Hey guys
The factory Univox radio gave up the ghost earlier today, so I've attempted to fit a Kenwood head unit, with less than good results. Everything was working great after then install, until I realised that I had no dash/interior lights and only one park lamp. I fiddled around with the loom, and grounded one of the 3 unused wires for the stereo ( a green wire with a white trace?). Now I have dash lights, but still no interior lights, one parker and now no stereo. I've checked all the fuses and they seem to be fine. What gives?

what model kenwood? In the manual what does it say these wires are? What year TJ, what model? Might be able to find a wiring diagram with colour codes for the wires. You need to be careful, if you don't know what's what because you could be shorting the radio out, shorting the car out, feeding a voltage to something that may permanently damage something. can't assume a black or green wire is necessarily an earth either. I remember years ago I tok a potshot on what was earth and shorted the lights out, had headlights, no interior, no tails, put a bigger fuse in and nearly set the loom on fire.

Have you used an AERPRO cable adapter to make the job easier to match the headunit to the Mits wiring.? Worth considering. i just did a crappy Astra with a pioneer mechless unit and got the harness . beats cutting harnesses and guessing the pinout. Went well except 1 glitch. the permanent power and switch power lines were switched around, easy fix but annoying since I expected plug and play

tj 4 speaker


Wire colours are identified by the following colour codes.
Code Wire colour Code Wire colour
B Black P Pink
BR Brown R Red
G Green SB Sky blue
GR Gray V Violet
L Blue W White
LG Light green Y Yellow
O Orange – –

If the code has 2 parts then the first is the primary colour and the second is the trace marker

So, as an example at the car wiring end G-W = green wire white trace and is hot, not an earth and links into the tail lamp circuit

B-Y is black, yellow trace and looks like the dash lamp circuit via the dimmer(rheostat), I suspect this is to gnd via rheostat, i.e. one side is hot G-W the other is B-W and variable resistance to gnd dims the globes.

https://lh3.googleusercontent.com/WvWR7N7YiQVRrrJKOriT9TUZsm4nd7371_EDxKVCsNI5k8ze4z cE44C08YIhsXZ_IU6Jy-XXI0Nyb_R_bNW-CeoKsOXdDQaRd9dDLCOPxqFf0S5THNb_vX8uONi1lEN3V6k9V3 SbbwxhAPVYmYBpdIR6OKZ2lFyOeqOky4UhFTQTcBFFaQm8ZHro 9Ssx-Z5zvslow6QuZhHsC5K4U7KUDFxP5J6aK6hrNkFRSfHD-Y1gpo3Lzd3wApa5bVQJpDw74SOH23hfOwFRQHJPV71TAl84j2l cCa4ezBiB4gD1qPAteOIWbCJukjoeOulQZJT-9xhQ04btD-GRskBveox0ZCXkChqhgXqEMKKkxuIdCPFJBKnujpuQOShf1ZA4 sW-2mHtO_hip7qjapxzYxFasYxsrlF-z0X1NpoZedg6koFRKgoCxrd2kEHKZ7y5FXKRzwz7jwJ56V3PMW Wta3za1n8n2Q2eSfwfbDdDVmRCT7kJOBG8Idhd5J79bIcT3D7R IKal1dFaXjCgI0gLEcf0I4eOqwv4X7nIDQJGaI4_RNz8=w1046-h643-no

I don't know if all kenwoods use the same colours but looking at a couple 2012/13 models

red = ACC or switched power
yellow = permanent or batt power
black = gnd

Light blue - yellow trace = steering remote
blue, white trace = pwr antenna
brown = mute control

have you checked fuse 11 in the engine bay relay/fuse box, 15amp or any of the fuses in there?

If u need more info I have a service manual with all the wiring diagram and colour codings

My wiring is different in my tj Magna mine are
LH Door black/blue trace
White/blue trace

RH Door black/red trace
White/red trace

LH Rear grey/blue trace
Yellow/blue trace

RH Rear grey/red trace
Yellow/red trace

In hindsight I probably should have used an Aerpro adapter, but none of the local auto-parts stores carry anything pre-2005 these days. I checked the engine bay fuse box again this afternoon and found the 20amp audio fuse was burnt out (but not visibly) and the funny yellow module that holds the audio and interior light fuses wasn't pushed in all the way... Problem solved! Everything bar the rheostat for dimming the dash lights works. Thanks guys.

My wiring is different in my tj Magna mine are
LH Door black/blue trace
White/blue trace

RH Door black/red trace
White/red trace

LH Rear grey/blue trace
Yellow/blue trace

RH Rear grey/red trace
Yellow/red trace

Mine is the same as yours. From the couple of stereo installs I did at work, it's the same as some Chryslers as well. (did a year of work experience with an auto-electrician while I was doing my course).

check fuse 2 in relay box 10A, how's the tail lights?

so are you saying illumination works but no longer dims?

so are you saying illumination works but no longer dims?

Yep, everything works. I can live without the dimmer, I never use it anyway.