Nefarious Posted February 18, 2013 Share Posted February 18, 2013 (edited) Hey everyone. I'm just in the process of getting a sound system installed in my girlfriends 1993 pathy se. The truck has just an empty hole for the deck when we bought it, all the wires had been cut and were just hanging in the back and a whole bunch of wires were going every which way in that area, it was a huge mess. I tried to clean up all the wires, tape off the unused ones, find the ones that were not going to anything and remove them, there was a lot of chaos in that area lol. So I got everything all neat and tidy, wrapped, removed, taped, organized the harnesses to get it back to harnesses not just a tangle of wires everywhere and got the deck hooked up all right. Everything for the stereo works perfectly... but now the bloody instrument panel lights wont come on, as in the back lights for the gauges etc...the dummy lights all work fine but the backlight doesnt so now my gf cant see the gauges at night. The back light for the clock is on when the key is in or the truck is running and the lights are OFF, as soon as you click the dash lights(first click) or the dash/headlights (second click) the clock light backlight goes out and the instrument cluster backlight just stays off. The gauges themselves all still work fine, they just won't light up at all. All the rest of the lights on the truck are fine, all the fuses are good. I know everything worked before I started tearing out and cleaning it all up. I do remember there was a few wires all tied to one main chassis ground wire that is attached to some metal in the area, it looked weird. It was messy, some wires coming off the tie point were cut going no where(i removed those completely), one or two were coming from the harnesses and just going to the main chassis ground wire (thinking back I should have left these but they were ugly and were definitely not stock, i thought they were just a source for a short). I removed them all and just connected the head units ground to the ground wire to chassis and removed and taped off the rest. I'm thinking one of those wires that were tied to that ground were for the instrument panel back lights but I'm not 100% sure as I removed so many useless cut off ends of wires. Is there some sort of ground for the instrument panel back light down in that area that I just removed from ground? If so what colour is it? Any other wire colours I should be aware of that have to do with the back light system? I see the power wire for illum to the gauges is pink/black stripe and it goes to the dimmer roller switch as well as the ill+ terminal on the back of the gauge cluster, but i don't see that one anywhere down near the stereo. theres 4 pink wires, 2 with black stripe but they also have the silver markings down them as well and i think they are the stock speaker wires, not the same as the clean pink/black stripe going to the ill+ and dimmer switch. What other colours am I looking for? I know I have the proper +12v and acc wires to the stereo as I tested them with a multimeter and the colours matched a guide I found online (cant remember the colours right now) Other than a ground for the guages what else could it be? I don't think theres a short as all I did was remove wires, I only joined the 2 power wires to the stereo to run it and all the other lights/fuses are good including tail lights. This is really starting to annoy me and if I can't figure this out soon I'm just going to run a new damn wire to the battery to the system lol. Any electrical gurus welcome to chime in! Edited February 18, 2013 by Nefarious Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Nefarious Posted February 18, 2013 Author Share Posted February 18, 2013 (edited) Grahhh I wish the previous owner didn't make such a mess of the wiring so I wouldn't have given myself this headache to fix! lol Edited February 18, 2013 by Nefarious Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
devonianwalk Posted February 18, 2013 Share Posted February 18, 2013 Sounds to me that the "illumination" wire is grounding somewhere. Did you happen to recognize this wire? I don't know what the factory wire color is but, it's universally designated by the after market as being orange. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Leo94 Posted February 18, 2013 Share Posted February 18, 2013 When I had my instrument cluster un hooked my stereo didn't want to turn on, this probably doesn't help but just throwing it out there . Grahhh I wish the previous owner didn't make such a mess of the wiring so I wouldn't have given myself this headache to fix! lol Tell me about it... I'm going to throw away my: Stereo, speakers, factory amplifiers and associated wiring. From there I can start fresh and clean up my wiring mess. Good luck . Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Leo94 Posted February 18, 2013 Share Posted February 18, 2013 See that blade connecting on the bottom of the second photo? If i don't have my immobilizer remote then I have to use that to deactivate the engine immobilizer and to make it worse when you use the connector you have to do it in a certain patter something like (Key-ACC position, connection off, Key-on, connection on) I'm pretty sure that's wrong but when i didn't have batteries for my remote I had to play around with the patterns till I got it right . Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Nefarious Posted February 18, 2013 Author Share Posted February 18, 2013 well i didnt attach any wires from the trucks harnesses other than acc and +12v lines to the deck, the deck itself works fine, all the lights on it are perfect, the stereo works great. its the dash gauges speedo/tach etc that arent lighting up anymore...wondering if theres any associated wiring that would power the dash lights but down in the stereo wiring area...and that picture you posted of the mess of wiring ALMOST looks as bad as what I was just dealing with. lol. also been tearing out all the factory stuff....that factory alarm is horrible it has to go too. went off in the middle of the night 4 times now for no reason at all! I'm gunna smash her pathy with a baseball bat if it does it again lol. Sometimes i really love my simple no option XE....her fully loaded SE has some electrical gremlins...not for long though. all that crap is coming out! lol Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Nefarious Posted February 18, 2013 Author Share Posted February 18, 2013 im gunna pull the deck out of my pathy, i have the same year 1993 pathy as well so im hoping the wiring is all the same colours. my truck is canadian and hers is american but i dont think it should matter on the stock wiring harness. i wired in my trucks stereo just fine and my lights still work lol so maybe ill get lucky and see a wire that needs to be connected but isnt...blah really didn't want to pull my pathy apart. oh well.. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Trogdor636 Posted February 18, 2013 Share Posted February 18, 2013 Be careful with the 93 harness. It may depend on when it was made. My buddies 93 harness didn't match any online color code I found, it was closer to my 94. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Nefarious Posted February 18, 2013 Author Share Posted February 18, 2013 good to know ill check build dates Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Trogdor636 Posted February 18, 2013 Share Posted February 18, 2013 The PO of his had cut the pigtail off....I went to my local yard, found a similar build date, went through and reattached the stock piece, and then used one of those adapters from a stereo place. Saved a ton of headaches. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Nefarious Posted February 18, 2013 Author Share Posted February 18, 2013 Yeah that's actually not a bad idea..... I was just at pick a part... I think next time ill do that! Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Slartibartfast Posted February 19, 2013 Share Posted February 19, 2013 Stupid suggestion, there's a dimmer for the dash lights. Make sure it's not turned all the way down. (Yes I've bumped mine and though I'd lost the dash lights.) I think I've finally got the last of the crimp connectors out of mine! Accursed things. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Sim Posted February 20, 2013 Share Posted February 20, 2013 Ummm, pull the head unit back out. Use a multi-meter and turn on the park lamps and connect the multi-meter to each of the wires you used one by one. When you find one that's got power turn off the park lamps and see if that one goes off, or vice-versa! It's going to be a matter of using a multi-meter or a test lamp (MM is better) to go through every one of the wires there and find the one that is for the park lamps/dash illumination that would've been inside the original stereo head unit (because it would've had a light in it that would've come on with ignition and dimmed when the lights were turned on so it wasn't so bright as to blind you at night). I'm certainly not an auto-electrician but it sounds like your dash illumination wire is connected to something on the stereo head unit and it's grounding through the unit and thus not taking power through the dash lights. It sounds like the other lights that are on are probably on a different circuit (same basic circuit but the dash/instrument lights are slightly different as they all run off of a circuit board on the dash). Just thinking about it a bit further..... Do your dash lights come on if you turn the head unit off? Alternatively mate I think the following suggestion may be a @!*%load easier for you in the long run. Tape up (or remove) or possibly even heat shrink up all the wires that were left (EXCEPT for your speaker wires) and then run 1 wire from a constant positive (head unit memory wire), run 1 wire from a 12 v IGNITION power source (ACC wires) to power the unit up when key is turned to ACC etc, and run 1 ground/earth wire. Hopefully I've offered some kind of help for your problem, personally I think I would be doing re-wiring for the power and ACC wires and earth.. As it'll be easy to find them with a multi-meter or test light etc and you can seal up the huge pile of crap you've got for a wiring harness somewhere behind the dash until you can be bothered to remove it, decifer it, or you can just tape everything off and ignore it forever! Good luck - wiring issues are always a problem - I've got a wiring issue with my interior lights that just seems to be a complete pain in the butt! Anyway, I'm sure just setting it up with a new set of wiring will fix the problem straight out! Let me know how you get on. Sim Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Sim Posted February 20, 2013 Share Posted February 20, 2013 Just thinking about another alternative... you could find the power in wire for the dash lights and re-wire that from the park lamps? (might be easier than re-doing the entire head unit...) Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Nefarious Posted February 21, 2013 Author Share Posted February 21, 2013 Just thinking about another alternative... you could find the power in wire for the dash lights and re-wire that from the park lamps? (might be easier than re-doing the entire head unit...) This is what I was just thinking...today actually! Just run a wire from the parking lights to the pink/black stripe wire that powers the dash +ill terminal at the dimmer before it hits the dash. That is if it doesn't go well when I take out my deck in my pathfinder to compare the wiring. I have installed 6 or 7 car stereos now and never had a problem! I can't wait to straighten out the wiring in her truck....after the stereo is done I'm tearing out that garbage factory alarm and installing a viper too...that pos factory alarm goes off in the middle of the night for no reason! Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
adamzan Posted February 21, 2013 Share Posted February 21, 2013 This is what I was just thinking...today actually! Just run a wire from the parking lights to the pink/black stripe wire that powers the dash +ill terminal at the dimmer before it hits the dash. That is if it doesn't go well when I take out my deck in my pathfinder to compare the wiring. I have installed 6 or 7 car stereos now and never had a problem! I can't wait to straighten out the wiring in her truck....after the stereo is done I'm tearing out that garbage factory alarm and installing a viper too...that pos factory alarm goes off in the middle of the night for no reason! The alarm going off is probably a flaky door/hatch or hood switch. Seen that happen a lot. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Sim Posted February 21, 2013 Share Posted February 21, 2013 Yeah, bloody door switches, specially in the rear... it's the switch in the upper rear door for the window opening on the 2dr, pain in the ass and hard to fix!! Biggest problem I've got with getting my Alarm just right is that switch!! Nefarious, hopefully you can find out what it was when you get the stereo out and play around, certainly much easier than having to make a new set of wires for stuff because then you never know what was wrong and you can also run the risk of an overload later say when screaming up a freeway at 100 kph and smoke comes out under the dash! I don't know the exact problem but often something will work fine (seemingly) until something else is added/moved/changed.. it's like the old Cortina (just as an example) at the traffic lights that has the left indicator and brake lights on at the same time and no flashing, as soon as they release the brakes the indicator flashes normally and all is good - sounds like an odd comparison but something like that is usually fixed by cleaning/replacing the Earth wire on the tail lights and indicators at the rear.. so it could be something that simple, the entire lot appears to work fine with the stereo then when the parking lamps are turned on it shorts the whole thing out and it just earths the wrong way.. so I suppose essentially I'm saying check earth wires as well - it could be the entire problem! (though I doubt it at the moment) Oh, I can't remember if I asked if the dash lights work with the stereo turned off (or even unplugged from the wiring harness - because if it does then you can see where my thought processes are going - earths), so give that one a try as well.. Keep posting as things get updated as it'll give me more options to work with and good luck! Just don't let yourself get frustrated! Cheers,Sim Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
devonianwalk Posted February 21, 2013 Share Posted February 21, 2013 I'm still placing my wager on the illumination wire as the culprit. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Alkorahil Posted February 21, 2013 Share Posted February 21, 2013 A few years ago when I did the radio in my truck, I put everything back together and had the same problem. I retraced my steps and had forgot to plug the harness back into the hazard and dimmer switch when I was putting the trim bezel back on. Silly me. It may be something as simple as that. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Sim Posted February 22, 2013 Share Posted February 22, 2013 Sounds like a good idea to check those for sure. The other one is whether or not the plug could've come loose with all the wiring being tugged around etc. I don't have a dimmer switch.. anyone got a spare? that'd be neat to have and I'm pretty sure the wiring harness will have a plug on it no sense in having different harnesses. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Nefarious Posted March 18, 2013 Author Share Posted March 18, 2013 (edited) Well it finally bothered me enough, I took another crack and fixed it! It was a ground wire. Ended up being the pink with black stripe wire that needed to be at ground. Just went through one by one with each of the cut wires trying the gauge lights each time. We got lucky and the lights now work great and so does the head unit! So if anyone else has this problem in the future...PINK/BLACK STRIPE wire must be put to ground for the illumination of the dash gauges to work! Edited March 18, 2013 by Nefarious Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
ahardb0dy Posted March 19, 2013 Share Posted March 19, 2013 Was going to say the stock harness does not have a ground wire for the radio and the radio must be grounded to the chassis some where. And if you did connect the radio ground to one of the wires behind the radio that it may have been your problem. But you figured it out already. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Dirtygirl Posted April 11, 2013 Share Posted April 11, 2013 Well it finally bothered me enough, I took another crack and fixed it! It was a ground wire. Ended up being the pink with black stripe wire that needed to be at ground. Just went through one by one with each of the cut wires trying the gauge lights each time. We got lucky and the lights now work great and so does the head unit! So if anyone else has this problem in the future...PINK/BLACK STRIPE wire must be put to ground for the illumination of the dash gauges to work! I grounded the pink and black wire as you suggest, and viola! I have dash lights; however I immediately had a parasitic draw issue that runs the battery down to near dead overnight. I thought it may have been something I wired into the deck wrong so I disconnected the deck entirely but left the p/b wire grounded and had no change in the draw issue. I disconnected the p/b wire and the draw is gone. If I could find a wiring diagram this dash light issue would be a lot less of a problem, any ideas? Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Nefarious Posted April 13, 2013 Author Share Posted April 13, 2013 http://www.nissanpathfinders.net/forum/topic/26616-factory-service-manuals/ heres the fsm page. 94-95 is the only years available digitally, hopefully its the same. should have what u want Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Recommended Posts
Create an account or sign in to comment
You need to be a member in order to leave a comment
Create an account
Sign up for a new account in our community. It's easy!
Register a new accountSign in
Already have an account? Sign in here.
Sign In Now