Hello,
I'm installing an Alpine cde 164BT into my 1994 xjs and have one wire that's not computing with me. Its the wire on the Alpine for "illumination". There doesn't seem to be an appropriate wire in the Jag harness. It's supposed to allow the lights to dim, which I think is a good thing. I am thinking that I can hook this up to one of my display wires (the ones going to the factory radio surround for the vent controls). Do I even need this?

Any thoughts?

Thanks in advance

 

You want to to hook this wire up to the instrument light circuit so the radio can be dimmed/brightened along with the instrument lights. I don't have a '94 wiring diagram to give you a specific wire color or ocation

This is a good feature; not all aftermarket radios have it.....and the radio displays are often way too bright as a result

Cheers
DD

 

If you can just temporarily power up the radio, see if the illumination works without connecting that wire. If the radio lighting works without that wire being connected, then I'd connect the wire to an existing car wire that carries the car's illumination power to see if the radio lights get dimmed. I believe this wire may be like a sensor for the radio to automatically dim its lights when the car lights are turned on.

Good luck,

 

That was exactly my feeling also. I just needed someone to agree with it. I've installed a few aftermarket stereos but never ran into the illumination wire before, and yes the others have been too bright at night.

Thanks

 

You beat me by 10 minutes, Doug ..LOL (seems to me more like 1 1/2 minutes)

Cheers,