AFTER MARKET INSTALL, Gage light not working

I just installed an aftermarket radio, now my dash board light is not working. Where did i messed up, i bought a harness then color matched the wires and plug it in, the rdio works but the dash board lights not working.

 

are none of the dashboard lights working? which ones specifically? First check your fuses. What do you have the orange and orange/white wires hooked up to? These are the illumination/dimmer wires, and can cause problems if hooked up wrong.

 

yes, i got it hook up then when i drove last night, found out i don't have light on my dash board, but the gages are all working.
now i disconected the orange wire. so now i disonnected the orange and white wires from the metra wire harnes, but still does not work, unless i hook up the ground(orange and black) and ground it to the radio body or any bolt, then i'll have all the lights working, except the dimmer switch won't work and will not dimm my lights. and when i turn on the car the light on the dash board stay's on no matter what, even the dimm lights and head lights are off.
please help

 

So your deck has an orange wire and an orange with a white stripe wire, correct? Mine actually has neither, so I didn't hook up those wires at all. If you don't have either of them hooked up, do the dash lights work?

You confused me at the orange and black wire. My harness didn't have an orange and black wire, and I can't remember ever having one that did.

 

yes my harnes has, two orange, one is has on orange with black (dimmer ground) and the other is orange and white (dimmer).
i think i fried my relay or something. i hooked up my old radio, and the lights on all gages does not work but the dimmer works on the a/c control.

 

this often happens when the orange wires are hooked up incorrectly..so i've heard. try googling the problem. I'm sure others have had this happen as well. You might be able to figure out what exactly is wrong. Did you double check your fuse?

 

yup, double check so many times, i install the factory stereo back, still no light, man! it really sucks, i read on a thread that someone burned out the REO Stat, $360 fix.

 

Hooking up the illumination wire, even when done properly, can cause problems like what you are experiencing. Check ALL your fuses, not just the interior light fuse. Make sure your wires are connected and terminated properly, and do not connect ANY orange or illumination wires. If you still have a problem, find a friend with the same truck and swap your dimmer switch, then test again and see if it solves your problem. You may have fried it. It will run you alot less than 360. Good luck.

 

I've seen a number of threads here where folks burned out their dimmer rheostat after replacing the OEM HU with an aftermarket one. So do you think the problem lies with the rheostat or possibly with some brands of HU's?

Lots of folks seemed to hook up the orange illumination wires correctly, but still had this problem. I've noticed most of them were using the Metra harness...IE the Scosche harness has no OJ/Blk wire on the smaller rear speaker harness.

I think I've also read about some here who did hook up their new HU's orange wires with no problems. I personally like the dimmer feature on my HU's LCD. If anyone has done this please post here, noting the brand of HU & harness? TIA

It would be nice to get to the bottom of this OJ wire issue. It's disturbing to read about folks who followed their new HU's installation instructions correctly, yet had to replace an expensive rheostat!

For now it seems best to forego the dimmer feature & not use the OJ wires at all as many here have stated. I suspect the weakness may lie in the rheostat(or it's wiring up to the dash harness) & it's possibly unique to our Tacoma's? It would be nice to know for sure!

 

Talked to Metra & Scosche tech support about the dimmer rheostat burning out, which BTW costs $175 from Toyota(#84119-04020). Both said the only way they could figure out what happened was that the new HU somehow put out 12VDC thru the OJ(or OJ/Wht) wire back to the dimmer switch. Both agreed that any 12VDC feedback thru the OJ wire would most definitely burn out the rheostat. Hooking up the 2 OJ wires to the OJ/blk wire would most likely just blow a fuse somewhere.

Many newer HU's do not use the OJ wire, instead they add a dimmer switch on the faceplate. Those that do have the OJ wire use it as feedback from the truck's headlite switch, IE when you turn on the lites at nite the green wire that goes to dash harness is hot. This 12DVC is fed thru the Metra/Scosche harness to the OJ wire, then to the new HU. HU's use this feedback to dim the LCD to a pre-set nite level, when the feedback is gone the HU resets the LCD to a brighter daylite level. Simple enuff, right?

Safest bet is to just not use any OJ wires coming from your new HU! But, if like me, you prefer this feature, here's how to test this out first without burning out that pricey dimmer rheostat. You'll need a VOMeter...if you need to ask what that is, don't attempt this below test! Find a friend who owns one.

First test the green wire coming to the OEM dash harness. It's also opposite the OJ wire on the larger connecting harness, so plug that in before you splice this harness to your new HU's harness. Check that OJ wire coming from the dash harness to see if it only puts out 12VDC when the light switch is on. Do not connect the OJ wires coming from the HU & the harness. The below test must be done before doing that!

Now power up the new HU by connecting the yellow & black wires from it to the yellow & black wires on the Metra/Scosche harness. Then use the VOM to test for voltage on the OJ wire coming from the new HU(use the connected black wire for ground. If any voltage is found coming from the HU's OJ wire while the HU is off or on do not ever connect the OJ wires together. If you do it will certainly burn the dimmer switch out!

Now disconnect the ground wire on the truck's battery & finish your HU install. If no voltage was present on the OJ wire in the above test it's safe to go ahead & connect the 2 OJ illumination wires according to the tech support folks. This is what I'll do when I install my new HU later this week, I'll report back here how that went. But under no circumstances do I assume liabilty for what others here do. If your at all nervous about any of this just do not connect those infamous orange wires!!! The worst that could come from doing this would be a rather bright LCD staring back at you at nite...

 

This needs to be a sticky in audio install. Kenwood seems to be a leader in the mix up of orange/black/white wires that get hooked up incorrectly due to the bad diagram. Because I just fried my rheostat too.

 

i went to the junk yard and got a couple of rheostat. let me know if you need one.

 

I did exactly the same thing. wiring the Metra kit wrong. AAArggg!! So the model of the story is, Wire the two orange wires together ( orange + orange/white) and ground the Orange/black wire.

or just leave all the orange wires alone..