Alright i was working on my sterio yesterday...and i blew the fuse for the deck and everything.. but once i got my car back together i looked and i dont have any lights at all lit up...like the guages the heat controls...nothing is lit up ...have checked the fuse and its fine...any ideas?

 

one of the wires in the stereo harness is the Ilumination wire. if you're using an adaptor harness, It would be the orange or orange w/ white wire. If you've chopped off the factory harness, I can't remember the colors. but chances are, that wire is either touching metal (ground) or a common mistake is people hook up their deck's ground wire to it because when the headlights are off, this wire reads ground.

Get that wire isolated and insulated. once that's taken care of, go through the fuses again (with a meter, you can't always tell a blown fuse by looking at it) one of them should be blown. check both fuse boxes, under the dash and under the hood.

 

uh i dont have a meter...what should i do? and there is a orange wire that says "dimmer" on it...thats the only orange one i see...

 

That's the one... some companys call it "dimmer" some call it "illumination" (accually, theyre is a difference, but we don't need to get into that here)

If you want to do your own electrical work, you really need to invest in a meter. they're not that expensive.


[Modified by thumpu77, 6:36 PM 8/4/2002]

 

what kind of meter do i want...how much and where can i get one.. and how can i test once i got the meter


[Modified by xxkenyon419xx, 7:27 AM 8/5/2002]

 

Get a meter that's capable of mesuring volts and resistance (ohms), you can get one at radio shack, or just about any auto parts store. You set the meter to resistance and put one test lead on each side of the fuse you want to test. The reading on the meter should be the same as it is if you touch the test leads to each other. If the meter doesn't give you a reading at all, it's a blown fuse. If you go to radio shack, the guys there should be able to show you how this works.

 

i've blown out my dimmer before as well..the easy way to tell is if you turn on your headlights and the tail lights are out as well as the dash lights.

 

well my tails and headlights work
its just the interior dash lights

 

sounds like it has to be one of those fuses..when my dimmer switch crapped out on me it ate 3 fuses before i figured out it was the dimmer. keep checkin those fuses..

 

alirght update...idk wtf is going on but fuse box says that the dash lights and the little lisence plate lights are on the same fuse...so my problem is..the little license lights work...and my dash lights dont...what is wrong here?

 

could've fried the dimmer switch like supercivic above sugested. I worked on a 98 accord that a guy tried doing his own deck install and that's what he did to his. It probably wouldn't cost too much to get a dimmer **** from your local junkyard. they just pop right out of the dash. So, without being able to look at it myself, I'd say give that a try.

 

lol i have no idea where the dimmer switch is...could someone please show me a diagram thanks

 

it's the **** you twist to make your dash lights brighter and dimmer, the little **** just under your gauges. If you didn't know about it, you might want to try twisting it clockwise to turn your dash lights on.

 

oh i thought that was just a switch...i thought it would be a plug or something under the dash somewhere...alright i will go try and replace it..thanks