Gauge dimmer problems

[McVibe]

Okay so I installed 3 gauges in my Vibe yesterday and I was unsuccessful in getting the dimmer to control the gauges brightness. I tried hooking it up to the dimmer switch using a voltage tester but when I hooked it up they didn't dim . They do light up with the 12v power I supplied to them they just don't dim. There are two wire, one for dimming and one for the 12v. I don't know if I should attach both wires or just one. So anyone who knows what wire on the dimmer switch is the one that dims it, please share

[ragingfish]

IMHO it's much easier to just tap into the dimmer wire that controls the radio lighting.

[ColonelPanic]

Sounds like you've tapped directly into 12V and not the wire that goes to everything for illumination. You need to do something similar to what I did the other night with my LED's on the dash. Let's see if someone here can provide you with the pinout for the connector on the dimmer switch. Over on the other side, on the radio bezel the wire I tapped into was solid green. Not sure if the illumination wire will be green over there or not, could be. I just tapped right into the illumination wire for the rear defog switch. But I'm thinking in your case, best to go from the dimmer switch so you don't have to run the illumination wire all the way over from the center bezel to the left 'A' pillar...The wire you want will have 0V when the lights are off or the dimmer is all the way down, and will go beyond 12V if the car is running and you adjust the dimmer all the way up. You'll see the voltage change as you adjust the dimmer. If you can find that, wire that sucker into your gauges and you'll be golden.

[ColonelPanic]

I had the trim to the left of the wheel that contains the dimmer switch pulled for investigation of a potential project... I went ahead and looked to find the wire that supplies voltage to the various illuminated things in the car... It appears to me that you could possibly tap into the green wire that goes into the second pin down from the top of the dimmer switch connector. Tested this wire with the multimeter, and it's certainly putting out a variable voltage when changing the dimmer control...That may be worth looking into if you still haven't found a solution.

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[McVibe]

Thanks, I'll definately try this today! Let you know if it works.