I installed a cd player. Now my dash lights are gone. I was told it was my dimmer switch. This is true cuz I didn't wire it to anything cuz I don't know what it gets wired to. Anyone???? Does it go to power antenna? Ground? I have no idea.

P.S. Of the two wires on that clip from the stock stereo (the dimmer and something else), which is the dimmer? The brown wire or other one??? It's an 88' Formula.

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Robbie
88' Formula

The best way that I've found to avoid wiring mistakes is to order a aftermarket to OEM wiring adapter from www.Crutchfield.com .
They have lots of different applications and Fiero is one of them !

If by the "2-wire clip" you mean the 2-pin connector on RHS of the stock radio (brown wire+orange wire), the dimmer isn't either of those. That connector is the "keep-alive" for the stock radio's memory.

The radio light dimmer is controlled by the grey wire.

The fuse likely went out. There is a fuse between the dimmer and the lights it controls. Check that first.

I agree on the fuse, I've done several medium to large stereo installations and when I first did one to my fiero and again in my 2nd fiero I blew 2 or 3 fuses, and both with the wiring harness from crutchfield too. go figure...

marc

If it's my grey wire, what do I connect that to??? And where is that fuse located?? In the fuse panel or actually in the dash???

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Robbie
88' Formula

The grey wire on the car harness supplies controlled power to the display lights. I would guess that it should be connected to whatever wire on your radio is the light dispaly wire. Look at the documentation that came with the radio. Sometimes there is a table on the radio itself telling which color wire does what.

Good luck,

Carroll

If the radio has dimer suport for the display you need the gray wire.

Most radios I've seen don't have dimmer controlable lamps. They have one stage of dimming and it's activated by the parking lamp circuit.

The parking lamp line is a brown wire on a small 2 termial connector, C208, along with an orange wire that is the clock power (always hot).

It's not on the big main connector, C247. The dimmer control line is gray and is terminal M on C247.

.... there's also another possibility. There's a dimmer transistor under the right side of the steering column. Drove me up the wall. Just went out...at least that's what I thought. Ended up being the connections needed cleaned. I went ahead and soldered them to make sure I didn't have to do it again.

Note: be sure to leave the grease on... it's a heat transfer conductor.

Actually you want to replace the white "grease" when you work on anything like that. You can get it at radish rack (radio shack) or any electonics supplier. It called heat sink compound.

Chances are that your new cd player does not have a dimmer wire on it. Your car have two wires that come into play here. One is Gray and it controls the dimming of the factory radio. The other is Brown and it should be on the 2 pin harness. It tells the lights on the factory radio to come on when you turn on your parking or headlights. You should have one wire on your new cd player labled either dimmer or illumination, or somthing to that affect. In the normal aftermarket stereo wiring code, it should be orange with a white stripe. You new stereo is illuminated all the time, unlike your factory stereo that only lights up when your lights are on. Your new cd player will probally only have one dimness mode, when it just dims the entire display and buttons for night driving. You can hook your stereos dimmer wire to either the factory illumination or dimmer wire. If you hook to the illumination wire (brown), your stereo will become dim whenever your lights are turned on. If you hook to the dimmer wire (gray) your stereo will dim or stay bright when you turn the dimmer switch up or down. Usally it will only have one dimness mode or two, but there are some stereos out there that will dim with the guages. So what am I saying? I think you should hook your stereos dimmer wire (Usally Orange w/white stripe) to the cars Gray wire in the larger 12 pin harness. That will allow you stereo to stay bright if you turn the dimmer switch on your car all the way down so the dash lights do not glow, but the parking lights are on. Then when you turn it up, your stereo will dim. Are you using a wiring harness to plug into the cars harness, or are you cutting the cars wiring? Most wiring harness you buy at stereo stores and stuff do not have the two wires on the 2 pin harness, they only have the constant power wire, not the ill. wire. Sorry for the length, but when I start explaining somthing I just get going on and on trying to tell you everthing about the cars wiring. But it all comes down to this: hook to the gray wiring comming from your car.

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Sean Heberly
Silver 86 GT 2.8
Killer Stereo System