Pulled My Dash Surround, The Single Piece To Get At My Steza, Now The Dash Backlight Doesnt Work

[gts-4 dreamer]

al the other lights work fine, heads, rears, foot sterio, internal

so this leads me to believe when i removed that front single piece facia i must have pulled the power out of it.

someone clue me into where abouts it it would be?

does the dash lighting have a separate circuit and therefore a separate fuse? that would be nice, simple fuse swap, instead of pulling the HOLE dash.

[B0oStEr]

Did you wire in a new stereo while you had it apart?

It probably had an illumination wire that might now be hooked up incorrectly.

[gts-4 dreamer]

all the dash insturmentation works fine i.e. the warming lights etc, but the backlight is dead so when you flick on the lights the dash is still black, also the the annoying key is in the ignition but the car isnt on ding is gone and the ignition surround is no longer lighting up.

does this sound like the stereo wirring?

the front of the stereo lights up fine. Why would this wire not being hooked up drop my dash backlight? or why would any wire to my stereo drop my dash backlight ?

sounds like pointless wiring unless its to support some flash function of the stereo.. ?

[gts-4 dreamer]

hmmm, so if i wire the constant to the ilumination wire, this should fix the problem?

if so, can i chuck in a junction and wire the same constant to the head unit without blowing a fuse constantly?

or do i have to pull a wire directly from the battery and throw in an inline fuse to keep a spike in check

oh and yes i replaced the non factory double din shite with an aus spec single and moded a generic infill to the bracket, fits nice and snug but no back-light to the dash and the driving rear lights dont come up (brake lights work) along with the annoying beeper and the ignition surround, while checking the dash replaced the crapped bulb in the hicas location, new it was gona come up cause it didnt ever turn on durring reds but now the hicas light constantly on is going to piss me off something fierce, atleast till i get it fixed.

Oh I forgot, cant find a single bloody busted fuse though i havent check the one little black box for the annoying buzzer, the driving fuse is great, so back to tracing out the lines tomorow, gona re-wire the steza after reading up MORE again, see if tha fixes it, but only have till like 12, dang was hoping to get a ride in this long weekend, managed to re-apolster the seats and fits the 6x9's nice and sweet n now just have to sort this once problem and leave the hicas till next weekend or payday if i need the cash.

Edited April 15, 2006 by gts-4 dreamer

[B0oStEr]

Don't connect 12 volts to the illumination wire.

If your new headunit has an orange wire that is it's illumination wire.

The function of the illumination wire to the stereo is to dim the stereo display when the headlights or parklights are on.

A lot of people mistakenly use the car's illumination wire for the earth when fitting an aftermarket head unit.

The car's illumination wire tests as common to earth but turns 12 volt when the lights are turned on because

it's wired common to the dashlights.

What did you wire the black earth wire on the new deck to?

If your stereo still works properly with the headlights on then this is unlikely to be your problem.

You may have just forgotten to reconnect a plug or something like that.

[gts-4 dreamer]

i check tomorow, just got a diagram, i cant remember, the ground is where i prolly mused it hooked it to the iluination wire, cuase iv got the ilumination wire empty on the head deck, the brown free and got the power antena right

i've left the dash off an parked her in the garage, not having to pull the rear out Hopefully will mean i only have to sort this out and she's pretty much done, i've got til 12 tomorow befire i have to hook up with the relos for a burp an gulp.

Edited April 15, 2006 by gts-4 dreamer

[PlasticStan]

Check the fuses in the boot next to the battery, 2nd from front is the 10A fuse for dash illumination and sidelights. If this has blown then it will be because you have wired in the illumination wire on the stereo, so disconnect this one wire you won't need it, if it does anything it will only be to dim the lights on the stereo when you turn on the headlights. It's not really needed IMO.

I've seen this happen to a lot a Skylines with new stereos fitted.

[frx026]

Hi gts-4 dreamer,

This is a common problem, you have wired the earth of your headunit to the illumination wire in your car's loom.

to fix,

- disconnect head unit earth

- run head unit earth direct to car chasis

- replace illumination fuse in boot next to battery

Problem solved.

If you do want to wire the units earth into the cars wiring loom, you will need to test with a test light for your earth wire.

to test

- one end of test light on constant 12v

- turn on parking lights ( make sure you have replaced the fuse first)

- probe each wire one at a time

- test light goes out - wrong wire (illumination)

- test light stays on - right wire ( ground / earth)

- wire head unit earth to this wire

Cheers

frx026

[gts-4 dreamer]

check again today, the fuse in the boot is fine. The fuses in the front are good too, yet to check that beepy fuse in the black box. We hooked up the old steza to the car to double check the which wires which, lights still not coming up with the ILL wire off (orange/white) and the ground (black) hooked up to the chassis. WTF?

Stumped! Wat's going on!

[gts-4 dreamer]

got a second opinion, the misses old man went over it, turned out the only blown fuse was under the bonnet, 97 s2 make a difference ? or mine been re-wired somewhat eh?, this fixed the lights all comeing back up, sweet.

as described is how id actually located the ill light as the ground, just didnt have the lights turned on at the time. wired the ground to the chase and now is all sweet, sound through 4 speakers is f**king awsome, only problemsz are my rear vision mirror now bounces with the base out of 6x9's straight of a head deck, hahaha, i WAS going to mount my amp but am finding base is sufficient, almost sounds deep enough, buty eh, any more and id need a sub box, f**k that and id get vibration through my car, f**k that too, and id have to look like a tosser, i believe you should HEAR the engine not the tunes !!

f**king awsome cheers for the help fellas !

[Shaun O]

Cheers for the info here, sorry to bump the old thread

Had this exact issue after wiring up a new stereo where there was previously none so I didn't think it was related.

I used a multimeter to do the stereo wiring so was easy to mistake it as earth.

What's the best way to earth the stereo when using typical 20ish awg wire from the headunit? Was thinking could find a place to drill a bolt into the stereo bracket behind?