Never thought I would have to say this, but I am stuck. I have installed head units/subs/amps in BMWs, Acuras, Mitsubishis, etc.. but there is something about this Z. When I first got it, I put a Pioneer cd player in and it worked perfectly. Well I got an Alpine after that and I just now got another Alpine (DVD player) and have experienced the same problem. I know for a fact everything in the harness is wired correctly, but when I turn the key, nothing on the dash comes on (head unit included). The needles for the tach & speedo don't move, nothing.. This happened last time and I took it to SoundsGreat to get it fixed. I checked the fuses under the hood and the audio fuse was blown, so I replaced it. Still no. Checked the fuse on the yellow power wire in the harness.. worked. I don't understand what could possibly be doing this I also checked the fuses beside the clutch pedal and they all seemed fine.

This confuses me to the point of anger almost .. Can someone please offer suggestions!

-E

 

Well there's obviously a fuse blown somewhere if the dash is not working. You will probably need to check more than just the audio related ones.

 

check the battery connection and the connection from the battery to the fuse block

 

well if the car starts then ur battery connections are good. Check the fuses under the hood and then under the dash. Im preety sure its just a fuse thats blown, given that u said that the old CD player worked fine!

 

A fuse seems like the only possible answer, but like I said, I checked all the fuses under the hood and inside the car by the clutch pedal and replaced the burned out Radio fuse under the hood. I know the battery connections are good, i'm not worried about that. Does anyone know which fuse controls lighting up of the Instrument Panel? The ABS and TCS lights come on, but the needles don't work and the background isn't illuminated..

 

somewhere must be shorted out, i had the same problem on my acura few years ago, but can't recll it right now

 

yeah, i know its not the actual head unit that isn't working because the whole instrument panel is not working. just gotta find where it is shorted out. is there another fuse like on a main power wire somewhere inside the dash that could have shorted out maybe?

 

ok so i feel stupid now i figured it out!

 

And it was?

 

Fuses 19, 6, and 14 all feed the combination meter. You could do the same damage by disconnecting the ground wire up behind the triple meter on the left-hand side just behind the trip computer gauge.

 

yeah it was fuses apparently the fuse checker i had didn't work so i went through by hand and checked them all =)

 

are you still blowing fuses though?

 

nah im good now. this was just another one of those learning experiences. sometimes it takes failure to gain knowledge i suppose