i just put in a new Pioneer head unit and XM radio. i had everything plugged up and working but my gauge lights were acting funny and every time i would play with the dimmer knob the speakers would buzz. so i taped up the wires i sodderd a little better and took out the XM antenna. Now the head unit works and sounds great but my gauge lights won't come on. what should i do? i'm an idiot when it comes to this stuff

first of all: PLEASE HEAT SHRINK THE SOLDERS!!!! tape is a horrible way of isolation.

as for the guage cluster, replace the fuse. it sounds like you had a short and/or bad ground on the hedunit. assuming the issue is resolved, everything should work fine now.

Sounds like the ground. Do like SPL said and I would redo the ground on the HU.

Did you by chance connect the illumination wire of the headunit to the car? A lot of the newer HU's have a ill wire that dims the display when your headlights are on. If this is the case, check to be sure you have the proper wire connected to the car's ill wire. Some cars have two wires, both a ill wire, and a second ill wire that is connected to the dimmer switch. If you are using a adapter harness for the car's radio plug, the dimmer wires off of that adapter harness are orange or orange/white.

i know it's been awhile on this post but i just now got around to getting into it. there is an orange wire that is not connected to anything that says illumination on it and the other orange/white wire is connected with the wiring harness. now should i just leave the orange wire unconnected or tap it into something like the cigerette lighter illumination wire or other light that comes on when the headlights do?

i personally dont use the orange wires at all, just pull them out of the harness. less wires, less problems.

Originally posted by rgirard413
i personally dont use the orange wires at all, just pull them out of the harness. less wires, less problems.

Hehe, you used to work at a circuit city or best buy didn't you?

alright i've tried everything that i know of to try and fix this but my guages still do not light up. i've changed all the fuses that might be blown and i've tried hooking the orange wire to a power source and still nothing so what else can i do?

Did you hack your harness off or did you use a plug and play Metra set-up?

Originally posted by a_miller_76
Hehe, you used to work at a circuit city or best buy didn't you?

yea haha

i used a harness.

Have you altered anything else electrical?

Originally posted by a_miller_76
Have you altered anything else electrical?

No. all i have added electrical to my car is a boost gauge and zeitronix O2 voltmeter gauge. and XM radio. you think hooking up the orange wire to another wire that comes on when the headlights are turned on might work?

ive never come across a radio that needed the orange wire wired up. maybe some how you hooked it up backwards when you were doing it and sent power back into it and fried the lil LED's in the dash? Try putting the stock radio back in real quick..

Wow long time no see all. u didn't fry the LED's, thats y theres an inline fuse there. I got big money on the illumination wire, cut that bastard and hook it to nothing, all it does is when u turn on the lights the radio should dim but being a pioneer u can dim it if u want manually