I recently installed a new HD stereo in my '98 Civic, and the dash lights no longer work. I have the system hooked up with the stock stereo hidden in the dash with only the ground and two power wires connected to it. The wireless remote and dome light still work.

From what I can find out online and from my Hanes manual, the red and red/black wires that connect to the stock stereo power the dashboard lights. After rigging up the red & red/black wires into the stock stereo adapter, the dash lights still don't come on. Checked the fuse, and no luck. All the other lights on that circuit work fine.

Any ideas? After searching through the forums, I'm still stumped.

 

Check whether fuse 30 is blown.

If the fuse is fine, troubleshoot the dash lights brightness controller:

 

I actually had the same problem and tried changing the actual bulb and had no luck

 

I checked the fuse that goes into the dash lights with no luck. I'll double-check when I get home if that is fuse #30.

 

Make sure you spliced the dim/illum wires in the deck right? It should be an orange wire, i believe

 

The two dimmer wires are red & red/black. I have no place to attach them in the new deck. I COULD attach them to the old deck, but jerry-rigging an attachment to the hidden (stock) deck hasn't worked so far, and the next thing I'm going to try is to reattach the old deck and see if the instrument lights work again. If they don't, then I buggered something further up the line and I'm probably SOL.

 

Check fuses dude...check backup fuses too

 

I have the same problem with my 04 civic in which the dash lights turn off everytime I turn on my head lights. Luckily it wasn't my fault. I took it into circuit city to have my head unit installed with a dimmer and they spliced the wrong wires together. Anyways to make a long story short i had to take back to honda which ended up costing me a lil over a thousand to get it fixed. However, circuit city's insurance said they will cover all charges, just that i have to pay up front first... still sucks thou...