Gauge and HVAC Control Lights are dead

[Fergie]

I've got an odd issue with my 2001 LTD that I hope you all can help with.

The gauge and HVAC control lights are dead and the dimmer is not working either.

I have checked all the fuses and such and found nothing wrong.

All of the start-up diagnostic lights work fine, so does the door open indicators and odometer. The 4wd lights work, but only the right rear light is on, whereas it was never on before. The small AC indicator light on the knob still works, so does the recirc air light.

All the other electrical related items are fine.

Before our large trip, we had a new radio deck installed. I do not know if this caused any issue because oddly enough, we never drove at night during the trip. One thing that did change was our antenna. It had a broken mast, but still cycled on and off before the radio install...it does not do that now.

So, my questions are; are the gauge and HVAC control lights related in their failure? Is the radio install the cause of the lights not functioning?

What else should I be checking?

Any help and insight in to this would be appreciated and if I need to provide more info, I will certainly do my best.

Thanks.

G


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[evol911]

There is a radio fuse in the engine compartment fuse panel. Mine blew on our 2003 and interior lights, radio, and traction control didn't work. Or the traction control light off was illuminated. Its a 10amp I believe.

 

[Fergie]

Definitely not that specific fuse.

I'm not sure if the radio install caused the problem, or if they two are mutually exclusive, or related some how.

 

[Fergie]

Does anyone have an idea on this?

 

[jeep-N-montero]

Might be that the switch itself is bad.

 

[SirFrancisDrake]

Regarding the antenna, when I swapped my new headunit in there is a power wire for the antenna that can be hooked up to the new headunit. I intentionally left it unhooked since mine is broken as well, so no more cycling of the antenna motor. Either your headunit does not have the option to power an antenna and they left it unhooked, or they just intentionally left it unhooked which is OK since yours is broken...

 

[Fergie]

HU has the power antenna hook up, but was not used as I discovered this weekend.

The dimmer is not getting the proper power as far as I can tell.

I'm heading to the install shop on Monday to talk with them about the install.

 

[Fergie]

OK, got some of this figured out and the shop screwed up on the install.

If you look at the first photo, this is the back of the OEM MM radio. Notice the two round holes on the right side; and notice in the second photo, the two wires that attach the radio.




When I pulled the new radio out, neither of these were connected. Since I have the stock radio, I removed the new radio, and connected the old one to these two lines to see what they did. The larger of the two is the antenna, and the smaller one is power to the radio. Magically, the power antenna mast worked when the smaller line was plugged in the radio.

Now, since the smaller line is not connected on the new radio, where is power pulled from?

If you look at the picture below, you can see the small plastic wire cap on the left hand side...this is the power antenna wire from the adapter loom and is not used.


So, they obviously did not wire the radio properly, and if they pulled power off of an odd circuit, then this might be the cause of the dimmer issue.

 

[jeep-N-montero]

I hope you got your money back.

 

[MonteroLTD]

I've uploaded the wiring diagram for the Montero w/ infinity sound. The radio and interior lights are on the same circuit. Check for a short to ground on these wires. The two antenna cables shouldn't have any voltage coming from them. The ground connection should be relocated to the 6mm bolt directly under your finger in that picture. Have all the radio wiring corrected.

 

[Fergie]

Bringing this back up as I am still working on the issue.



I got the issue with the power antenna sorted, and have narrowed down the issue with the dash lights.



Here is what I have so far.

Fuse #23 under the hood is blowing constantly with the radio connected. This means my right tail laps aren't working either.

When I pull the radio completely, the dash lights work and the rheostat functions fine. As soon as I reconnect the radio to the harness, fuse #23 blows and the lights stop working.

So, my question is how to solve this. Do I simply wire the radio straight the battery? I worry about that as I don't want a battery drain. Is there any other circuit to wire into that will shut off with the key?

Also, I'm taking it back in to the installer to see what they have to say about the issue. However, I want to have a decent bit of knowledge to back it up.

Any help is appreciated.

Thanks.

 

[Fergie]

OK, so something I hadn't noted before.

With the new radio completely disconnected from the vehicle, the fuse still blows.

If I remove the harness, seen below, the fuse does not blow, but as soon as I reconnect the white end to the vehicle, the fuse blows. It does not need the radio connected, it blows no matter what.

So, my guess is that there is a short in the harness, correct?

The white end connects to the vehicle side wiring harness, and the black end goes to the radio.




So, does that guess make sense to you all?

 

[Fergie]

I dug in to the harness above and everything looked OK except for some orange colored wires. The orange wire are not shown on the radio wiring harness diagram in the install instructions. The black connector is what is labeled in the install instructions.

From the white harness end, the solid orange wire is labeled "dash light illumination" and the orange/white striped wire is labeled "dimmer". These two wires were twisted together and connected to an orange/white striped wire on the black connector end that goes to the radio.

I disconnected the two wires on the white connector end from the one wire on the orange end and installed the harness. The fuse popped.

I then separated the orange and orange/white stripe wire on the white connector end from each other, replaced the blown fuse, and installed the harness....





THE FUSE DID NOT BLOW!!!

Success...kind of.


So my question now is, what exactly does the dimmer wire dim, and what dash lights does the other wire illuminate? I'm guessing that it is directly related to the radio, and not my actual vehicle dash lights, correct?

Next question(s), which wire on the white connector side should be connected to the single wire on the black connector side? Also, why would the two short the fuse out?

Thanks.

Gavin

 

[Fergie]

Just got finished in the garage and I have everything working now.



I simply clipped the wires, taped their ends off and taped them out of the way.



I think that having the two wires together was the only issue. Now they are separated by several layers of tape, and should not cause me any issues.



I'm not concerned with the dimming or illumination changes. The radio, my tail lamps and dash lights are all functioning fine now, and no fuses are being blown.



I'll head to the original installers shop and let him know what was going on so he has a bit of useful info for the future.

Gavin

 

[nwoods]

I was just about ready to suggest that, but you figured it out on your own. Good job!