2002 Corolla CD Player/Fuse problem

[corollarath]

Ok, so i couldn't find any posts that fully explained my situation. I put an aftermarket CD player in my 2002 Corolla and after I put it in, my dash lights went out and my taillights and brake lights, basically everything on a 10 amp fuse or 15 amp fuse. So, I talked to some people and they said it could be my illumination wires don't need to be connected. So I took them apart, and while putting the screws into the frame of the Cd player, down by the cig lighter on the left side, there was a spark everytime I attempted to put this screw in. So I left the screw out, took all the 10a and 15a fuses and replaced them, and replaced my taillight bulbs, now everything works except my Cd player, did i blow it when i caused the spark? Do i need to replace a fuse for it? What could have caused the spark? Do i actually need the illumination wires connected? (another possibility, I have my negative forked wire screwed into the side of the harness, is that bad?)
Thanks to anyone who can help, I'm at a loss here.

[fishexpo101]

I would have wired the negative side to a chassis ground, as there is no guarantee that the harness will give you a solid ground.

Also, you should have pulled power before you wired anything up - that spark that saw when you tried to screw it together could have toasted something a bit more expensive than the headunit.

Illumination/dimmer wires are for the headunit - so you won't need then unless you want to set the display to come on when the gauge lights up/control dimmer feature.

Any wires left over from the wiring harness, back of the headunit? Did you make sure those were capped off?

Assuming that everything works OK except for the new headunit? Generally, those are not fused externally, unless they are a high output type. Even so, the display can be wired independently from the amplifier stage (could have a case where the headunit will play music, but the display is blank). There are fuses inside many of them, but not all.

Remember to pull the negative battery terminal from the battery before you touch any electricals in the car. Reduces the chance to short something out by accident quite a bit.