gauges and tailights died....help!!

[templar]

ok well, my friend and I put in my new head unit. Its and Xplod 52x4 and after we got everthing installed we turned on the car and the head unit worked fine and sounded great. I also noticed that my speedo, tach, and climate lights werent lighting up. I figured that wasnt too much of a problem and we could fix it later, so I went home. On the way home, someone told me I didn't have any taillights. Not good. We found the fuse for the tailights (it was blown) and replaced it with a new fuse, but it blew again as soon as we turned on the lights. It kept blowing fuses all the way up to a 30 amp fuse. What can I do to fix this?? I need to get this taken care of asap, my friend thinks it has something to do with the dimmer switch because its not grounded, but to be honest I don't know a great deal about audio, so if anyone could help out I'd greatly appreciate it! thanks all.

[mazda_stud]

this is what happening you used the wrong ground wire, instead of the proper wire you used the dimmer wire. when you test it will show that it is a ground but when you turn on your lights it switches to pos. Causing a short and the fuse to blow. Check the fuse, I bet this is your problem. I see all the time when people bring there car to me to reinstall there deck because of this problem. Good luck!

[Maddbuck]

the two wires that used to dim the radio lights should not be hooked up (I think they are the red wires), they should be cut and taped up. if they are hooked up they blow the fuse when the lights are turned on.

[Da_Wiggy]

better yet use a wiring harness next time so you don't have to test anything

[templar]

I did use a wiring harness...what is the proper way to ground the dimmer wire??

[mazda_stud]

You don't ground the dimmer wire you don't even have the dimmer wire attached to anything unles your deck has an orange wire cominf from the back ment for the dimmer. Other wise simply just tape it up.

[templar]

we fixed it. my friend had wired my power antenna wire wrong, it all works great now.