So, what was (is) the solution? I just had an Eclipse head unit installed. The shop wired it up, and sure enough, the illumination blinks if the dash lights are anything but full bright. So, thinking that there were different connections for "lights on" and "dimmer", I had them disconnect the illumination lead. So, no lights. grrr... I reconnected the illumination wire myself for now. With full bright dash lights, the head unit doesn't blink enough for me to notice, I hope. But, since I like to dim the dash lights, I'll need a better solution. Where do I find a wire to tap into that will provide the right signal to make the head unit happy?
When Mikey says
he means the feed for the outside of the car sidelights, and that feed just happens to run near the kickwell, right? The lights inside in the kickwell only go on when the car door is open.
Should I hold the audio shop hostage to do this work, or do it myself? If I know what wire to tap into, and it's fairly easy to get at and hide the wire I'll be adding, I can handle it myself.