1990 Nissan 240sx S13 Dash/Rear Running Lights Problem

[jyu]

Hey guys, so I've never had an issue with my lights ever on my 240 until I got an aftermarket stereo installed professionally and now it seems that my dash lights don't wanna light up, and my rear running lights don't either. Headlights work fine, high beam and low beam, brake lights work fine.

Now here’s the odd thing, when the car is off, no key in the ignition and I press down on the brake pedal my brake lights come on? I don’t and wouldn’t know much about how they wired the stereo but I just found this out because I haven’t night time driven until last night.

I checked the fuses, 15A Stop Lamp was burned out replaced that and replaced the 15A Tail Lamp to the fuses that light up when they blow but still nothing coming from the rear running lights or dash lights. Any possible solutions would be great. Thanks guys.

[PapaSmurf2k3]

The HVAC lights going out is normal. I'd say damn near every S13 by this point has them burned out. Are the speedometer lights out as well?
Brake lights are supposed to come on when you hit the brake pedal, regardless of if the key is in the ignition or not.
Can you elaborate as to what you mean by rear running lights? Are you talking about tail lights (like when the headlights or parking lights are on)?

[jyu]

The HVAC lights going out is normal. I'd say damn near every S13 by this point has them burned out. Are the speedometer lights out as well?
Brake lights are supposed to come on when you hit the brake pedal, regardless of if the key is in the ignition or not.
Can you elaborate as to what you mean by rear running lights? Are you talking about tail lights (like when the headlights or parking lights are on)?

Okay cool to know that it's common. As for what you said no lights come on on the dash at all and yes the taillights running lights wont come on as well. Weird thing is is that my headlights and brake lights work fine.

[PapaSmurf2k3]

Might just be the bulbs all around. I think the tail lights/brake bulbs are dual filament or something, but yeah its odd that they'd all go out at once.

Do the parking lights work fine?

[jyu]

Parking lights out to ^^ forgot to mention. I guess tomorrow I'll have to go change the bulbs and see if that works. I've looked further into it and came up with possibly the TCU fried when the stereo was wired up but I can't really see that making any sense.

[MikeRL411]

So much for "professional stereo installers"! Having a screwdriver and a pair of coveralls does NOT make him or her a professional! It just means that her or she passed the urine test on a day that the shop was short handed.

[jyu]

So much for "professional stereo installers"! Having a screwdriver and a pair of coveralls does NOT make him or her a professional! It just means that her or she passed the urine test on a day that the shop was short handed.

Hahaha no doubt there. I guess a 5 star and highly recommended car audio installation shop in my town can't be trusted. I took a look behind there today and it was not good. They spliced my climate control wire and a couple others. I was able to fix the problem by grounding the red wire with yellow stripe which I found as a solution on an older post on here. It also fried my Timing Control Unit, found one at a junkyard. Replaced some fuses and done, fixed just like that. That stereo place deserves a 11/10 100 percent would go back.

[PapaSmurf2k3]

Yeah when you mentioned the other stuff is out as well, it made me think fuse.

So everything works now? Care to post a link to the thread you found that helped you fix it in case someone finds this thread in a search in the future?

[jyu]

Everything works great now and absolutely.

http://www.nicoclub.com/archives/fix-fo ... ights.html

This was my problem ^ Definitely a step to check if anyone is experiencing this as well. Worked awesome for me just had to replace fuse 15A Stop Lamp and 15A Tail Lamp after replacing my TCU.

[PapaSmurf2k3]

Thanks!! Glad it all worked out.

[jyu]

Thanks!! Glad it all worked out.

No problem man. Hope it helps the next person that runs into this crap! Once again thanks for your help to yet another problem I've had with my S13 that I couldn't figure out without a little research.