I just bought a 2003 F150, wired up the harness and I'm getting no dash illumination at all. Everyhting is hooked up properly and I cannot figure this out. Help!

 

I'm guessing you popped a fuse. Since you used a harness are you sure you wired up boths sides correctly? I think there is a dimmer wire in the batch for some headunits you maybe got that one switched around with something else.

 

well, I check all the fuses. there were 2 that were bad and I changed them. still nothing. I have an alpine head unit and the orange wires that are the illumination wires are hooked to the 2 orange wire coming out of the harness I bought. is there something I'm forgetting?

 

Is the head unit working and just not lighting up or is the head unit not doing anything? When you say dash illumination, all the lights or just the head unit?

 

yes, the head unit is working fine. The dash illumination means the lighting behind the gauges, heat a/c *****. The headlights work and now, I tried reinstalling the old factory head unit and the lights still don't work. Now, there are 2 harnesses that were connected to the factory unit and only one fits the harness i purchased.

 

the big question in do you know what fuses/maxi/relays would make the dash light work/not work?

 

It does sound like you have blown a fuse the lights the gauges. I can not help with what fuse that might be. I would look in the fuse box and maybe in your owner's manual and see if it says. Once you get that, I would not hook up the illumination wires on the Alpine to the factory ones until you get the radio working without blowing a lighted fuse. The harness you bought should have a wiring diagram that shows exactly which illumination wire to use. Double check the head unit manual as well. I think there are two wires to your Alpine, orange and orange with white stripe. Just double check everything once you find the blown fuse. It almost has to be a fuse.

Also, it is not uncommon for the factory head unit to have 2 plugs but your harness only use one of them.

I wish I could be more specific help but, I am not that familar with the 2003 and below Ford. I have a 2005.

 

well, I looked up the owner;s manual for the head unit and it says that you don't have to hook up the orange. I disconected it and I got nothin still. I'm thinking I might need a test light now.

 

ok, ran a test light and the fuse that is for the dash illumination is getting nothing

 

Meaning the fuse is blown or there is no power going to the fuse location?

 

the fuse blew, i replaced it and now there was no power through the test light

 

you probably already tried this but make sure your dimmer isn't turned down. It's little simple crap like that, that always gives me trouble.

 

yeah, I checked that