Hi everybody, I have been lurking here for about a month and have learned alot, but have come up against something I can't find an answer to. First off, the car is a 95 850 turbo wagon. The problem is that my dash lights randomly cut in and out. I can't find anything to tie it to except the dimmer switch, but was wondering if there was a common problem I should look to? Oh yeah, one more question, how many fingers can you guys get in between the wheel and fenders? I can only get 2 fingers ( about an inch gap). I haven't pulled the suspension apart yet, but is that lower than stock?


Thanks
Shane

 

rbdweezy,

Are your dash lights going out and staying out until you restart the car, or do they come on and off? The reason I ask is that my dashlights (all interior lights except power window switches, which are on a separate circuit) go out and stay out until I restart the car. I've determined my issue is that I have a short in the interior lighting circuit. I thought I had the culprit narrowed down and cut out of the circuit, but it started back up again. It's tricky because the dimmer switch actually has circuitry built in to shut off the power when it sees an overload of about 20 amps or more (no fuse for this circuit) and it will not reset until you shut off the car. I just got new bulbs to replace my burnt out dash lights and plan to dig into my dashboard to try to run down the short this weekend.

 

I have seen many dimmer switches go bad.

 

well, at first the lights would come on and off as I was driving, but the coming on and off wasn't tied to anything I could find (bumps, dimmer switch position, etc.) I did notice that sometimes the cruise control would stop working too. Now though, I cannot get the dash lights to come on at all, but the cruise works until I go up a hill with the cruise on. I think I am going to pull out the dimmer and temporarily wire a fuse in its place and see if something pops it.

 

You'll need to attach the fuse to the white wire and the pink wire. White is power coming from the headlight switch and the pink is the dash lights circuit. The black is ground for the internal circuitry of the dimmer and the brown/orange is a 5 amp fused power wire to run the circuitry. I believe the white/black is a floating ground point that runs back to the headlight switch.

I do not believe the dash light issue would be related to the cruise issue, though, as those circuits do not really interact.

 

You have good advice so far. Outside of what you have been offered, I would also check the fuses. One might have either blown, or have loosened up. Don't laugh, I have seen it happen <grin>