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I have a 2004 Civic EX and the three buttons on the left of the steering wheel (Cruise control, moon roof control, and mirror control) and on the right side below the air controls (Rear window defrost, A/C, and Recirc) do not light up. If I press the cruise control or defrost buttons, the main LED lights up indicating its on, but other than those lights, I cannot see the buttons at night. I bought the car last year and figured it was meant to be that way for some reason and never gave it a second thought, but now I'm wondering if its a fuse or something? I looked over some diagrams but Im not sure which to look at. Anyone know? Any help is appreciated.

 
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Hey, have the same problem. Anyone??

 
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"Small lights" fuse in under hood box.

If this followed a head unit install check your illumination connectionsmade or fuse may continue to open & also may damage the cluster.

 
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This seems to be happening to a lot of honda owners.

I installed a headunit into my 2002 Honda Civic EX Coupe. DID NOT CONNECT ANY DIMMER WIRES. However, I also did not tape them off.

I turned on my car during the day, head unit worked, cigarette lighter worked.

I go out at night, turn on the head unit, plug in my charger to the cigarette lighter and then turn the lights on with the stick on the left of the steering wheel.

Smoke comes out of the steering column (burnt wire smell). I turn everything off.

I reset the head unit and it is ok. I turn on the headlights, they are ok. The tail lights are also ok. Just the dash lights don't work.

I tested all of the fuses, they are all ok, but interior under the steering column and exterior under the hood.

My last resort was to purchase another stick assembly for the lights to change the one on the steering column. I guessed that it was this circuit due to the smoke coming from there.

I saw another post where someone mentions having to change out the whole spedometer cluster, but I am hoping to avoid this.

Anyone with advice, history, ideas, it would be helpful.

My best.

 
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The dimmer circuit is inside the cluster, some have reported repairing the damaged PCB trace on the dimmer portion itself.

 
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I just installed a new combination switch on the left side of the steer column, hoping my short was there. Unfortunately, still no dash lights. I am fearing that I will have to find the wire for the dash lights and trace its short/burnout. Anyone know which color it is in the steering harness wiring?

 
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Just had the same problem installing a HU in my 02 LX Sedan. I didn't connect any of the illumination wires, but it still managed to short the #2 fuse under hood (small light, 15a). It's pretty much taken out every dash light in my car, including speedometer. It's a little freaky driving at night by feel, taking sharp exits on the freeway at the speed you THINK is correct. It's fun because you just keep pushing a little harder every time, but I can see the downside to all this. Fun things never end well.

What I've noticed after taking out my HU and checking the wires is that although the illumination lights (orange wires) in the car's original harness aren't connected to the deck in any way, it is connected to the aftermarket harness--which has exposed orange wires on the other end. I managed to get the dash lights working after tying those up (but not trimming it) and replacing fuse #2. Today, the lights went out again, what fun. So right after parking my car I pulled out the HU again and just trimmed the damn wires. Next step is to Kragen for the spare fuses.

Are your wires exposed? Could it be a bad ground from the HU install that's shorting out your lights?

 
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The factory wire colors used are RED/BLK it is a voltage source from the taillight relay and supplies voltage to the cluster dimmer circuit, iirc it is also present in the audio harness.

The factory wire color after the cluster dimmer circuit is RED It is used along with the RED/BLK for all of the "dimmable" bulbs.

If your small lights fuse is open you won't have tail/licence & marker lights as a result.

 
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Hey everyone,

So I went through and replaced all of my fuses = nothing.

I checked the tail lights, they work.

I tried the new combo switch = nothing.

I am going to kill myself, but I think my last option is honda service. They will charge me $50 to look at it and then probably $500 to fix it.

My conclusion is that my dimmer wires got exposed and touched one another on the back of the HU. When I got in at night and turned the dimmer **** on the stick, it overran the wiring and burnt it out from the combo switch to the gauge lights. They are going to have to rewire I bet and I am going to kill myself.