240sx Electrical problems with tail, dash, and interior lighting

[leroiboy]

Hello all, i recently purchased an '89 240sx coupe. i have read various threads concerning this problem, but no mentioned soulutions have either worked or been my culprit. My headlights work but the tail lights and dash lights do not. I have a new headlight switch. The fuses are good. No bare wires touching or grounding out behind stereo. The little white box behind the fuse box is also good. Does anyone else know what my problem is?? Also, does anyone know the exact wire on the gauge cluster wires that actually is responsible for the illumination of the gauges? And finally, is there a way to hotwire at least the tail lights(if not also the dash lights) so all systems are working properly? thanx for any help!

[martins_240sx]

I bet its a grounded wire....Look closer behind the stereo... mine were pretty much soddered to a ground at the back of the space near the fire wall

[leroiboy]

ok, do you mean just a wire grounded to the chassis?- because the guy i bought the car from spliced into the harness and wired up his cd player and used a normal wire bolted to the chassis as the ground for the stereo, and i used it as well when i hooked mine up. Would this be what you are talking about??

P.S.-if this is my problem(hoping and praying you say yes...), which wire in the chassis harness serves as the ground or how would i create my own without any further harm? Thanks alot and waiting for anymore helpful replies.

[martins_240sx]

wow i dont know? But never trust another mans work if you dont know them....I would take eveything apart and redo the wiring...as for those grounds behind the stereo....i believe they are for the stereo, but mine had a aftermarket stereo also....just make sure nothing is grounded out. dig around up there and make sure there are no disconnected wires....I know how crazy you must be feeling with these wires but the answer is somewhere down there....I couldnt sleep good at night till I found my problems solution...It took a few weeks for me.

[amolao]

If I was you:

Check all fuses....Check all fuses (again)...Remove CD player and secure all bare wires (temporarily...)Check fuses...Check cluster and brake lights for operation.If OK, reinstall CD player correctly. You are done.If no OK, you have wires still disconnected or the a bad cluster, possibly from the rewiring of the radio harness and that's killing your illumination path. You also want to check the little white box in drivers side behind bottom panel, I know it affects the gauge lights. Check the FAQ for troubleshooting steps.

[leroiboy]

hey folks, i really do appreciate all of your help and tips. unfortuanately, none of these suggestions have SEEMED to be the problem in my car. today, i checked the cluster wire harnesses and the cluster itself for power to all of the illumination paths on the back-they all have fire- so why are the bulbs not lighting up?? if you guys could please help me solve this one, i would finally be able to see my instrumentation at night...thanx alot.

p.s.-if all else fails i now know how to tie into my headlight swith to get the tail lights working, but please help me with the gauges...

[amolao]

unhook your gauge cluster and check your tails .....is you have taillights, then your cluster is bad, possibly from the CD miswiring....then you will need a working cluster.

[margro165]

this is where to start. start from the tail lights tear out the trunk. remove the lights. check the wires from all the light. get a test light or a digital multi meter. and see if it is getting 12v. if not check the bulbs are making contact. if not. remove all panels along the drives door. and keep testing the wire. if half way up and your getting nutin u got a bad wire and you will have to rewire the whole thing. if you need to contact me. email me and i will give you the number to my car shop.and you can contact me..

[carcrazyguy]

I also just bought another 240SX - which I am regretting a little. This one will take a LOT of work to straighten out, but I felt bad for the car and bought it hoping to save it.The deal was this was a "kids car". Not to offend anyone here as I have noticed most 240 owners are 16 these days, but then again, I buy a lot of cars and you would not believe the difference between a 16-19 year old's car and anyone over 25. Heck, there is no way I would want to buy my own car from when I was 16! Nothing personal, just reality.

Anyway, this one is typical with a poorly installed stereo, dash harness hacked off (instead of using a $4 harness?) wires going everywhere in view, lots of tape and coat hanger rigged stuff.

This car had the EXACT same symptoms you mention, more less. What I did was pull everything - as far as the former stereo equipment goes and didn't leave a single wire. Then I made sure that every wire from the stereo area was cleanly cut and not touching each other. Then I pulled every fuse one by one and looked at them really well - and even ran a continuity test on any of them I was not 100% sure about. I found 3 blown fuses and replaced them. Also I made sure every fuse was properly seated.

Now my interior lights are working, as well as the seatbelts, and even the digital speedometer which was not working before.This whole process took about 15 minutes and is something I would recommend for ANY car you just got. For that matter, any wiring done that is not factory I typically remove - and only redo when necessary.

Even if you plan to do a stereo yourself (yikes, in most cases), don't trust previous work...or at least I don't since I have been a MECP installer for over a decade and see some crazy **** on probably 60% of every previous install I see.

Hope that helps.

[amolao]

Excellent advice.....ALWAYS check the fuses...

and you know what? Even without a radio harness, a radio install should not be a complex high tech operation. Gosh! is only a few wires and they are labeled.... But some people are just not technically inclined....

[carcrazyguy]

Excellent advice...and you know what? Even without a radio harness, a radio install should not be a complex high tech operation. Gosh! is only a few wires and they are labeled.... But some people are just not technically inclined....

You would be suprised how many cars I see that have the original harness hacked off with many wires left open. Rarely do I see previous work using the "wrap and tape" method where some of the tape or the wires themselves are not coming loose even over short periods of time. For that matter the car I just bought had no tape at all, just wrapped wires and all unused wires were hanging free!I cannot understand why anyone would do that! Anyone so inexperienced should have enough sense to shell out the measly $20 that any decent "ma and pa" stereo shop would charge for a simple deck install - as is the case with a 240 since it doesn't require a kit or more than 20 minutes labor since the deck is so easy to remove.

For anyone out there that doesn't know, you can get a Nissan type I harness for under $10 even from Wal Mart or Auto Zone, much less on Ebay for maybe $7 total, shipped - and they are $3.74 at my cost.With the adapter harness, as you also mention, they are color coordinated so all someone has to do is simply match the colors and use butt connectors. BTW, please people, don't wrap and tape wires! Butt connectors are easier to use and if put on correctly will stay forever. If you are really advanced, you can solder and use shrink wrap, but butt connectors work fine and are cheap.

For that matter, people can go to their local Circuit City and get Smart harnesses (that is all I would ever get there!) Anyway, the Smart Harnesses have the cars connectors on one end and mainstream deck harnesses on the other. With this there is no wiring work - simply plug and play. You can also find these on Ebay too. Sure, these are a little high...usually about $15-20, but well worth it.

BTW, sorry to stray from the original thread...BTW, I also meant to check and potentially remove any wiring that was not original. Look for custom lighting, fuse splicing, aftermarket horns, etc, and look for the most dreaded thing inexperienced people do - stuff wired straight to the battery (other than a proper amp wire / fuseblock).However, if your car has an aftermarket alarm or remote starter, that is a different ballgame. You will definately want to consult a pro on that one as these are typically heavily integrated into the pre-existing wiring.

[leroiboy]

thanks everyone for all of your help. still though, none of the previous solutions have solved my mystery. i have since gotten the tail lights working normally. but the gauge lights are killing me. what i found with my multimeter was that all the circuitry and bulbs on my cluster were getting around 11.24-11.34 volts BUT, the illumination bulbs and circuitry are only getting give or take 9.20 volts. i can see the difference in the light emmittance between the two values. im going to take a chance and say this is my problem...but why?? and how would i fix it-and where to start?? all help once again is needed and so very welcome. thanx a mil in advance

[leroiboy]

i forgot to mention, i did this test with the lights on

[burntricer]

im in the EXACT same boat, im about to go check my stereo, im going to keep watching this for a solution

[burntricer]

well its not my stereo, everything is perfectly soldered and taped off appropriatley, i checked the cluster and had no tail lights...im stumped...

[leroiboy]

alright. i found my problem with the gauge lighting. one side of the circuitry where the bulb connects is hot and the other is ground. for some reason, mine was hot on both sides. i disconnected the wire that is supposed to be the ground for illumination(you can see it on the back of the cluster) and made sure it was a ground by grounding it myself. you can do this or run jumper wires from the ground screws on the cluster as well. hope this helps ya. as for the tail lights, i ended up wiring mine straight from the back of the car directy into the headlight switch on the steering wheel. i do though, have one more problem--now my fuel gauge is acting funny-floating and stuff. i checked and nothing is crossed or touching and the connection is good. what could this be and can it be reset any type of way or anything?? help me out once again guys and girls and thank you for all of your help with this topic

[burntricer]

alright. i found my problem with the gauge lighting. one side of the circuitry where the bulb connects is hot and the other is ground. for some reason, mine was hot on both sides. i disconnected the wire that is supposed to be the ground for illumination(you can see it on the back of the cluster) and made sure it was a ground by grounding it myself. you can do this or run jumper wires from the ground screws on the cluster as well. hope this helps ya. as for the tail lights, i ended up wiring mine straight from the back of the car directy into the headlight switch on the steering wheel. i do though, have one more problem--now my fuel gauge is acting funny-floating and stuff. i checked and nothing is crossed or touching and the connection is good. what could this be and can it be reset any type of way or anything?? help me out once again guys and girls and thank you for all of your help with this topic

im in for pics on that, i very well may just run wires myself, were your brakelights working??

[carcrazyguy]

alright. i found my problem with the gauge lighting. one side of the circuitry where the bulb connects is hot and the other is ground. for some reason, mine was hot on both sides. i disconnected the wire that is supposed to be the ground for illumination(you can see it on the back of the cluster) and made sure it was a ground by grounding it myself. you can do this or run jumper wires from the ground screws on the cluster as well. hope this helps ya. as for the tail lights, i ended up wiring mine straight from the back of the car directy into the headlight switch on the steering wheel. i do though, have one more problem--now my fuel gauge is acting funny-floating and stuff. i checked and nothing is crossed or touching and the connection is good. what could this be and can it be reset any type of way or anything?? help me out once again guys and girls and thank you for all of your help with this topic

Wow, that is some odd stuff. I guess if you plan at any point to make everything right, you could simply buy another cluster...you can probably get one very cheap on Ebay - for that matter, I probably have an one from my last visit to the pick and pull (they have 8 S13's).With the tailights, I would remove the plastic assemblies that house the bulbs and test voltage at the hanesses that remain. If everything is all good there, then the most common problem are loose grounds on the bulb panel, and second are deteriorated contacts in the bulb holders. Either way, for a couple more bucks, you could easily pick up a pair of panels.If the voltage is not getting to the hanesses at all, then look at fuses and similar in all locations, and test them at the fuse too.If you fuel gauge started acting funny after you made the new ground then that is likely the issue. The whole illumination system is a strange bird in itself and is actually relatively complex, so your best bet is to get a good replacement cluster, if you truly believe that to be suspect.

[burntricer]

so i replaced the TCM but now im popping fuses in the headlights....hrmmm

i have now pulled the deck out and disconnected it... i have brake lights just no tails...
Modified by burntricer at 9:23 AM 1/3/2007

[theboz]

I had a 90 coupe that had tail problems. Turns out that there are wires that are screwed down to the taillight themselves. They were attached but not on tight enough to make a good connection. When i stepped on the brakes everything worked. But my tail lights didn't. Also I had dash light problems once too. There is a Fuse under the hood on the box on the passenger side. It is an 80 amp fuse I believe. I am in Iraq and can't go check my car to tell you for sure. My alternator was going bad and it messed up the fuse. Didn't break the metal strip it just got so hot the plastic on the fuse melted and got soft. I changed this out and everything worked fine. I hope any of this helps and I hope you got it fixed already.

BoZ