I have what I think are 2 seperate problems:

Problem Number One:

When I bought my '92 hatch a week ago, everything on the dash works except the guage illumination lights. When I turn on the key in accessory, the red lights light as they should. The only lights I don't have on my dash are the dash lights that are supposed to come on when I turn on the headlights. I checked the fuses and everything appears to be alright there. I checked to make sure the guage dimmer switch is all the way up too (still don't work). My next step is to remove the guage cluster and check the bulbs. Any suggestions on this problem?

Now for my second problem:

Today I bought a used Kenwood a/m f/m CD player from my buddy and also bought a new wiring harness for a Civic. I wired the harness to my new deck, just as described in the directions. The only wire I didn't hook up is the illumination orange wire and the blue power antenna wire (all the wires were marked). The new deck doesn't work when I plug it in to my original car plug. It doesn't light up or show any signs of any power. I took the new deck to the local stereo shop where they checked my wiring and bench tested the deck and it works fine. I take it back home and it still does not work in my car. I reinstalled the original am/fm cassette stereo in my car and it still lights up and works just fine. Do you think the problem with my dash lights and the new stereo not working is related? If so, why does the stock factory stereo work and not the new one.

You guys seem to know these Civics inside and out and any help here would be appreciated.
Thanks! Bill

 

wow, not sure about the dash lights. Where do you live? It is very very very unlikely that you blew all the lights at the same time, but since you arent sure if they went out one by one or not check that as you were planning.


As for the deck, make sure in the new harness you baought none of the pins are bent and then get a 12V test light and check the yellow and red for + with the key on.

 

make sure your new deck has a chassis ground. the antenna usually will do. do you have the antenna plugged in when you are testing the Kenwood? grounds will drive you batty.

it might be the dimmer switch itself that is bad.

 

I dont think a bad dimmer switch would cause just the ic lights to not come on. You have dash lights right?

 

I live in Pennsylvania.
The dash illumination lights did not work when I bought the car. The stock stereo was in the car and worked fine when I bought the car. I did not have the antenna plugged in when I tested the new deck. I'll try that and also test the yellow and red wires (pins do not look to be bent) along with the dash cluster illumination bulbs. I'll post back when I find out the problem. Thanks alot! Bill

 

i agree. when i attempted my first aftermarket stereo install, i encountered the same problem with the stereo not working. it is most likely the ground. you need to make sure you are properly grounded. if the deck has a separate ground wire (other than the antenna) it does need to be WELL grounded to the chassis. make sure the paint is scraped off thoroughly wherever you attach it.

 

your ground should be fine if you used an aftermarket plug. You hooked the black to black correct?

 

I hooked all the wires correctly. I have a friend coming over tomorrow and we'll figure out the stereo problem and I'll post back here and let you know what we found.

As for the dash lights, looks like 5 larger bulbs for illumination and 1 smaller illumination bulb on the back of my cluster. The first larger bulb I pulled out was bad and I have to wait until Monday to go the Honda dealership to get the bulbs. Autozone and Napa doesn't carry the 5 larger size I need. Only the 1 smaller bulb. Thanks for the help! Bill

 

I finally got the stereo to work:
I had to actually hook up the yellow wire directly to the radio fuse to get the stereo to work. I tried the red wire to the radio fuse and it still wouldn't power up. It works just fine with the yellow wire to the radio fuse. Can anyone tell me why?

I'll work on the dash lights tomorrow.

 

its mainly because "the man" is trying to hold you down. and chinese people like to frustrate round eye