My gauge lights decided to go out one night and I can't find any reason why. The signal and the blue light which indicates that the headlights are on works on my dashboard but the lights behind the gauges don't (speedometer/rpms/gas/temp) and my highbeams wont work. It all happened at once, not one by one. What could be the problem?

 

saaaaaarrrrrrccccccchhhhhhhhhhh....

[Your headlight switch is burnt out, along with its wiring harness, your front turn signal sockets are the cause, they have corrosion. Clean them out, apply dielectric grease to the sockets, replace switch AND harness!!!!!!!]

 

Where is the wiring harness and turn signal sockets and how do I get to them?

 

The wiring harness is connected to the headlight switch and turn signal switch, remove the speaker above your left leg to get at it easier [you probably want to remove the gauge surround - black thing with the switches in it]

The front turn signal sockets.. As in, the sockets holding the front turn signal bulbs. [moisture sneaks past the lenses and corrodes the socket, this increases resistance in the circuit which heats up the connection to the headlight switch which burns it out]

Once you clean the corrosion out, make sure to dielectric grease the bulb sockets. You should also search for icemark's writeup on installing a relay in the headlight switch harness so that you're doubly insured against this happening again.

 

Ok thanks I'm gonna start working on this when I can.

 

circuit breaker above internal fuse box

 

Is this one of the things I have to replace?

Highbeam Switch

 

That's the fog light switch, not high beam.

 

Might be a silly question, but are your exterior lights not working either? I don't mean your headlights, turn signals, or brake lights. Do your side marker lights or stop lamps no longer work?

If the above is true, then you have the exact same problem I had recently. If that's the case, then what you heard above is true - your headlight switch has burned up. However, mine was still repairable! When I took my switch out to access the damage, I got my multimeter and checked over all the connections to check for continuity to see which part of the circuit board had burnt up.

I came across this one solder joint, seen in the picture attached. It didn't look like a real solid soldered connection in the first place. Anyways, I resoldered and tested to make sure there was continuity. I put the switch back in and all those lights worked again.

That note about the dielectric grease is a good idea. I applied some to the bulb sockets in hopes to prevent a similar occurrence in the future.

Note: I did not take this picture. I found it on another thread when I was searching for solutions to my exterior lights + gauge lights problem.

 

Well when I press that switch, that was the switch that turned on my highbeams. My foglights stay on with the headlights.

 

All of my exterior lights do work.

 

Your headlight switch is toast. Happened to me 2 weeks ago. Either you pop it open and check if its a burn on the circuit board, or it could be the relay.

 

If that's the case someone hacked up some wiring.

When the dash lights go out, the running lights normally go out with them. trace the wire harness from the headlight switch underneath the dash, see if it's been cut up.
Report back.

A good start is just what the other guys said, find a good used headlight siwtch, or a rebuilt one. Clean all your exterior lamp sockets thoroughly, then put some dielectric grease on the lamp bases and re-install them. When they get corroded it drives up the resistance, and burns up the contact in your switch and/or the pins on the back. It can be as bad as burning up the short patch harness between the main harness and the switch.

 

Yeah, and Kenshin better straighten that out before going any further.

The driving light circuit pulls power from the headlight switch (which is why the fogs don't activate unless the LOW beam is on) but doesn't interface/control any other lighting on the car...normally it would be impossible for the fog light switch to turn the HIGH beams on.

Someone's dun sumthing...

 

Key in ignition with general dash lights on



Headlights turned on



The only light that comes on in the cluster is the headlight indicator

 

and I checked the headlight switch circuit board and nothing looked burnt. everything was clean.

 

That light on is the highbeam indicator. Highbeams are switched on and off by the turn signal switch.

 

This should be an easy diagnosis. When the **** of the headlight switch is turned to the first position, the Red/Black wire along with the Red/Green wire in the headlight harness should have voltage. R/B powers the tail lights (you remember this) and the R/G powers the dash lights.

 

Alright so I checked under my dashboard after taking out the black surround thing that holds the switches and nothing was cut, just taped up to hold the wires together.

I might be wrong, I think the brown taped wires go past the blue harness.

 

Ok after owning my car for 2 years I've just found out my highbeams have been on this entire time but I got confused since when I flipped the foglight switch because everything got brighter. I just turned off my highbeams.

 

My highbeams and foglights now work! Now I just need my aftermarket oil pressure and oil temp gauges to work and my dash gauge lights to light up.