stupid *** dimmer switch....help me

[Strecker25 10+ year member]

the other day my dash cluster lights went out. i figure it was the fuse so i get home and sure enough its blown so i switch it out and it blows again. i let it go for the night and today i put a new fuse in, turn on the lights and the fuse stays good, but the dash lights are still off. All lights on the outside of the car still turn on btw, any idea whats going on here? i checked all connections for looseness or shorts, nothing anywhere.

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[req 5,000+ posts]

shit. might wanna see if one of them wires to the fuse box got yanked loose for some reason.

thats the only reason i can imagine, other than the actual wire to the light cluster is fried... and thats highly doubtful.

 

[Slody4Futbol 10+ year member]

yank your radio out... i bet your dimmer and/or illumination wire is shorted out

 

[Strecker25 10+ year member]

yea i checked it and even disconnected the radio...no luck. i think the switch is toast, would just buying a few illuminated toggles and wiring them in for dash, headlights, and parking lights be ok u think? i dont use the dimmer so that doesnt matter

 

[Slody4Futbol 10+ year member]

how positive are you that your illumination or dimmer wire's aren't shorted out... just because you disconnected your radio doesn't mean that... look back and see if either orange or orange/white wire coming out of your aftermarket car harness is untaped or cut... if your factory harness has been cut... if you do drive a lumina it will be a brown or grey wire... double check everything... and don't rig your parking lights and all to run off of toggle switches... just do it right

 

[Strecker25 10+ year member]

ive taped everything, whole dash apart, can trace every wire and nothing is shorted. Another reason for wanting the toggles was that the pushbutton switches for the headlights and parking lights are all messed up, i cant turn to parks on without the headlights anymore. ( not the problem though they go on the switch just doesnt click in)

 

[Tribal_Sounds 10+ year member]

Ya the same thing happend to me in my ford. On the day I just put my system in I was bumping pretty hard and then my headlights flickered and my dash lights went out. The headlights were still on when I still shut it off and the only way to turn them off was disconnect the battery. Well find out it was a rear electrical mod. fuse and that fixed the head lights, but the dash was still of. I checked everything and all the fuse/relays/wires/ my mech. and couldnt find shit. My friend said check the dimmer but I thought since the domelights were still on and controled by it. that wasnt the case. WRONG. Now after like 4 monthes being busy I took the car to ford w/ a list of shit to do including that and they called and said it wasnt the dimmer they checked and then called back today and said the checked all the wires and it led back to a burnt dimmer rofl.