rear lights and dashboard lights out

[dhaining]

I have a 93 Camry. I just helped my son put in new rear speakers. Got it all put back together and drove it out of the garage and noticed the dashboard lights were out. The rear lights were out as well. I checked the #10 fuse and it appeared ok - I replaced it to make sure. We were by the rear brake light in the back window, but that is working fine. I can't figure out what else we may have done. Is there a second fuse for that circuit? Any other thoughts for troubleshooting?
Thanks so much.

[fjaen]

Sometimes by accident when you put speakers in, you can send a charge up the body which will blow a fuse. Occasionally, one fuse will go out, stopping the current to other fuses in your panel as well. For example, when the power jack fuse went out in my Camry, so did the dash lights and rear lights. Because it's a set like this, it really sounds like a fuse. go in and hold a light at an angle and see if any are blown... don't just look for the ones marked "lights".

If that doesn't do it, the wiring for the rear lights are in a white plug under the driver's kick panel... just under the dash... and if I remember correctly, the rear parking lights are on a green wire in the middle left of that plug. You have to remove the four bolts that hold that panel on underneath the steering wheel.

Fairly confident this is a fuse issue however, as your dash wiring goes through the same fuses as the parking lights, however there's no wiring for those lights anywhere near the trunk. Good luck!

[dhaining]

Thanks for the reply. I went through all the fuses behind the coin drawer and under the hood. All the fuses looked good. I replaced the back light fuse and that didn't help, so I know the fuse is good.

Could the relay be bad? I am trying to figure out how to get the relay out and how to test it.

We took the original speakers in the rear out and put new ones in and that seems to be where when we had problems.

Other thoughts would be appreciated.

[fj62]

Follow the wires from the taillight to where the speakers are. I am thinking a nicked wire is making ground. Check the wire path for the speakers look for a nicked wire or possibly a smashed wire where a panel attaches to the body. I assume you removed panels to run your speaker wire. Take your time it most likely occurred running the speaker wires. Good luck these are PIA problems.

[dhaining]

after a lot of tracing things down, it turns out that the issue didn't have anything to do with the speaker install. Instead, the headlight switch went out. I took the car to a local mechanic who charged me $76 to tell me they thought the problem was somewhere in the "neighborhood" of the stereo...thinking about asking for a refund. Ended up using Just Answers to do a bunch of troubleshooting until we found the switch being the issue.

If someone needs a good troubleshooting guide, here is one:
http://www.justanswer.com/toyota/660...e-markers.html