[KJFire4Life]

Hey all, I've searched and searched and tried multiple different things and this is what I came up with. My dimmer switch was working when i got the car. No radio, nothing connected. I'm pretty sure I remember it working. But I noticed it stopped working either after I put the radio in or after I swapped my dash gauges to LED. I've put a new switch in, tried jumping the dimmer switch (blows the fuse under hood) I've checked all the fuses, looked for any kind of resistance numbers on the switch and nothing. As far as I know the LED's don't mess with the dimmer. The head unit shouldn't also? (Previous owner cut the plugs off so I've done a lot of testing and trial & error to get the wiring right. Factory amp, radio has 3 pre outs (front rear subs) The pink wire is the illumination wire correct? That's connected to the orange dimmer wire on the back of the pioneer head unit. Regardless of connected or disconnected, still doesn't work. I've grounded out everything I can, gotten as much taped up and away from metal as I can. The dash lights come on and stay on even with the switch unplugged. They're really dim like at the lowest setting and I can't see them hardly even at night. Bulbs are good and bright, got them from SBL.com, this is starting to annoy the living crap out of me. I've checked the wiring, stock gauges, no shorts, no cuts, continuity is fine up to the switch. NOTHING. the odd thing is. I put my switch in my buddys eclipse....it works just fine......I'm stumped, there HAS to be a wiring issue somewhere for this not too work. Or my gauges are screwed up. Not sure, one or the other. I'm just tired of squinting to see my speedo at night. Anyone out there have a clue?:dunno::dunno:

 

[KJFire4Life]

So correct me if I'm wrong. But the dash lights should go out when the dimmer switch is pulled? It has no ground for the variable ground modulation(dimmer switch) so the lights should be out? Also it should light to full brightness when the black/yellow wire is fully grounded correct? The green/yellow wire has good 12v power to it. I've tried crossing the ground black to the negative input black/yellow and nothing nice tried crossing 12v to black/yellow and blown fuse under the hood. So I'm thinking the problem lies in my black ground wire or the gauges it self???

 

[Chad]

Dash lights won't work when dimmer is unplugged.

 

[KJFire4Life]

Well. They work. And work just fine. This makes me think a fuse is shot or the black/yellow wire is open and grounding itself out somewhere. Would this be a reasonable assumption? How do you think I should go about testing this theory? The wires get swallowed up by the harness completely. Any thoughts on the pink radio wire too? Should I try grounding that?

 

[KJFire4Life]

After doing a lot of thinking I'm pretty sure that the wire is grounding itself somewhere. That's the ONLY reason that the clock pod would dim when lights are turned on. Along with the dimmer switch not working. And the lights staying on even with dimmer switch unplugged. Does anyone know if the wires for this switch stay inside the car or they go out through the firewall boot or fender well boot? I need to figure this out asap and if that involved cutting the tape off my harness and tracing wires then so be it. Just figured someone would have a diagram or idea where that black/yellow and black wires going...

 

[KJFire4Life]

I FIXED IT

Just as a note for anyone else with the same issue as me. Let me clarify...My dash lights/headlights/taillights WORKED! My dimmer was not dimming even after replacing the switch. The lights stayed ON when the dimmer was unplugged AFTER I installed the radio and had to fight the previous owners stupidity when he/she cut the radio harness off :rant::rant: I took most of the black grounding wires from the harness (after I hooked just the radio ground and got a lot of static in the speakers), put them all into a ring connector and grounded them all. That's when the problem started.......I've had a helluva time figuring this out. The lights staying on told me that somewhere the light was being grounded outside of the switches internal workings. Here's the diagram that started me on this path of thinking:
The black yellow wire in the diagram is the path that all internal lights are grounded into. The switch has both a positive 12V and a dedicated black wire ground. When you rotate it, it applies a variable amount of ground to the lights. Therefore affecting the brightness they all have. When the dimmer is unplugged it means no ground to any lights and they all don't work period.....Mine wasn't doing that. So I went back to my radio wiring cause I remember seeing somewhere that A. the pink illumination wire and green/white illumination are often mixed up. I had the pink wire connected to the back of my radio harness (orange wire) and the greeen disconnected. Therefore my radio wouldn't illuminate unless it was physically turned on..... i flipped the wires around and now they work normally and radio illuminates with headlight switch...anyway bunny trail there. The dimmer and all the gauge lights for SOME reason terminate at the black/yellow wire on this connector: Do not connect this wire to anything. I'm not sure what it does on the metra harness (if anyone wants to fill me in that would be awesome. If not then I'm happy, my dimmer started working IMMEDIATELY after I cut the wire out of my ground cluster in the radio console. So, as a lesson for others who don't have plugs on their used 3g's..........Don't ground the black/yellow wire. Tape it/cap it and leave it be. Those of you who have plugs wont have to worry about this. But anyway, I'm proud of myself for tracing wires this far and figuring it out, I know it's simple but I dug out threads from way back in 2006 to figure this out lol. Just figured I'd help anyone else out if they needed a hand!

 

[Chad]

Thanks for updating with pics :yesway:

 

[KJFire4Life]

No problem, I basically had a conversation with myself this whole time but if it helps others it's all good lol