my tailights did work... and my illuminating features worked... then i installed my cd player... and now they dont. i had this happen to me one other time i installed a cd player in a buddies car. his illumination fuse kept blowing after that. why? my only guess is (and if someone knows, then let me know) that there is a wire for the illumination on a stock radio/cd player... when you install an aftermarket cd player... theres nowhere to hook that little wire up for stock illumination... so i just tape it off. and i dont even remember if the rx7 had one i just remember there being a stock illum. wire for my buddies car. and the other thing... my tailights dont work, neither do my park lights. i know the tailights/parklights/glove box/licenseplate lights are all wired on the same circuit and none of htem work... i just want to know if anyone had this problem or know if the illumination fuse is connected with that curcuit?

 

your doing something else wrong, or your using duct tape to hold your wires together, better car stereos have a wire for the stock illumination so when you turn the lights on it dims automatically

 

could be the fuse or could be your headlight switch finally burned out

 

i have a 2005 model panasonic head unit, cd/mp3/xm radio. its a good one.... and i replaced the headlight switch aslo as it pretty much coaght fire... the last one did that is... it has a new headlight switch... its gotta be something to do with either the radio... or there was a wire that i removed from back where my tailights were... and forgot where it went... then i asked people about it and looked at all my buddys rx7's and they had no wire like mine had... so hell i dont know... the fuse blows as soon as i turn the headlight switch on or the park light switch... headlights still work tho.. and brake lights do work also... but just a few minutes ago i took the floorboard off and looked at my computer... the wires are screwed! looks like someone before me treid to do some wiring work and used a test light and either poked gaping holes in the wires right at the connector or almost fully severed the wire except for like ... 2 little wire strands... no i gotta go get the big connectors at a junk yard and re do em... sucks

 

whatever caused the first headlight switch to burn out will cause any additional ones to burn out unless you add a relay to the circuit. Sounds like you got quite the mess on your hands though... goodluck

 

You just answered your own question, thats what the illum fuse does. The stock radio gets its illumination from this circuit.



Check your wiring again, the FC is complex with all 3 stock amps needing switched power. Its just adds to the confusion.

 

what do i do with that illumination wire tho? do i ground it? or add it to a power wire... like the memory or ign+?

 

yea welcome to fc world. most of the fcs ive seen have ******* rats nest syndrome under the dash ******* wqires everyone, half not even doing anything anymore, half taped together, **** falling apart, fuses popping.



i was so happy when i cleaned most of it up, still have a lot to do on the inside tho.



kevin.

 

I just went through this same ordeal. What happens is when you wired your radio there seems to be no ground which leaves your radio "hot". I had to take out my radio and now everything works perfectly. I'm still looking to figure out how to by-pass this.

 

You bypass it by grounding the radio to the chassis.