Dimmer on Aftermarket Deck

[eyal8r]

Hey guys-
I just installed a Kenwood KDC-MP438U deck in my 2000 Mountaineer. Looks and sounds great! However, there is an 'illumination' wire on the wiring harness that hooks to the truck's dimmer functionality (well, that's what I believe it's supposed to do). It's a single wire and is labeled as Dimmer ground. So I hooked it up to a ground wire in the harness, however, it doesn't work. I dim the truck's interior display lights and the display on the HU doesn't do anything. What am I doing wrong here?
Thanks

 

[spotdog14]

i have been through three aftermarket head units and none of them have ever worked right with the factory dimmer. But then again it has never really bothered me either.

 

[oplitic]

the 'dimmer' and 'illumination' wires never work. I have never seen or heard of anyone getting them to work. It might have worked on older cars but definitely nothing now adays.

 

[m4dc0w]

good luck if you want to try.

2000 Ford Explorer Stereo Wiring
Constant 12V+ Light Green
Switched 12V+ Yellow/Black
Ground Black
Illumination Light Blue/Red
Dimmer n/a
Amplifier Remote Blue
Antenna Right Front
Front Speakers 5" x 7" Doors
Left Front (+) Orange/Light Green
Left Front (-) Light Blue/White
Right Front (+) Dark Green/Orange
Right Front (-) White/Light Green
Rear Speakers 5" x 7" Rear Door
Left Rear (+) Gray/Light Blue
Left Rear (-) Tan/Yellow
Right Rear (+) Orange/Red
Right Rear (-) Brown/Pink

 

[Infinity08]

Pick up the illumination/dimmer wire at the switch itself. Ford doesn't use a standard setup, and hasn't since around 98-ish.

 

[aquill1]

I just installed a pioneer h/u into my 03 mounty and the illumination/dimmer works on mine. My 01 escape worked with the old pioneer i put in there...was there a wire from the kenwood that said illumination and one for the wiring harness from the car? I left the ground/negative unhooked and only hooked up the illumination wires from the car to the headunit.

 

[corkey]

i have the top of the line Kenwood deck from about 3 years ago in my Ex,(KDC mp922), ,i have hooked that wire up to the right one,, makes little difference, i also have the KDC3022 in my fiero , same thing , no dim,
as a matter of fact i have hooked quite a few of these up, no difference in most .

my idea , and i used it , was a piece of window tint over the display , it works,,and the display doesn't get scratched,

 

[spkhone]

i've got a clarion in mine. my dimmer kinda works. when i turn the lights on, it dims the deck slightly. when i first installed it, i never bothered hooking it up. after driving in the dark with it, it was to bright. hooked it up and it was a lot better.

 

[kelly2]

illumination works fine. i hook them up all the time at work. my d3 was entirely way too bright at night without it connected and i was too lazy to manually dim the screen every night. many vehicles (including mine) don't have an illumination wire in the factory harness, only a dimmer.

Illumination = +12v when parking lights/head lights are on
Dimmer = 0-12v depending on rheostat switch, aka: dimmer knob. also when parking lights/head lights are on.

ignore negative dimmers. they have no function for any aftermarket radios. also, most radios that do have an illumination input on them only dim a bit for night driving. not changing with the dimmer knob in brightness