poor college student

ok... so when i turn on the headlights in my car, the headlights pop up, and the headlights turn on, but the instrument panel lights don't come on, and i just found out, that my taillights don't come on either... any suggestions on what it might be? i'm thinking it's a loose connection somewhere, but is there an easy way to find it? i've never taken the dash cluster thing off before, wanted to know how to do it, or if there's an easier way to fix this problem... this happen to anyone else? should i just take it to a shop? (i'm not a great DIY person... i'm slowly learning, but... it's slow...)

thanks in advance

Jeremy

600HP CLUB

check ur fuses first! 15A is out. ILLUMINATION FUSE.

HeffBoost

Here's my story. Sorry it's a little long, but your answer may be there. Hoping yours isn't so bad.

Cheers

TonyTurboII

Fuse.

YakATK

Exact same problem as me, my fuse was blown, so I put a new one in, that one blew within 30 minutes of driving, new one again, that one blew within another 20 mins of driving, new one again and you guessed it, that one blew as well. Car is off the road atm so I have not bothered getting to it yet, anyone know why this suddenly happened? I know it's gotta be a short somewhere, but not sure on how to find it.

600HP CLUB

mines blew because my radio wire was faulty, 1st timer!..

TonyTurboII - i always see ur name and automatically think of hatltech because ur icon but microtech now

abarlas

If it's not the fuse, it's more than likely the headlight switch. This happen to me about 2 weeks ago. Bought a switch on ebay for 25 bucks and all the lights work again. Also the wiring harness should be replace, just haven't done it yet. Do a seach for headlight switch. You will see what I'm talking about.

chris_stampe

Could be the cpu if all the fuses are good.

mazdaracer77

Its the headlight switch and if the wires are burned alittle bit then you will have to replace them If it was a fuse your headlights wont work either ok hope this helps

poor college student

my headlights work, just not my tails, so i don't think it's the fuse... if the heads work and the tails don't, does that rule out the headlight switch? i know this sounds like a stupid question, but how do i take out the headlight switch? (assuming it could be the headlight switch)

600HP CLUB

MAN! just check your FUSES! what you mean you DON'T THINK! check it and tell us YOU KNOW IT'S NOT THE FUSE, how are we suppose to help you? not flamming just saying. Make sure it's ur fuse or not, it's simple.

Rip cap off, rip 15A ILLUM fuse off, it's bad it's good?

-mike

600HP CLUB

to take out the switch, you need to remove about 5 philips "+" style nuts off the dash of the instrument cluster. Then when you take the dash off you have to reach in there and unplug all the electrical harness that stopping you from taking the dash off and whola!

-mike

SirRX7

Yep, if the dash lights and tail lights don't work you more than likely have to replace your switch and harness. I posted a pic of my old burned out switch and harness a while ago. Its pretty normal with 2nd gens.

RylAssassin

Please this **** is soooo anoying it aint funny anymore.
I know theres something were doing wrong so all those who have installed thier indiglos on a 88 tii please tell us how in the hell you did it? And i mean get specific like what color wires did you splice into, and exactly where the positive and negative goes. I have tried everything to get these to work and absoulutly nothing works, cept when the car is off i can get the indilgos to turn on but when the ignition is on NOTHING they just dont want to work!! please help i hate this ****

RylAssassin

oops meant tp post a new thread

poor college student

lol

ok, so i checked the fuse, that's not it, i guess i'm going to try and take off the dash and everything... i just hope i remember how to put what back where :p

vmb

i had the same problem with the tailites and dash lites out ....but the headlites worked ....my fuse box under the hood main fuse 100 was melted ...i replaced the fuse box ,fuse and wires ....i rechecked everything i it would still blow the illum fuse ...i then took the fuse box in the interior out and mounted it back again ....the fuse has not blown ....i dont know if theres a short in a wire but if it doesnt act up again im not gonna tear down my dash!

1SxyRXy

do your breaklights work??. when i bought my fc there was a fuse that was all burnt up its at the top, its just metal with 4 prongs take it out and see

poor college student

yeah, brakelights work... just curious before i open up the dash, how long does it take to take it apart, take a look at everything and put it back together? (once again, not very mechanically inclined AND i have to drive home tonite, so i don't want to get in over my head....)

HAILERS

You looked at the schematic at https://www.rx7club.com/forum/showth...hreadid=158379

You can see that a WG wire feeds the light switch. If you have 12v at the WG wire, you can see that if you have the plug off, that when you jumper the WG wire to the RB wire, that the tail lights should illuminate.

And if you jumper the WG wire to the RG wire in the plug, with the plug off the switch, that your gauge lights should light up.

If both those events happen, and the fuse does not blow, then the switch and or switch harness (short harness) is bad.

Stare at the schematic for a few moments and you'll see the light.

The cluster is not that hard to disassymble. Do get a short, short phillips for the three screws at the top of the cluster.

HeffBoost

Hard to give a time quote. Took me half a day, but that was with the relay install and testing and thinking etc.

I think you're supposed to pull the wheel, but I've always managed to work around that. My column cover is all busted to **** anyway. Moving the column up and down during the process helped.

You'll need a shorty phillips for the gauge bezel.

Have fun

poor college student

yeah, so i looked at the diagram, right hailers....? and then i gave a big sigh, and said HUH!? i knew i should have payed more attention in physics...