# HUD light problem



## GnuVince (Mar 25, 2004)

Hi all,

first, let it be said that I'm a total ignorant when it comes to cars and mechanic.

With that out of the way, let me get to my problem.

I own a Nissan Sentra XE 94. Last night, I went over to a friend's whose dad is a mechanic to replace my stereo. The process took some time, but eventually we got it, the stereo plays just fine. When I left the place, I realized that the lights that show my speed-meter, gas-meter and heat-meter plus the heating/cooling controls were off. I tried playing with the brightness knob, but it didn't work. I figure something must have happened during the installation of the new stereo.

- I know there was a wire we could not figure out what it did, so we just let it hang in there. Are the display lights connected to the stereo?

- Is it a fuse that might have grilled? If so, which one is it?

If you have any suggestions, ideas, advices, etc. please share them with me.

Thank you,
Vince.


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## Red_Coupe (Mar 20, 2003)

> When I left the place, I realized that the lights that show my speed-meter, gas-meter and heat-meter plus the heating/cooling controls were off.


did the lights work before this?



> there was a wire we could not figure out what it did, so we just let it hang in there.


what is the color of the wire? and did you use a manual to wire in the stereo?



> . Are the display lights connected to the stereo?


not to my knowledge.

did you r friend check to see if he fried anything?


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## Sethticlees (May 30, 2002)

Did your installer use a hiring harness? They make stereo installs clean and easy.

It's true, the stock stereo has the dimmer switch hooked up. So when you dimm the interior lights the stereo lights dimm as well. Probably that wire you had no use for.

My recommendation is check your fuses. Fuse panel is under the dashboard driver side under the mirror&dimmer switches.
I’d suggest you pull each one 1 at a time and check. 

Hey wait! I got it... It's the defrost/hazards buttons. Pull the dash and make sure the defrost and hazard buttons got plugged back in. They probably got missed in the reassembly.
:dumbass: 

LOL, I did that too, once.

good luck


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## GnuVince (Mar 25, 2004)

red_devil said:


> did the lights work before this?


Yes they did.



> what is the color of the wire? and did you use a manual to wire in the stereo?


Big black wire if I recall correctly. It's a second hand Sentra, so I don't have the owner's manual. We used the stereo's manual though. To find which wires did what, we used some sensor thing that lit up when we touched wires. That way we found the ground and the power wires. We then figured which wire was the memory wire and we found the speaker wires by checking in the doors and in the trunk.




> did you r friend check to see if he fried anything?


No he didn't, I realized when I left. When I came home I quickly checked some fuses (electronics, anything with 'light' and the one labeled 'meter'). But none of them worked




> Hey wait! I got it... It's the defrost/hazards buttons. Pull the dash and make sure the defrost and hazard buttons got plugged back in. They probably got missed in the reassembly.


No, we did plug them back, we checked it out before I left.



> It's true, the stock stereo has the dimmer switch hooked up. So when you dimm the interior lights the stereo lights dimm as well. Probably that wire you had no use for.


Yeah, that's true, I remember that.



> My recommendation is check your fuses. Fuse panel is under the dashboard driver side under the mirror&dimmer switches.
> I’d suggest you pull each one 1 at a time and check.


Okay, I'll go give all the fuses a try. If that doesn't work, I guess we could give the wire a try. I am pretty sure there is no place to plug it on my new stereo, so where/how would I plug it?

Many thanks to you both.

Vince.


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## GnuVince (Mar 25, 2004)

Okay, I went to check that unplugged wire: big and black. If it is indeed the dimmer wire, is it the wire that takes juice from the board and gives light to the old stereo or does it take its juice from the radio and sends it to the board? Because in the former case, that would really make it useless.


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## ballisticc (Aug 28, 2003)

sounds like the ground wire. Same thing happened in my b14. nissan radios aren't automatically grounded, so you have to wire the ground up to something behind the dash. Your lights should come back on. You may need to change the fuse first, It is connected to the tailight wiring. Fuse should be under the dash.


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## GnuVince (Mar 25, 2004)

ballisticc said:


> sounds like the ground wire. Same thing happened in my b14. nissan radios aren't automatically grounded, so you have to wire the ground up to something behind the dash.


We used the wires that were already there with the old stereo (we plugged the new ones to the old ones): is it safe to assume that it's already grounded? The stereo works fine by the way.



> Your lights should come back on. You may need to change the fuse first, It is connected to the tailight wiring. Fuse should be under the dash


Tail light, got it, thanks a lot, I will definitly give that a try.


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## pyrocrickett (Jun 12, 2003)

Same thing happened to me when I (and a knowlegeable friend) replaced my OEM stereo, but we had the good fortune to notice that the new stereo (as well as the "HUD" lights) didn't work when the ground wire wasn't connected to anything. All you have to do is connect the ground wire to any metal part of the Nissan, since the whole frame is grounded. We put the wire in one of the frame's screwholes and secured it with the screw (if that makes any sense in words). Hope that helps!


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## djmamayek (Aug 26, 2003)

pyrocrickett said:


> Same thing happened to me when I (and a knowlegeable friend) replaced my OEM stereo, but we had the good fortune to notice that the new stereo (as well as the "HUD" lights) didn't work when the ground wire wasn't connected to anything. All you have to do is connect the ground wire to any metal part of the Nissan, since the whole frame is grounded. We put the wire in one of the frame's screwholes and secured it with the screw (if that makes any sense in words). Hope that helps!



The same thing happened to me when I replaced the stereo in my 95 Tsi, it turned out to be the dimmer switch that wound up shot. Cheap to replace, tough to diagnose.


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## GnuVince (Mar 25, 2004)

Okay, so I changed the Tail Light fuse with a brand new one, but still nothing. So now, what can I do? Here's a little summary

- Changed the car stereo (new stereo works great) and since then, dimmer display lights do not work anymore
- One wire behind the stereo is unconnected (which I think is okay)
- The taillight fuse has been changed as suggested, but this did not work.

SO now, what?


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## GnuVince (Mar 25, 2004)

djmamayek said:


> The same thing happened to me when I replaced the stereo in my 95 Tsi, it turned out to be the dimmer switch that wound up shot. Cheap to replace, tough to diagnose.


By dimmer switch, you mean that knob you can turn left and right to control the brightness, right? So it might have fried you think?


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## HATEnFATE (Dec 24, 2002)

GnuVince said:


> By dimmer switch, you mean that knob you can turn left and right to control the brightness, right? So it might have fried you think?


Thats what I was going to suggest...happened in my DSM.


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## fatboypup (Oct 3, 2003)

never *never* wire the ILUM or DIM wires on a head unit.. LoL most of the time they only cause problems, check your fuses, I blew one on my headunit / EQ install.


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## Rittmeister (Jun 29, 2002)

When the dash lights went out on my B13 it was the dimmer switch - little rotary knob left of the wheel that brightens/darkens the backlighting. Without it nothing works.


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## djmamayek (Aug 26, 2003)

HATEnFATE said:


> Thats what I was going to suggest...happened in my DSM.



Damn Dsm's...


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