Any input on this?

I was installing radar detector to mirror wires. May have jumped wires together with wire stripper.
Dash gauges, cluster, and mirror are all out.

Drove it fine to friends house and then the battery died.
Autozone check showed no error codes. Checked battery and it was bad.
Checked alternater and it showed a max of 20 amps and leveled off at about 12 amps.

New battery is in already. When I replace the alternater should this solve the problem of drivability? Or could there be a short or something that could damage the new battery and alternater?

Also I've checked all the 10,15, and 20 fuses in the 2 boxes by the battery as well as in the kick panel inside of the car. None were blown. Any idea where I need to be looking to fix the dash and mirror problem?

Thanks!
Rob

 

It sounds like you have a short somewhere...a bad battery/alternator wouldn't specifically target your dash/gauges/mirror to go out (it would make everything go out together).

Where were you tapping into the car to power the radar detector? (btw: does the radar have power?)

 

I was peeling back the insulation on the wires that go to the mirror. Black with the red tracer and the black ground wire. I think that the wire stripper may have touched both wires at the same time and caused the problem....or possible when I was stripping the wires the force could have pulled them loose from something up in the headliner??

Is there a specific fuse or relay that I can check for these items?

Would this short cause both my battery and alternater to go bad?

Radar detector is not hooked up as the mirror has no power now...

 

ttt