that one pin on the harness to make the wires connect then. And what does it actually do, dim the display when the lights are on, like stock?

Got a link to the owner's manual for that head unit? Pioneer wants $25 for an owner's manual and $10 for that install manual that you just posted.

*edit nevermind I found it... just sucks that I have to register and all that


Modified by PatrickGSR94 at 10:49 PM 8/27/2006

 

No, you can't mix the dimmer and illumination wires. You'll expletive **** up. The illum goes to the red/black wire. The dimmer wire I don't remember the color, but if you really want it, you can run it to the roller switch on the dash.

Some radios have functions for those wires, most do not. When you turn on the headlights, the radio knows it's night time, so it tones down the brightness of the display. Some of the double din units with navigation will reverse the colors of the map making it much easier to view at night. Radios that use the dimmer wire (pretty rare) allow you to control the dimness of the display using your roller switch. We never hook these up except on the double dins and no one ever notices.

 

<TABLE WIDTH="90%" CELLSPACING=0 CELLPADDING=0 ALIGN=CENTER><TR><TD>Quote, originally posted by suspendedHatch &raquo;</TD></TR><TR><TD CLASS="quote">No, you can't mix the dimmer and illumination wires. You'll expletive **** up. The illum goes to the red/black wire. The dimmer wire I don't remember the color, but if you really want it, you can run it to the roller switch on the dash.

Some radios have functions for those wires, most do not. When you turn on the headlights, the radio knows it's night time, so it tones down the brightness of the display. Some of the double din units with navigation will reverse the colors of the map making it much easier to view at night. Radios that use the dimmer wire (pretty rare) allow you to control the dimness of the display using your roller switch. We never hook these up except on the double dins and no one ever notices.</TD></TR></TABLE>

The harness coming out of the head unit has an illumination wire. The harness that plugs into my factory harness has a wire marked "dimmer" that connects to the red/black wire on the car (which comes off of the parking lights fuse), but it doesn't line up with the illumination wire on the head unit harness.

I checked in my Helm's manual, the red/black wire comes directly from the illumination fuse, with a separate wire branching off and going to the dimmer control, so I should be fine moving that one wire in the harness.

 

just to report back, I did de-pin the wire on one half of the harness and moved it over one spot so it would connect w/ the illumination wire on the other half of the harness, and it works great. My head unit now dims when the headlights are on, just like factory.

 

<TABLE WIDTH="90%" CELLSPACING=0 CELLPADDING=0 ALIGN=CENTER><TR><TD>Quote, originally posted by PatrickGSR94 &raquo;</TD></TR><TR><TD CLASS="quote">just to report back, I did de-pin the wire on one half of the harness and moved it over one spot so it would connect w/ the illumination wire on the other half of the harness, and it works great. My head unit now dims when the headlights are on, just like factory. </TD></TR></TABLE> Exactly as it is supposed to. 94

 

yep, it just seemed odd that the harnesses would be off like that. Both harnesses were from Metra, one to interface with the Pioneer HU and one to interface with Hondas. But apparently, they didn't fully interface with each other.

 

Metra harness for the Pioneer HU??? What is the model number? 94

 

man I threw away the packaging. I just walked into Circuit City and told them what I needed and they brought it to me. Only problem was that the 2 harnesses together cost $40!

 

<TABLE WIDTH="90%" CELLSPACING=0 CELLPADDING=0 ALIGN=CENTER><TR><TD>Quote, originally posted by fcm &raquo;</TD></TR><TR><TD CLASS="quote">Metra harness for the Pioneer HU??? What is the model number? 94</TD></TR></TABLE>

Metra has an exclusive contract with Circuit City to make "smart" harnesses that just plug into each other instead of cutting and soldering, from the radio harness to the vehicle harness. It's only for the radios that Circuit City carries in their store and not for any in-dash monitors/navi units. Instead of the model 70-**** for vehicle harnesses, the model number for Circuit City's "smart" harness is 80-****. The model number for the radio specific harnesses depends on which radio it hooks up to...pioneer = PR0180, sony= SY0180A, etc.