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No dimmer lead on headunit

Steenbag

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August 26, 2009
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2000 Mountaineer
Hey, I just got a new head unit (Clarion FZ409). The wiring harness from the truck has an orange 'illumination' lead, and an orange/black 'dimmer' lead. However, the radio only has one orange/white lead labelled 'illumination'. Should I just connect the car's dimmer lead to chasis ground, tape over it, or should I not connect either lead?

Thanks,
Andrew
 






orange to the orange/white, tape the orange/black up and leave it unused
 






I dont know if you ahve dont this yet, but DO NOT tape the orange and orange white together. One is dimmer and the other is illumination and the orange black is a dimmer ground.

If you connect the orange and orange-white together you will loose control of the dimmer switch (to adjust how dim the lights are on the dash). It will back feed the 12 volt into the dimmer wire. The dimmer wire adjusts the voltage with the roller switch, the illumination wire is a straight 12 volt when the lights are on.

So if your new radio does not have either a orange or orange-white just tape off the wires seperately on the car side.
 






I had already done all the soldering connecting the two wiring harnesses together. After you posted that, I went out and checked, but I still have full dimmer control of the truck's dash/message center. The headunit doesn't dim, but I wasn't really expecting that.
 






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