I own a 2000 Dodge Neon. Recently my car was broken into and the stereo was stolen. That’s all fine and dandy since insurance will cover that. However, since this happened my heater/air conditioner stopped working. The lights to that part of the dash are off as well. I opened the front part of the dash to see if anything was loose, it appeared fairly solid in that nothing could/would be pulled off made loose during the process of stealing the stereo. I've checked and swapped all the fuses. Again, after the stereo was stolen, that part of the dash no longer worked. The a/c d/c adapter just below it still works as well as the defrost switch. On top of that I installed a new stereo and that worked fine. What could the problem possibly be? I doubt its a bad part since it happened when there was only damage to the face of the dash. I’m completely baffled by this, any assistance would be greatly appreciated.

Thanks,
Wyatt

 

If it's anything like the 1st gen, you have to pop off that center plate to get the radio out. While there's nothing attached to that big plastic piece, a person in a hurry to cut stereo wires might not differentiate between those and, say, the half dozen other wires running back there, which would include power and grounds for your a/c controls and dash lighting. Sadly, the only way to find out/fix it is to get up under there, find the cut wires, and reattach them...

Best of luck!