I should know better than to do anything that could go wrong under a full moon — especially install a car stereo.
The 2001 Nissan Frontier has the best dash in the world. Pull out the ashtray, remove two very easy to see and reach screws, pull on the face plate and, BAM!, you're at the stereo. Figuring out how to do remove the dash, taking the stereo out, building a wiring harness and putting it all back in took 20 minutes, tops. Unfortunately, it didn't work.
I'm still not quite sure why, but, it didn't. The stereo simply wouldn't power up. I took it back out and examined my wiring harness. That when I realized that the "ground" from the stereo was going to the "ground" of the harness (as it should, one would think) but, on the car's side of the connection, there was no wire coming out of the "ground" spot. Hmmm. Well. That would explain why it wouldn't work. A quick review of the wires coming in on the other side showed only one wire that wasn't being used. After thinking about it for a bit, I figured, what the hell, and hooked it up. That didn't work either.
The stereo started beeping a lot. It didn't turn on. It just beeped a lot. I assumed that meant I hooked something up wrong and pulled it apart right away. I did some research on the Internet. I found a pinout for a Nissan Stereo that appeared to be the same as mine. Based on it, I was using the wrong wire for "Illumination". So, I changed the wires around so that I was using the correct wire for "Illumination". It also claimed that "ground" was where the wiring harness had it, but, I knew better. Ha! So, I hooked up the "ground" wire to the remaining wire, the one that I originally thought was "Illumination". It worked like a champ. I thought.
Later that night, we needed something from the store. We hopped in the truck and, um, well, all of my instrument panel lights were out. I figured one of my bad wiring attempts blew the fuse. None of them seemed to be labeled "instrument panel" so I picked the 50% or so that seemed like they might have something to do with it, or was something I couldn't decipher, and checked the fuses. They were all fine. Back upstairs for more research. I figured there must be a hidden fuse somewhere.
There is very little information like this available on the web, unfortunately. The one thing that seemed reasonable that I found was someone stating that the dimmer switch might be bad. I didn't think I could have "blown" it, but what the hell, it was worth a shot. I took it out and tested it with my meter and it seemed fine. Then, I happened to remember a post that I read where one guy said his tail lights and instrument panel were both out and another guy insisting that they wouldn't be linked. Just for fun, I checked my tail lights. Yup. They were out. I checked the fuse for the tail lights. Yup. It was blown.
I crammed my spare in there and turned the lights back on. POP! Ooops. Whatever blew the fuse was still connected. I put in another fuse (that I pulled off of something else, since I only had one spare). I unplugged the stereo and then tried the lights again. They worked! So, I figured it *must* be the illumination lead because, surely, the stereo needs "ground". So I unhooked it (since I don't use the dimmer functionality anyway) and then plugged the stereo back in. Then I turned on the lights. POP! Goddamn it!
I unhooked the "ground" wire entirely, even though, since that's essentially what I had hooked up the first time around and it didn't work, I knew it wouldn't work. Well, it did. I hooked the "ground" wire back up the the "ground" of the harness (that goes no where). It still worked. Why it didn't work the first time, I'll never know.
Unfortunately, I was out of fuses to replace the blown one now in order to be *sure* it wouldn't pop again. And, while I was willing to drive the car without instrument panel lights, driving in the dark without tail lights could prove to be bad for my health. So, I took Jess' car to get replacement fuses. I didn't want to drive all the way to Wal-Mart (the only thing open that late) so I decided to try the grocery store. They had one package left. I snatched it up and took it home only to realize that there is more than one size of "blade fuse" and the one I bought was too big.
I was mad, angry, frustrated, alone, very tired, and it was late. So I just said fuck it and went to bed.
This morning, Jess and I went to Wal-Mart on our way to work. They had *one* package left of fuses. It was $15, had a bunch of fuses I didn't need, and had been opened and all but cleaned out of one of the fuse types it carried. Luckily, that type wasn't the one I needed, so we bought it.
We plugged in the fuses and crossed our fingers. Everything worked fine.
Let this be a lesson to my fellow wanna-be electric engineers:
# Even devices powered with DC voltage don't always need "ground" to operate.
# Car manufacturers (and others as well, I'm sure) don't always label everything appropriately.
# Don't assume that, because it's not working, that it must be the fault of some part you bought, and not your own. Sure, that's always a possibility, but don't assume that it is the case.
# Don't ever, *ever*, *EVER*, work on anything involving electricity or electrical components under a full moon. *Ever*.
