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Hello all,

This is my first post. I installed a new Pioneer deck in my 04 Civic EX over the weekend. The aftermarket harness I used had two plugs (the harness was adaptable to more than one car). I carelessly ended up shorting the circuit that controls the dimmer, instrument and dash lights, parking lights, and headlamp-on chime. I since fixed that problem (after a few blown fuses) and now I am confident the wiring for the deck is fine.

The problem now is that, and ONLY when the headlamp is switched on, I lose lighting for the tach, speedometer, and the dials for the heater controls. The only thing that does light up is the temp and fuel gauge, but even then, the needles for those two gauges remain unlit. The dimmer switch seems to work fine, although now it only controls the temp and fuel gauge lighting while everything else remains dark.

With the headlight switch off, the instrument cluster lights ALL light up normally, needles included. So i know this is not a bulb issue. This is what I found especially confusing.

I am not very familiar with the 7th gen civics and was hoping someone could point me in the right direction to troubleshoot this. Ideally, a circuit diagram showing the headlamp switch interacting with the dash lights and instrument cluster would be great.

Bottom line - please someone help!

thanks!

 
Rep Power: 812

well the cluster is completely LED lit, and there are no bulbs to change. so if its broke, youre prolly gonna need a new one. i would try a different cluster, i bet you blew up some internal parts of it including the dimmer switch, which acts like a pwm to dim the leds. its not quite like a normal dimmer. the dimmer circuit is not fuse protected so i suspect you caused some damage. check ebay for replacement clusters and try to find one with near the same mileage.

 
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I am confused as to why the lights on the dash including the needles come on when the light switch is off. Do they stay lit up all of the time on the 04's. I have a very similar problem on my 02, but my dash lights only come on when I turn the switch on. I burnt something up on my dash lights too installing a new head unit. I was in a rush and put the two orange wires from the wiring harness together and tied them into the cd players orange wire. Every thing was fine untill that night when I turned on my lights. I smelled the electrical burning smell and saw my dash lights getting dim. I immediately cut off the lights because I new what my error was. I pulled the small light fuse under the hood which killed the chime that comes on when key is in the ignition and lights are on. I thought this was the correct fuse to pull to prevent further damage and get home. After fixing the wiring problem my dash lights, heater control lights, and lights on the gear shifter have not worked since. The only lights that work are my gear position lights on the dash and all of my warning lights on the dash. I have searched the internet tirelessly and have not found a very direct answer. All of my fuses appear to be fine and I have tried a new dash off of a 01 civic ex, where mine is an 02. The only difference was the 01 had side airbags. When I went to plug the 01 dash up it started making a clicking sound so I immediately unplugged it and have not fully plugged it up because I don't want to cause more damage. Maybe an 02 without side airbags would be the correct part to use. I feel like the problem is in my dash. I still have the 01 dash and thought about just taking both of them to an electronics repair shop and seeing if they can identify the problem with mine and steal the part off of the 01 dash. It would take some know how and some soldering because I opened the dash and it looks like a motherboard off of a computer. If not I may just take it to the Honda dealership and hope I don't get a new one ripped.

 
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oh yea. My dimmer switch still will control the dimming of the gear lights on my dash so I don't feel like my dimmer switch is bad, at least not completely. And the bulbs may be LED's but on my dash they are all able to be removed and be replaced because I did swap the working bulbs in my gear position lights with one that was not working and had the same result. The bad position bulb worked in its new position while the previously good bulb did not work in its old position.

 
Rep Power: 308

^^^^Only later models are LED and they have 2 level settings, lights on lights off. 01 and 02 are bulbs.

Although I find it odd your gear indicator lights will still dim (assuming you are talking about the ones in the cluster) I think you have damaged in some way your dimmer circuit.

I would try what Gearbox said and swap the dimmer unit from your new cluster.

 
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Cool I figured there was a difference in the year models as far as the light bulbs. Yea everybody kept saying dimmer switch circuit. Mine does dim the gear lights in the cluster.
The problem with trying to switch just the dimmer unit is it is built into the dash like a circuit board. It would take some cutting and soldering. If I can find a new dash at another junk yard that is off of a model like mine I will try that too.

 
Rep Power: 0

I had almost the same problem on my 02 civic after installing a Pioneer. I just found the bulbs on either Majestic Honda, or South Bay Honda's site, they added up to maybe a couple of bucks, and added those to some other stuff I needed so the shipping charge didn't feel too outrageous. But that fixed the black spots I had in my instrument cluster.

 
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Update:

Removed the speedo cluster and popped out the back cover to reveal the circuit board. Staring me in the face was a blown/snapped connection on the board. I reconnected the circuit by soldering a thin piece of wire onto the copper film and sure enough, problem is fixed.

 
Rep Power: 812

nice! glad to hear it was easy fix.