new to the forum

just bought the D3 last week and had best buy install it. The unit doesn't dim at night and as we all know, the daytime/nighttime toggle isn't any good unless the illumination wire is hooked up. the installer told me that no best buys hook up the illumination wire because of the risk associated with it. I was told this by two different best buy installers at two different stores. They said that its too risky; could do it wrong, may end up shorting/blowing the rest of the interior lights.

i've done some searching and i haven't come across anyone ever having blown their interior lights hooking up the illumination wire so i'd like to get it done.

how complex is this? this is for a 04 pathfinder. i don't want to install a switch either, just simply dim when my lights go on.

please help- having a flashlight in your eyes at night sux. and going through all the controls/steps to dim it physically is nuts to live with

MY 2007 Chevy Silverado Classic does not even have the dimmer wire at the stereo, so i am having to run a wire from the back of the stereo to one of my parking lights or something like that. I think that all the dimmer wire on the deck does is look for voltage to be present then it goes into "night" mode. It doesn't even draw any current, I think. There shouldn't be any problem with hookng up the dimmer wire

Your factory illumination wire should be pink with a black stripe. Pull out your avic and check the factory harness. However, if you had BB install it, I am sure that they used a factory harness adapter, in which case, just hook the illumination wire from the avic harness to the orange wire on the harness adapter and you should be good to go. Most likely the orange wire wil be the only wire not connected to anything in the aftermarket harness and if you trace it to the factory harness, it should be connected the pink/black wire. Hope that helps.

i've got my stereo all out right now and I dont see any orange wire. there is none coming from the back of the unit. I did however find the pink w/ black stripe.

whats next?

Not sure whats next, but Best Buy installed my D3 for me and not only did they hook up the illumination wire, but the tech also did the parking brake bypass for me. So, if they don't hook up your illumination wire, then pay for your install and dispute the charge on your CC. The install is NOT complete and you should NOT have to pay for it, IMO. Jerks!

they did the bypass for me so i won't b1tch too much.

it looks like they used a harness that doesn't even have the wire port coming out of the back. so what i did was put a wire into the spot i suspected was for the illumination and then match it up with the port with the pink/black strip on the factory plug.

all said and done, it worked.

and while i was back there, i was able to angle the screen up more so that it looked better to me.

Seems fishy, because I use Metra harnesses at my shop, same as Best Try and ALL of the Nissan harnesses I have had come in lately (last 20 years, seriously) have had an illumination wire in them. Maybe the teenager installer-wannabe was instructed to pull the wire out of the plug? Only thing I can think of. Morons. (No offense to those that KNOW how to do their JOB, just those that cannot seem to thinkl things through logically. If the FACTORY radio uses that wire to turn on the lights to see the buttons at night, why not an aftermarket radio? I'm off my soapbox now.)

i honestly suspect thats what they do- pull the illumination wire out of the harness.