New Head Unit, No tail/dash lights :(

[j03sl4ys]

Epic fail imo. But I'm not the first person with this problem. I got a 96 Nissan 200sx recently, hooked up my head unit, 2x 12's and memphis amp. Sounds great. But now my dash lights don't work, neither do my tail lights. My brake lights work fine, but when I turn on my headlights, I get nothing from the tail lights. I've checked all the fuses underneath the dash, none are blown. I google'd this problem briefly yesterday (that's how I found this site ) and read something of the sort about orange wires not being connected, which isn't the case. I have the orange/white wire (only orange from the head unit) connected with the orange wire from my cars harness. There's an orange/black wire coming from the harness also, but I believe that's for something entirely different (correct me if I'm wrong). Also read something about Nissan's failure to make an effective ground wire, and to hook it up to the chassis instead of the wire provided. Anyone know anything about that?

Also, I'm required to manually turn on/off the head unit each time I want to use it. It doesn't shut off with the key, and it can run without the car on. I think this is because I have the ACC and 12v Batt wired together to make it work. But I don't know any other way to work it.

I'm quite desperate to solve these issues, anything you know related to my situation may help, so please share. Thanks in advance for everyone's input. //content.invisioncic.com/y282845/emoticons/smile.gif.1ebc41e1811405b213edfc4622c41e27.gif

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[Jason Brubaker 10+ year member]

Grab your trusty DMM and use this wiring diagram to help you out:

http://www.installdr.com/Harnesses/Nissan-Wiring.pdf

 

[j03sl4ys]

Two things. Not sure what you mean by DMM, the fuse tester screwdriver thing? And the colors on that diagram are not the same as the ones in my car :O

 

[Jason Brubaker 10+ year member]

DMM= Digital Mult iMeter. A li'l diff. than what you describe but in the ballpark. Found that diagram after Googling "1996 Nissan 200SX radio wiring diagram".

Here is a link to what a DMM looks like:

http://media.onsugar.com/files/2011/01/01/5/89/898472/c6ad4c6e7afa83f7_digital_multimeter.jpg

 

[j03sl4ys]

Ahh, yea i can get one of those from a friend. Ima head over to his house and see if he can help me trouble shoot the problem.

Still looking for a solution.

 

[Jason Brubaker 10+ year member]

Good Luck, troubleshooting electrical issues can be a PITA. Let us know what you did to fix it, when you are done. Also did you check any Nissan forums, usually a good bit of info on those sites.

 

[j03sl4ys]

Ok, so I went back over my work and checked all of the wires and fuses. Fuses were good, but I had my remote hooked up to the power antennae, (ended up being 2 different blue wires, and i picked the wrong one at first) so i fixed that. I connected the cars ground & ground from head unit to the amp ground that comes from the cars harness (dont know if this does anything, because I have my amp grounded to the chassis in the trunk). I separated my ACC and 12v batt wires and checked my fuses again. Found a fuse under the hood that was blown, but I don't know what fuse it was because the cover for the fuse box was missing. I replaced the fuse after fixing the wiring to the head unit and viola, lights work. I turned my car on to test the head unit, and now everything is working perfectly, it shuts off/on with the key, settings stay the same, and all my lights work //content.invisioncic.com/y282845/emoticons/smile.gif.1ebc41e1811405b213edfc4622c41e27.gif

Thanks for the advice on the DMM, probably never would have found that fuse without it because the fuse didn't appear to be blown in the middle like a fuse normally does. It looked fine, but did not work. After this experience I don't think I could encounter much more trouble with installing a head unit, learned alot of things I didn't know, just from trying to google my problem.

Thanks again ^_^

 

[Jason Brubaker 10+ year member]

Glad to see you got everything figured out and working.