Dash lights not working

I installed a new headunit yesterday and at first my night dash lights didn't work, then I took it apart and messed with it and my day gauge lights don't work. I checked the fuse by the driver side knee area and the fuse isn't blown. Does anyone know what it could be?

 

Nope, neither of the gauge lights work, day or night

 

Check your wiring, sounds like you didn't do something correctly.

 

Yup I turned the dimmer up and down like 10 times now.

 

The gauge cluster lights don't work, the airbag tpms check engine etc. work. Just the back lights don't work...

 

Check the back of the dimmer. If you didn't reconnect the wiring harness fully, none of it works. That's what happened with mine the first time I took my dash off.

 

Back of the dimmer as in, the rotating dimmer or the illumination wire on the back of the stereo?

 

The rotating dimmer to the left of the steering wheel. In this pic the knob to the left of the tach


In my 2001 you have to take off all of the dash to get to the radio and that's how it got disconnected. Not sure if this is the case for the newer models.

 

I don't think that's the case, I didn't go anywhere near the dimmer switch while installing.

 

My apologies, ignore what I said then.

 

I disconnected the illumination wire and checked all the fuses, still no lights. Please let me if you have any ideas as to what it could be... thanks

 

So I bought a rheostat from the dealership that ran about 130 bucks and replaced it and everything now works. There are two clips on the rheostat, one on the top and bottom, I drilled them out so I wouldn't have to take apart the dash because I didnt have anything to slip in there. After that I unclipped it from the back, popped the new one in and everything was good.

 

hey i have the same exact problem was the rheostat hard to install???

 

Not really, honestly what I did was buy a new rheostat from the dealership, I put two wood screws into the old rheostat (one on top and bottom where the clips are) and used the screws to pull it out. Then I unplugged the old one and put the new one in. Easy.

 

When you get a new rheostat you'll see where the clips are. Also don't forget to pull your deck out and disconnect any orange (illumination wires).

 

that happened to me except it was a fuse in the engine bay instead of the kick panel.