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Hello everyone I'm new to this forum stuff so hopefully I'll be able to do this right and not annoy any one. Recently I bought my first civic, a 2003 lx sedan 5 speed, and so far love it and have no complaints except for the stock radio. So I decided to buy and install a radio for it and got a pioneer dxt-x2769ui that I got from Amazon. I installed it and had a friend of mine wire it up but that's where the problem starts. My friend said that an adapter wasn't necessary so he cut off the factory plug. So after a few hours of countless retries we couldn't get the radio to work and the wires on the plug were cut so short that I couldn't re-attach it until I was able to get a new plug from a different friend that had longer wires he said this plug came from a similar year civic. So having the new plug a bought the adapter and wires everything up matching up the colors. After wiring everything up I go turn on the car but the radio won't turn on, instead it blows the 10 amp back up fuse under the hood or sometimes the 10 amp fuse from the radio. The 7.5 amp radio fuse under the dash had blown once or twice but not as often as the other 2 fuses. I've looked online and I guess there's a shortage somewhere but I have no clue where and I made sure no wires were exposed. I'm trying to avoid paying huge money by taking it to a dealer or specialist so if someone could help that would be great! Thank you for reading all this.

P.s. All the wiring I did was a simple twisting of wires no soldering or crimping.

 
Rep Power: 244

This is completly wrong. Wires NEED to be soldered or crimped in order to have a good enough connection to transmit the power. This could be the source of your issues. Improper wiring or shorting out on something is a common issue for blowing fuses. I can't check the wires from here, maybe some pics could help determine if it's wired correctly. Was the dimmer wired up?

Don't let your first friend wire anything from now on. Using the factory wiring can be done but it is best to get an adapter.

 
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Do NOT connect any dimmer wires to anything radio....or you may be buying a gauge cluster too.

If you have it wired up now, do not turn on any lights.

 
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Yeah, gonna piggyback on all that. You don't necessarily need an adapter. Just makes it a million times easier. Solder the adapter to the pioneer harness in the comfort of the indoors then spend all of 30 minutes to take apart everything and install the new unit. And yes, for goodness sake, if you've connected the dimmer wire, don't turn your lights on.

 
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Sounds like something is shorting out. Check and make sure the hot and ground aren't switched. Also make sure there are no exposed wires touching metal and grounding.

 
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I got the adapter and because it was a nightmare trying to figure it out without it but now that I have it keeps blowing the fuses I mentioned earlier. I figure it's a short but I don't know from where and as for the dimmer wire (Orange) the harness from the radio I bought doesn't have one so it isn't connected. As for some pictures I don't really know how to post any but I twisted wires according to color then wrapped them in electrical tape.

 
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You must go by function, not color.

 
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I would actually try an replace the stock plug. But you need a wiring diagram of the radio to really diagnose.
I am guessing something got switched or a short still. twisting the wires is not recommended either, you must crimp them or solder them. make sure no wire strands are sticking out and touching other wires. Pics of the wiring might help us diagnose the issue.

Just leave the dimmer wire, you can hook it up to your dimmer switch directly if you really want it to dim.

 
Rep Power: 518

This is why you don't connect the illumination wires on a 7th gen: