Avalon 1996 radio installation issues

[percytr01]

Hello everyone,

First let me say hello to every member, it is a pleasure to find a helping hand when we need it. Since you guys are very helpful with tech stuff here is my problem... I bought a slighted used 1996 Avalon XLS with an aftermarket radio that did not worked at all times, I tried to find a original radio but a friend of mine gave me a 1999 radio.

When I tried to install it, I found out that whoever installed the afermarket radio cut all the wires from the original harness instead to use one of harness adapters. So I bought a 1999 radio harness and tried to match all the wiring, but there is one that still have a problem and it is the illumination wire, since the aftermarket did not have it and I don't know where it is, I leaved without it, but I have illumination on my radio, except the LCD screen.

I already looked on some diagrams, but no luck. Can anyone help me? Any input will be appreciated.

Thanks in advance...

[raytard]

i also have a 96 with an aftermarket radio. there is no harness for this car, and if there is one, its very ahrd to find, mostly because of the amp. I ended up pulling the amp out and splicing in behind it's harness for power/switching and speakers. it does not have illum**, for that you have to tap into the guage cluster. its not too hard to remove, and you should be able to find a diagram for it somewhere, or just move the illum knob up and down while you measure voltage in each wire in the harness, either way.
**the wiring goes from the car, into the amp, to the head, back to the amp, and to the speakers. there should be an illum wire there somewhere, but i never spent the time to find it because i just dont care that much, if you want to find it, be my guest, have someone play witht he illum knob while the car is on and measure voltage in each wire. (its under the dash, behind the glovebox, a pain to get to, not rocket science tho.)from what i remember:
white w/ blue stripe-constant 12v (thick wire)
grey-switching 12v
brown-ground
green/lt blue-passenger front
purple/pink-driver front
black/red-driver rear
yellow/black-passenger rear

anything beyond that, no clue, i plan on rewiring around christmas break and putitng a nav in, if you feel like waiting until then, i will definately post pictures and what the dimmer etc is. im kinda off at college right now and my car is 500 miles away