Help! Gauge Wiring Gone Horribly Wrong!

[johnny boy 93]

Hey Guys,

Well I finally got around to installing my gauges on my car. I installed and Autometer Boost, and Volts gauge and am in the middle of installing a AEM Wideband. Well, I was working on the exhaust bung while my friend wired the gauges into my DIMMER SWITCH. So that everything dimmed properly. He tapped into the green wire with yellow stripe, and everything was fine until we tested the gauges and they worked, but the lighting was opposite. As the gauges on my dash (tach, Speedo, etc) got brighter my others new gauges got dark and the opposite. Well he said he knew what to do. So he tapped into the other wire that was sending power and it immediately ROASTED my dimmer switch. Smoke started coming out of the switch, I lost my door chimes, my head lights, and turn signals along with ALL my dash lights. Now, I located the problem with the turn signals and the head lights. The head lights were a fuse, and the turn signals were a relay underneath my hood. I still have no dimmer, but I am wondering if a new dimmer switch will solve all my problems? And the door chimes? Will my Speedo and tach light up again, and how to I properly wire these to dim all together. I may look really stupid, but I don't know why he would do that without asking me first!!!!
Any help is appreciated!!!!
John

 

[wishnfor4g63T]

I'll throw this out there as simple steps to take.

#1 Check all fuses. I forget what the lil box is called but it lights up if the fuse "isn't" blown!

#2 Get a wiring diagram of the problem area. Chances are he probley sparked a ground and a hot wire real quick and caused major problems. Hopefully it's just a fuse. Good luck electronic problems are such a PITA!

 

[johnny boy 93]

Yeah Well i pulled apart my Dimmer switch and the entire inside is melted completely. So, yeah fuses I am going to go over everything tommorrow morning. Anybody else got any bright ideas? Especially about the chimes?

 

[93_tsi_fwd]

My dimmer switch also melted when i wired it up wrong. Got a new one and its all back to normal.

 

[DSM1G90]

and it immediately ROASTED my dimmer switch

Yes, get a new switch (if from a scrapyard be the cheapest) and get things back to where they were - and the chimes should work as well.

The switch can handle so much milliamp draw since it's controlling a lot of small bulbs throughout the dash. By adding more to the circuit, and esp if he doesn't have the right ground, that switch will go south again real quick as the first one did.

 

[johnny boy 93]

So does anybody know the proper way to wire the gauges so they all dim together?

 

[njc1064]

http://www.vfaq.com/index-main.html

Although its for a boost gauge, the lighting wiring should be the same