Dictys

Is there a dimmer control wire for the radio? The PO has hacked about with the stereo and I am in the process of adding a new stereo head unit. I noticed in the well behind the stereo a single orange wire with a female socket on (there seems to be no corresponding male wire for it to plug into) , would this be the dimmer control or is it something else and I should not plug my dimmer control wire into it? I have located all the other radio wires.

90 S4 Auto

jcorenman

I don't think the factory radios had a connection for the panel-light dimmer. It's been a while but my recollection is that I hijacked the wire to the small light above the lighter, which should also connect to the light for the clock. The wire color (according to the wire diagrams) is black/blue.

borland

On my 90' S4, I also used the cigar lighter lamp wire (black/blue) as a feed to my aftermarket head unit. It's the closest wire with that signal available. It was already hacked by my PO or his stereo installer.

You should get a copy of the WSM wiring diagrams and learn to read them. Very handy.

VehiGAZ

FWIW, when I was hooking up my head-unit's dimmer lead, I was concerned that the fully-dimmed dash lights might not have enough voltage to trigger the head-unit dimming, so I ran a wire under the steering wheel to the "upstream" side of the dash light dimmer wheel and tapped in there, where the 12V should still have full potential.

I have not ever heard that anyone had that problem, but I was concerned...