Took care of My EL gauge dimming problem!! - Honda Prelude Forum

Bertico78 · 09-20-2003, 06:44 PM

I was outside working on my car all day long, i'm pooped, but really proud of what i accomplished today.

My El gauges (did the swap two months ago) used to dim once i flicked on the headlights, not anymore

After studying the diagram for a while i figured that if you tap into the D7 wire (red/blk) from the temp/fuel gauge and connect that to the H7(red/blk) in the speedo/tach, you can click up the knob and both gauges will remain full bright, and can be dimmed down as it's supposed to be when the headlights are on.
I took it a step further and hooked the combination light wire from my JDM climate control and it works perfect.

This was a problem i've been trying to solve for the past several weeks, so if anyone does have this same issue, try doing what i did, i can't say it'll work on everyone for sure, but i'm glad i did it.

Humberto

prelude styl · 09-20-2003, 06:55 PM

yeah I tried doing that once when I first installed my gauges and it didn't work, so I gave up on the idea... I just keep them on full bright anyhow

But I'm glad you found a way to do it!

concLude · 09-21-2003, 06:51 AM

think we could tap one more wire into it for the clock, i have a 93 and the clock wont dim go full bright with the headlights on either.

Bertico78 · 09-21-2003, 01:05 PM

i don't see why not, i haven't tried it though i might soon. boy I'm i glad i finally got a Helms!!!

concLude · 09-21-2003, 01:37 PM

i'm glad you have a helms too

AliKhan · 07-06-2007, 02:09 AM

Whoa, I know this thread is old to the max, but I really wanted to clear something up.

You said wire H7 goes to D7... The red/black wire in the H harness is H4, is it not?
I made this statement in regards to this:

Harness H

1. Yellow -- power
2. Pink -- speedometer
3. Yellow -- Power
4. Red/Black -- dimmer wire
5. Black -- ground
6. Orange
7. No wire
8. Light green -- trip mileage memory
9. Red/Yellow
10. No wire

Or is the D7 wire actually supposed to go into H7, where there is no wire?

I actually want to fix this problem on my car right now, that's especially why I'm bringing this thread back up.

Also, did anybody have any luck with getting the clock to work with the dimmer?

It would be great not to have a dimmer switch that did nothing... It gives my car that 'tacky' vibe, and I hate the tacky vibe

chester · 07-06-2007, 08:51 AM

Did you swap the EL harness with your EL gauges? Did you also use the EL dimmer? If you did, you shouldn't have this problem.

Quote:

Originally Posted by concLude

think we could tap one more wire into it for the clock, i have a 93 and the clock wont dim go full bright with the headlights on either.

There's a thread about that on here.

Bertico78 · 07-06-2007, 05:37 PM

This happened so long ago i haven't the foggiest clue...just make sure the wire is red with a black tracer and run it from the temp gauge to your Electro cluster if you're having the same problem i had. It also works with the clock.

AliKhan · 07-06-2007, 07:35 PM

Quote:

Originally Posted by chester

Did you swap the EL harness with your EL gauges? Did you also use the EL dimmer? If you did, you shouldn't have this problem.

There's a thread about that on here.

Yeah, I saw plenty of threads on people asking about the clock, but didn't find a solid answer to it, yet.

I did swap the EL gauge, however, I did not swap the entire harness. I custom wired the stock 93 harness to my EL gauge. For those individuals who do it this way (custom wiring the old harness to work with the EL guage, and not swapping the wiring harness), using the 94-96 dimmer control unit does not work. I have a 94-96 dimmer unit, and when I plug it in the dimmer controls just go completely out of wack. When you don't swap the harness, the wiring needs a little more rigging (IE: how Bertico wired his gauges to work). I always knew how to go about doing it, just wanted to be sure where to send what wires... I don't want to short anything out, those little black boxes are expensive; mind, I am on my third black box. The transistors in those little guys can't take too much load for too long.

Also, Bartico, I am having the same problem you had. I just wanted to clarify which ping the red/black would go to, 4 or 7. I'll try for myself... see what happens.

chester · 07-06-2007, 07:43 PM

Ahh, I see. I just swapped over a 94 harness to my 93. I'm using a 92 4WS harness to rig something else up. Careful just trying wires. You can fry the dimmer module. Of course, the 92/93 ones are pretty easy to come by.

AliKhan · 07-07-2007, 06:24 PM

So... after about a half-hour of testing, I figured it all out.

The temperature/fuel gauge dims & goes to full bright properly with the use of the dimmer switch. So this is what I did.

I spliced TWO black wires into the Red/black wire from the fuel/temp gauge, and had one of the wires go to the clock, and the other going to the speedometer.

I CUT the red/black wire coming out of the speedometer (Harness H) AND the clock, and soldered the black wires coming from the fuel/temp gauge into the red/black wire going into the speedometer and the red/black one on the clock.

It's not perfect, however. When I turn the headlights on, only the fuel/temp and climate control dim (when i turn the dimmer low). But when I turn it to full bright, everything turns to full bright.

No more gauge-less day time on rainy days.

Bertico78 · 07-07-2007, 08:50 PM

my memory of course is a little rusty, but i think you would've accomplished the same result you have now by simply cutting the combination light wire to the speedo and the clock. Meaning they remain full bright all the time. As far as i know that red/blk wire powers a circuit that causes the gauges to dim. Good progress though. I'm Glad to see this old thread is helping you out

AliKhan · 07-07-2007, 11:45 PM

Quote:

Originally Posted by Bertico78

my memory of course is a little rusty, but i think you would've accomplished the same result you have now by simply cutting the combination light wire to the speedo and the clock. Meaning they remain full bright all the time. As far as i know that red/blk wire powers a circuit that causes the gauges to dim. Good progress though. I'm Glad to see this old thread is helping you out

Yeah, you are correct, they would remain at full bright if you do that, which would have worked for my day time gauge visibility when I have my headlights on, but I really didn't like full bright on at night time.