Rep Power: 0

Hey guys. Great forum here, anyway.

My sister just recently sold her car, she had a stereo in it that she had no use for, handed it off to me. The stock stereo in the Civic ain't the best, so I told her I'd take it. Now, I live in a reletivly small town, and there really aren't any big name companies/places around where I could take the car in to get the stereo installed.

I heard of this place that has a great reputation and also has had many happy customers, some of which are friends of mine, they've said they've had no problems whatsoever with this place.

So I take my car there to get them to install the stereo for me. $35 bucks to get them to do that, so why not, they have a good reputation, haven't heard any complaints, plus, how hard is it for them to install a stereo, right? Wrong.

So the other day I leave my sisters house, I pull out of the driveway, and smoke starts to come out of the little area above the vents on the main center part above the stereo. I turn the car off, and wonder what the heck just happened. I smell burnt wire/rubber. This was mid day, and I never really noticed anything that was wrong, the stereo still worked, so I knew I had to get it checked out by this place that installed it. So the next day I have to go to the hospital because my moms in there, so I never get a chance to go back to this place.

Fast forward to yesterday. I go to go over there, I drive up. Theres a big "FOR LEASE" sign on the lawn with the doors covered with chains and says "CLOSED". I'm thinking what the ****? So I have no idea what to do.

So tonight I go to go out, start the car, everythings fine, turn my lights on.... BAM, NO dash lights at all. None of the lights on the dashboard (speedometer, fuel, temp ect) are on or working. Same with the lights around the stereo and for the heat/ac. So I have no idea what the heck happend, and it just happens that this place goes out of business and theres no sign of where they went.

So for you guys. Just wondering, what could have happend? What is the solution to this? Is it going to cost me a crap ton of money to get this fixed?

Any help would be greatly appreciated. Thanks.

 
Rep Power: 308

Sounds like the illumination connections made to the head unit are not correct and damaged the dimmer control circuit located inside the cluster.

 
Rep Power: 388

That sucks man, so how many days was it between your install and when you finally got a chance to go back?

I would pull the stereo out, disconnect the plugs, and see if it still happens, and if it does, where it comes from. I'd also check all my fuses, in the engine bay and under the dash to make sure nothing is missing, and they are all in working order.

 
Rep Power: 0

Thanks for that, is there any cheaper way to get this solved? Well, anyway to get this fixed that's reasonable?

Yeah dude, I pulled the stereo out, disconnected it all. I checked the fuses, they're all perfectly fine. But yeah, no matter what I do the lights will not come on. It's pretty crappy. I had to go out and buy a light to have go on there so I can atleast see the speedometer and everything.

And it was about 3 days inbetween install and the time I went back.

 
Rep Power: 308

Some have said that they were able to open the cluster and locate & repair a damaged circuit board trace (your results may vary)