^^^ dito on the multimeter... not only that, but a resistance check inserts voltage into the line... if you already have voltage, you will get SCREWY readings.





Sounds like a short somewhere. do a check from ground (bolt on the door mount) to the illumination + (green with white stripe) and illumination - (green with black stripe). ILL+ should be batt voltage and ILL- should be 3-6 Volts, or so... something should be on ILL- with the lights on and dimmer down. Ohm it if you have to with the lights off.

 

Do you have an aftermarket HU? Check the illumination wire (i think its orange)

Also, I bet your left tail fuse is burnt again. You definitely have a short somewhere..90% of the time it is in the dimmer switch assembly, or your head unit.

 

Checked today, fuse is still good. However, I took the deck out and a couple things jumped out at me. A couple of wires are disconnected, see the pics. I know nothing about car audio so not sure if these are supposed to be connected....?


This wasn't connected to anything...


These are both cut...


Also noticed that the door lights aren't working (neither of them) and the DOOR AJAR light doesn't come on, on the dash, for either doors.

 

you checked all the fuses under the hood AND in the car? (by the clutch pedal)

 

Yeah, checked em both. I'm an electrical technologist, so I know how to troubleshoot a system (however usually on larger A/C drives, not DC stuff). I ended up running a feed from the cigarrette lighter, to a switch, and to the + of the rheostat. Works fine now, I just basically have it always on instead of running off the headlamp switch.

The doors were a completely unrelated issue... The driver side door switch is kinda sketchy, but i oiled it up and it works fine now. Also didn't know that the drivers door had to be open for the passenger door switch to work.

All is well now, as long as i don't screw up anything else (unlikely).

 

Alright I know I'm bring back an old thread but since it's my own, I figure it's alright fing02.gif

Today I figured I would attempt to fix this problem instead of having wires where they shouldn't be. When I bought the car I knew nothing of auto electronics but I've gone over enough pages on HMA to consider myself somewhat of an expert.
After about an hour of running in the house to print off webtech schematics, I pulled apart the fusebox and what did I find? Both the Gr/Bl wire (wire that feeds the gauge and crashpad illuminations) and the Pink/Black wire (feeds the DRL relay through the taillamp relay) were cut off. The wires going into the cabin were just hanging there, and the ends going to the relay base were connected to two other constant +12v wires.

I think when the dealer bought the car, he tried troubleshooting the problem himself. The taillamp fuse I replaced didn't look burnt, but tested bad with a meter. He probably just looked at it and figured it was good, couldn't figure out the problem, so he/his buddy did a quick patch job. It didn't work so they closed it up and hoped no one would notice.

Just wanted to provide a happy ending. Only took a few years.

 

did your hvac lights come on? if i missed this sorry.

 

They didn't before but they do now. Anything controlled by the rheostat was not working, and now does.

 

where is this rheostat my friend sounds like he needs one.

 

The rheostat is the dimmer on the left hand side of the dash. It's a little wheel that pokes out. You can remove it with a smallflathead screwdriver.