I just bought a new Kenwood CD player today and when I wired it, the unit fired up fine but no Illumination. I bought a harness and matched the wires, but the problem is the factory harness has a dimmer wire and a Illumination wire. I tried both and neither worked. Any ideas? Car is a 2002 4x4 Blazer with a RDS factory radio. Thanks in advance for any help
The kenwood harness has an illumination wire (ORANGE / white) that dims the unit when you have your headlights turned on. I dunno if this is what you're talking about? Well anyways, you connect that to the illumination wire of the harness you bought. It should be a ORANGE / white wire but look at the writing on it first, as sometimes they make it a factory dimming wire which you don't want to connect the kenwood to. If you've got a multimeter handy, you'll know you've got the right wire if you get voltage when the headlights are turned on, but no voltage when the headlights are off.
Just out of curiosity, what kind of harness did you buy?
I bought a Metra Harness and deck kit. The wire from the Kenwood says illumination. There are 2 wires from the Metra one says Illumination and the other says Dimmer. I tried both and neither worked. I even had to go thru 4 deck kits until I got one that fit, and the one that fit was for a Caviler.