Car Stereos: 1997 sunfire rigged radio install now clustyer lights and others are messing up, fuse tester, pontiac sunfire

Question
ok i have a 97 pontiac sunfire that i put a system into but i had to unhook it in the back to remove the back ledge because i was tinting my windows and when i hooked it back up i lost radio power and noticed that there was an int lamp fuse blown so i changed it and everything worked fine for bout five minutes then my radio lost power and the fuse is fine and alol fuses are fine but now my car wont do anything when i turn the key and my dimmer switch isnt working and my speedometer lights arent working and my headlights are very dim if they come on. when i installed the radio a few months back i had to wire the ignition switch wire and battery wire together to get it to work but the only thing was that my dome light quit coming on when i open the door so i was wondering when i fixed the fuse that fixed my dome light problem if because those wires were touching if i messed stuff up

Answer
Hi Kayleb,

If a fuse popped before, it means you've likely got a short somewhere in the system, and that's what's gone wrong.  You'll need to inspect all the connections you made and ensure they're clean, and not touching bare metal or other wires they're not supposed to, and then check *all* of the fuses THOROUGHLY.  Don't just look, get a fuse tester, and verify that they haven't popped -- sometimes a fuse can look fine but isn't.

Good luck,
Justin