Jfirios

I am in need of serious help. No bs did i look at a schematic or put the key in the ignition. I finished kicking what i thought was the last gremlin out of my car with the massive stereo and lighting rebuild. The system is incredible but when i was connecting the last led to the illumination harness in the radio compartment i lost all my interior lights. My dashboard light and all the instrument lights around the radio. My footwell lights map light and glove box light still work. I have spent 5 hours trying to find out what the hell happened. I have checked and replaced all the fuses in the drivers footwell. I am getting 12v to the plug behind the radio where the harness connects behind the radio. But still nothing. I dont know where else to look. When i took my leads for the led lights and go directly to the battery they all work. It feels like a fuse. But all of them are good. Please serious advice. I am almost done with this project and this is the last thing i need to fix. For a while anyway.
I am at a complete loss.

86tcoupe

The massive term makes me think thats a good place to start How massive? how many amps is/are the items you installed rated at ?
the main problem is you lost interior lighting? thats all ?
you may have fried the reastat in the switch ... like you pulled amps thru the ground see if you have connection of it thru the swt.
if your talking sub woofers to the max ( somehow I bet you are ) it needs is it's own fuse s and grounds separate from the cars systems or your likely to incure this problem again ,frying the wiring

Jfirios

I had a feeling it might be the switch since everything else works. The stereo is on its own seperate power. 4 gadge wire fused completely seperate. I just replaced my headlight switch with a new one and would suck if i fried it but still have the old one to test it with. The only thing i changed in the original harness was changing the unused lights from the stock radio and changing them to led lights throughout the car. Again the stereo amp power and ground are entirely seperate. The headunit is wired standard to the main car harness like the stock radio. But will switch out the light switch amd see. Please if anyone else has any ideas. I would love upload photos of the rebuild but seem to have issues with file formats. Thanks for the advice

Jfirios

And yes it is only the interior lights. The instrument cluster lights and the lights around the environment and radio controls

Jfirios

All other lights (footwell,map light, glovebox, and headlights motors and light) all work it is just the others that arent. And when connected directly to the battery they work and all the fuses are good.

Jfirios

Here is an update. After i set the fiberglass sub pods i started back on the electric issue. I bypassed all those factory aux liumination lights. Installed a new relay and wired all my led lights to it. Used one of the wires for a light as the signal to the relay and they all work. The light switch on the steering colum works. So obviously the harness was getting power but still my instrument lights are not working. It was suggested that the reastat on the dimmer switch might be bad. Need to swap it out and see. Any other suggestion as to the cause? But right now i did what i should have done in the first place with the relay and the interior ligts i put in all wirk with the switch.

BattleGround

disconnect the "last led" and replace the interior lighting fuses even though they seem fine. That's what I would try first.

Jfirios

The latest with the electric issue. I have installed a seperate power and relay to control all the led interior lights i put in. The signal wire to the relay is tapped into the factory harnes for all the lights for the stock radio. So when I engaged the headlight switch o. The steering column all the leds work. So i know power is going to that harness. I also metered the harnes that goes to the dashboard dimmer switch on the left of the instrument pannel. When I engaged the headlight switch i am getting 11 volts to the switch but still no lights come on. So it is leading me to believe that the dimmer switch is bad. Not letting power continue to the lights. This weekend i am going to put a jumper on the plug bypassing the dimmer switch and see if they come on. I am still at a loss as to how that switch burnt out before a fuse. And all the fuses are good. Switches them all out with new ones. So if anyone else has any ideas i would love to hear them.

BattleGround

very interesting. It is possible that when you put more current through it, the switch being old, could have burnt out inside.

Jfirios

That is what another user suggested. So this weekend i am going to bypass the dimmer and see if it works. Basically install a new on off switch instead of the dimmer. Since i hardly ever dim it anyway.