Yay, Electrical!

[CamWeiss]

Okay, I've gone and fried something.

Last weekend, I was doing some re-routing of wires for my satellite radio. While I was at it, I pulled power from the backside of the cigarette lighter, instead of having it plugged in the topside.

Somewhere along the line (I'm sure it was while I was connecting power for the satellite, as I went to the backlight first before switching to the lighter positive), I disabled my interior power when switched from the headlights. The stereo, dash and guage backlighting, and the nice beeeeeeeeep sound that I get whenever I leave my lights on with the keys out and door open are now not working correctly.

I recieve power as normal when I've got the key turned to the first or second position, but I should also have power when the parking or headlights are on.

I'm stumped... The headlights work. but (the switch) won't power anything but the headlights anymore.

Anyone have any ideas?

[Mark Guthrie]

check all fuses?

[CamWeiss]

I have visually checked all fuses, in cabin and underhood - I'll go verify their continuity with a multimeter right now.

[Mark Guthrie]

ya ive done that before just pulled them out and looked at them they look fine, but not, multimeter or power probe is a good way to check

[Chad Giffen]

Cam I remember having this exact same problem in my 94 1.8L when I was powering some aftermarket gauges.

I too pulled power from the lighter positive (blue and white) and the same thing happened I think? so hard to remeber for sure.

Anyways, when in doubt, simply undo what was done and start again. Reconnect the wires you severed. I think it had to do with the lighter ground sharing a ground with the ACC circuit which you then altered by cutting it. Did you splice into the lighter wire or cut it all together and ground manually?

[CamWeiss]

Okay, problem solved.

I dug out the meter, and checked every fuse in the car for continuity - There was a fuse out in the engine bay that was done (though visually looked fine).

For the record, your dash lights, lighter, stereo, etc. are powered by the circuit for the tail lights.

(Chad, I did cut the wires, but I also reconnected them as-stock with the satellite wires in the same connector. I used female quickconnects, with are essentially the same as the OEM connector.)