I just purchased a Pioneer DEH-1100 and i have everything wired right except i cant figure out the damn illumination wire....

Its a 1997 f150.

I had the orange illumination wire tapped to the red wire which is the ignition i believe, and it worked but only when the headlights turned on? and now i cant get it to work at all, where the hell does the orange wire go?

 

The DEH-1100 does not have a dimmer output on it.

 

Okay, why do the lights on the HU not work with everything hooked up, except the orange illumination wire?

As far as the speaker wires, there all hooked up, all thats left is the yellow from the HU whip to the harness whip, the red from HU whip to Harness whip and then ground, it still wont work...

 

Is the deck even turning on? Or is it staying off?

It is possible to turn the display off on the pioneers.

 

Well, u believe once i hook the ground up, if i hit eject, i can hear it trying to eject....but theres no display.

 

Did you try turning it on?

 

Yeah man, this is really annoying. I figured out that the only way to get it to work, is by hooking the constant cable and the acc cables AND the orange from the harness all together, but then it only works when the headlights are on, i really dont understand what the headlights have to do with it

 

It shouldnt...there is something wired up wrong in your harness.

 

I don't know man, it doesn't make any sense at all....Cause thats the ONLY way it works...u got any ideas of things i could try?

 

Post pics of how you have it wired.

 

Well, as you prolly know the f150s have two whips...one for speakers and one for the power and all that so i have all the speakers wired correctly..

Then yellow and orange are connected to the yelllow red and from the stereo, thats how i have to wire it to get it to work, but like i said it only works with the headlights on.

 

Disconnect the orange and cap it. Connect yellow to yellow and red to red. Check the fuse for the radio. What it sounds like happening is the fuse is blown and the deck isnt getting power normally. When you connect the orange and turn the lights on, its sending 12v to the deck and turning it on. Other then that, theres not much more I can do to help you over the net.

 

Alright i'll give that a shot, so it doesn't need the orange hooked up?

 

No...orange is illumination/dimmer. Doesnt need to be hooked up.