Dash Lights Went Out

[(_8*(l)Homer]

My dash / climate / radio lights all went dead tonight. I swapped out the headlight switch and they worked for a few seconds then all went out again. Any suggestions?

[850maybe]

Could be the unit you switched out is bad too. Try sliding the lever until the lights come on. If that doesn't work find a known good one and give it a try. That's all I have.

[(_8*(l)Homer]

There is an extra dimmer somewhere in my house, but I can't find it

I'm not sure if this is a problem with the headlight switch (the headlights still work) or if it is the dimmer switch. Anyone know how to bypass the dimmer switch entirely, for diagnostic purposes?

[Bah]

IIRC its the rheostat. AKA the dimmer switch goes bad.

It might have worked for a second just out of luck. I don't remember any tests for this or 100% sure if this is what it does. It makes sense though and from what i remember this is the only other problem than the headlight switch

i wish i remembered the threads on it...but in reality you could put a resistor in its place for testing purposes. IDK if at max brightness it is 0 Ohms or not, hence why i don't know if you can just bypass or not. Blowing all the bulbs out would be much worse lol

[(_8*(l)Homer]

Testing at 0ohms shouldn't be bad, I have swapped out all bulbs to LED and put 470ohm resistors to bring the 5v led's running at a max of 3.3v at full 14.4 volts. I am not worried about blowing the bulbs. I will take the radio out first though, there is no way to change bulbs on the SC-900 without cutting metal.

Anyway, I did dig up a few threads wherein one person jumpered the headlight switch and that worked for him. I will try that first, If that does not work, I will jumper the dimmer switch right out.

[Serge]

The rheostat actually uses PWM to control the brightness of the lights. It also has protection against shorts, which is what might cause it to go out.

Double check your bulbs, make sure there are no shorts. If you have a short, it will go out after a few seconds of being on.

[(_8*(l)Homer]

Seems the problem was in the headlight switch, both of the ones I tested. I turned the ignition to II, turned on the parking lights, measured voltage at the dimmer it was zero, did this with both of my headlight switches. Which is very strange since the headlight switch has no electronics. Anyway, I jumpered the dimmer switch power to the headlight power, so it all works now.

I have not had that recall done on my car wherein the replace the switch, so I will do that and order a used dimmer switch from ebay or a junkyard. Too bad no junkyard around here lets you go in and pick around.

[fastwagonhawaii]

This is what happened to me, my lights went out, I checked everything s--t I replaced everything still didn't work. I had an after market alarm installed several years back. they had a relay on the corner lights. Some how the relay went bad and killed the dash lights. I removed said relay and all is well. It took me and a friend two weeks to figure that out lol. good luck with it. also check out the 105 and 106 relays under the fuse box. you could also follow the pink wire which feed power to the dash lights. the pink feeds the light switch then the dimmer.