i need help.where is the main illumination gauge hookup to hookup dimmer from cd play

[01nygalant]

i installed a alpine cd player to my 03 8g v6.but the dimmer i found out needs to have dimmer wire hooked to the main instrument cluster wire.anyone know ?is that mean the heater fan knob cluster? and which wire is the main wire to hook dimmer wire from radio to.thanks.

[IVORY_G]

Did you purchase an aftermarket wiring harness at anytime for your G? It's what connects to the vehicle's wiring harness and then to the aftermarket stereo's wiring harness. It has all the wires color coded and labeled for you to hook up an aftermarket radio...

[01nygalant]

yes i hooked up with wireing harness

[IVORY_G]

Ok cool, because the wiring harness has a wire for you to hookup the illumination wire to the dimmer/illumination wire to the stereo.

[4g63lover]

The harness I got for my Pioneer didnt have illumination, so I just left it not hooked up to anything. Works fine.

[IVORY_G]

^Yeah its not even necessary really, just dims the display whenever you turn your headlights on...

[01nygalant]

yeah thats what im trying to do i got that thing bright as hell pluss sirius radio dimmed all way down my car like xmas tree.so i tryin to get do dim the cd player.

[Reelax]

the illumination wires run to the dimmer dial on the guage faceplate trim. test those wires.

[minesbroken]

The illumination wire should be a green wire with a white stripe in the radio harness.
When you hook up to the Illumination wire the dimmer should control it just like every other light in the car.

[01nygalant]

is the radio harness wire go to a wire on the fan heat knob piece ? not sure wheere the radio harness dimmer wire where do i hook up to?

[minesbroken]

by "radio harness" I mean the plug that was plugged into your factory radio and every wire in the plug and nothing else. The "ILLUMINATION" wire in the "Radio harness" has nothing to do with your heater controls and I don't suggest tapping into any of those wires.

[IVORY_G]

Factory Harness>Plug>Aftermarket Wiring Harness>Butt Connectors>Stereo Harness>Stereo:

========[Plug]===========[Butt Connectors]========Stereo

The Illumination wire connects from the aftermarket wiring harness to the Stereo wiring harness. If there's not an illumination wire in the aftermarket wiring harness, but there is one in the stereo harness, than you should just tape it off & leave it alone.

[01nygalant]

oh ok sorry .i thought was supposed to tap into gauges somewhere lol.ok i see now.wow i am a dummy haha.thanks guys.

[IVORY_G]

Its ok, every1 has a blonde moment, LOL!

[01nygalant]

thanks guys

[rocgalant]

I have a similar question. I got the Scosche harness
http://www.amazon.com/Scosche-MI02B-.../dp/B0007KPRY2

It has two orange wires. One is white/orange and says 'Dimmer,' the other is solid orange and says 'illumination.' My PA stereo's wiring harness only has a solid orange wire that says 'illumination.' Based on that, the answer seems obvious. But I have read on car audio forums that it's not as obvious as it seems and I could possibly fry my dash's lights if I screw up.

Do you aftermarket stereo guys know if I should wire the dimmer or illumination wire from the Scosche wiring harness to my stereo's illumination wire?

[rocgalant]

I have a similar question. I got the Scosche harness
http://www.amazon.com/Scosche-MI02B-.../dp/B0007KPRY2

It has two orange wires. One is white/orange and says 'Dimmer,' the other is solid orange and says 'illumination.' My PA stereo's wiring harness only has a solid orange wire that says 'illumination.' Based on that, the answer seems obvious. But I have read on car audio forums that it's not as obvious as it seems and I could possibly fry my dash's lights if I screw up.

Do you aftermarket stereo guys know if I should wire the dimmer or illumination wire from the Scosche wiring harness to my stereo's illumination wire?

Should I just cap off these wires with butt connectors? Meaning, I would not connect the wires to anything at all?

[minesbroken]

you can hook up the illumination wire to it and it wont fry anything. It will just dim the display on the radio when you turn the lights on. I make it a practice not to hook anything up to the dimmer wire.
That doesn't mean you cant
I just don't.
worst case it would probably control how much your radio dims when you turn your dimmer dial.
as long as the polarity is correct it's not going to hurt anything.

[rocgalant]

you can hook up the illumination wire to it and it wont fry anything. It will just dim the display on the radio when you turn the lights on. I make it a practice not to hook anything up to the dimmer wire.
That doesn't mean you cant
I just don't.
worst case it would probably control how much your radio dims when you turn your dimmer dial.
as long as the polarity is correct it's not going to hurt anything.

Thanks for the advice. I checked another site and decided to not wire the illumination or dimmer wires. I hooked the stereo up and it turned on fine, the radio has a dimmer feature and it worked fine.

I have another somewhat major problem though. I did it before going to work, figuring that stereo installation is extremely easy and not a big deal. Well, the volume was barely audible (I have to re-connect my speaker wires to my amp. no prob). I removed the radio and placed the factory radio back just so I can have music while driving. Now my effin speedometer doesn't work, the gas gauge literally goes up and down depending on if I step on the gas, the SRS and Service Engine Soon lights are on, my gear indicator light is out, and my car seems to be stuck in 3rd gear (though I can't tell because the gear indicator is out). And no time to diagnose because I had to go to work. Now I'm at work looking at the possible causes and solutions. Hopefully, just a ECU reset or some fuse in the fuse box will correct it.

[minesbroken]

Thanks for the advice. I checked another site and decided to not wire the illumination or dimmer wires. I hooked the stereo up and it turned on fine, the radio has a dimmer feature and it worked fine.

I have another somewhat major problem though. I did it before going to work, figuring that stereo installation is extremely easy and not a big deal. Well, the volume was barely audible (I have to re-connect my speaker wires to my amp. no prob). I removed the radio and placed the factory radio back just so I can have music while driving. Now my effin speedometer doesn't work, the gas gauge literally goes up and down depending on if I step on the gas, the SRS and Service Engine Soon lights are on, my gear indicator light is out, and my car seems to be stuck in 3rd gear (though I can't tell because the gear indicator is out). And no time to diagnose because I had to go to work. Now I'm at work looking at the possible causes and solutions. Hopefully, just a ECU reset or some fuse in the fuse box will correct it.

Check all your fuses, if they are fine then disconnect both terminals on your battery and touch them together to release any capacitance then reconnect them to the battery.
If that doesn't fix it and you still have no speedo you may want to find someone with a scan tool.
I'm going to pull my radio out tonight and see if the metra harness has anything on the Speedo wire in the harness because this seems to be a common problem with a lot of galant owners.