JohnHF

my dash lights dont work - fuel, volts, etc. i believe the fuse for this is a 25 amp one labeled "illumination". everytime i put a new fuse in it blows immedatialy, right when i turn on the lights, they dont even flicker it just blows the fuse. im no good with wiring, i dont really know what to do now haha. the car has an aftermarket speedo and tach mounted in the stock locations. i got the car like this, possibly the wiring for those is shorting out the illumination lights?

also my tail lights dont work. my blinkers/hazards and brake lights worth though. just the running lights dont come on with the headlights. i need to know what fuse this is. none of the names on the fuse box cover sounded like they would be the tail light fuse. i havent checked the bulbs yet, im going to do that now, but im going to bet thats not the problem. and if the fuse is blown im guessing like the other one it blew for a reason and will keep blowing them. if the bulbs are good and the fuse is blown and it blows a new one then i dont really know what to do next.

any help at all will be appreciated, wiring is my weakness

trinimazdax

iTrader: (2)

had dat prob before its the light harness in the back of the switch panel the wires get brittle and melt and fuse together and causes it to blow the fuses so u might want to check that , do ur front lights work? and the rear and instrument cluster lights dont work then its deff that . let me know how than pans out for u i got 2 extra ones if u need one good luck

JohnHF

yeah my front lights work. ill check it out in the day light to make sure but that sounds like the issue. so is it pretty easily accesable to swap out? thanks

philup

yeh ive had that problem my self except i think my swich is bad bc a swift smack to it and they come on really dim but if u hit it a few more times it works fine haha

JohnHF

your talking about smacking the fuse box right? ill give it a try haha

oh and im sure the fuse is blown for the tail lights. what fuse is it exactly?

Icemark

Hey John,

There are sticky threads at the top of both this section and the new member technical section, that say the FAQ for FC. This thread covers many of the commonly asked questions, such as the one you started this thread with.

As covered in that thread, more than likely you have a bad headlight switch and or bad headlight switch harness. You will need to pull off the gauge surround nd take a look at the back of the switch. If it is burnt you will need to replace the headlight switch and the light switch harness.

Please read the FAQ for FC sticky thread before posting. Often you will be able to find an answer before you have to start a thread and wait for a reply that may or may not be correct.


And smacking the dash of a 20 year old car is just dumb, and will lead to broken plastic and a sore hand rather than actually fixing the problem.

philup

na i smack the swich...haha sorry im really no help

philup

and i dont SMACK it full force more of a love tap.

JohnHF

great im glad this is a common problem. would be nice to be able to drive at night. and yeah i wasnt planning on smacking it hard, just a love tap haha.

thanks

JohnHF

whats the switch look like, any more info on getting to it and replacing it? gauge surround is the black piece on top of the dash, i guess that comes off but im not really familar with taking the dash apart.

philup

u should be able to get in behind it unless mine is missing a cover or somthing.. "could be possible" but when i took the cruise control switch off to fix it everything was assessable from under the dash

JohnHF

ok, from under the dash. whats it look like?

Icemark

You can not get to the headlight switch from behind the dash... in fact you can not get at it unless you remove the gauge surround.

To remove the gauge surround, remove the 4 screws from the bottom of the steering column surround then remove the top half of the steering column surround.

Then the gauge surround removes by taking out three screws at the top of the surround (accessed from the gauge side) and one screw (the large one) at each bottom corner.

Then the whole surround can be pulled out far enough to unplug the cruise control and trun signal switches, then unplug the wiper and headlight switches and pull the surround up and around the steering wheel.

philup

SORRY! i guess who ever had my car b4 i did didnt take great care of it bc all i can see and access all of that stuff without takeing the GAUGE SURROUND off

JohnHF

ok i got it now. the schematic for the left side would help too. more than likely i have a bad headlight switch harness, this would look something like the harness for the cluster switch on the right side (#7)

and my wipers only work on one speed, i saw that was in your FAQ thread too. im not fixing that though, one speed is fine especially with rain x and the fact i dont intentianly drive this car in the rain. also i need to rewire my cd player, your info on that will make it much easier.

you are the man with rx7 info. thanks

HAILERS

Send me $9.99 thru PayPal and I'll allow you to download the free FSM from this site. Here is a sample of what you get for $9.99 (marked down from $90.00 for the holidays).

JohnHF

thanks hailers, and ill think about buying the whole thing.

so i got the gauge surround off and unpluged it. the harness looks to be in perfect condition. i cannot get the whole big headlight switch out because the 3 ***** go through the holes in the gauge surround and i dont know how to take the ***** off without breaking them. once i get it out i guess i will take the cover off the switch and inspect the circuit board inside to see if i have any bad solder joints. then i could replace it if needed. but if the switch is good and the harness is good what else would be the problem?

HAILERS

Pull the plug off the headlight switch.

Look in one corner of the harness plug. You should have a White/Green wire near a Red/Black and a Red/Green wire.

The White/Green is from the fuse. Get a wire bare at each end. Put one end in the socket with the White/Green wire and the other end of that new wire into the socket with the Red/Black wire. When you do that the tail lights and side marker lights should come on.

Then jumper the W/G to the R/G wire. The instrument lights should come on.

IF those lights do come on, it's likely the switch is bad. Almost positive proof. But if those jumpers work as described, then put the plug back on the switch and see if the switch now works or ...not. If it works now????got me why. If it does, then wiggle the wiring with the side lights/instrument lights on and see if you can blow the fuse.

A jpg of a series four light switch is attached showing where those three wires are located on the plug. I'm pretty sure the series five plug is Similar. Same wire colors anyway on a series five.

ILLUNINATION fuse should have been a fifteen amp fuse, not a twenty five amp fuse.

Oddball aftermarket items like radios and stuff should Never be tied into the headlight switch wiring in any way. That might be your problem. Disconnect any aftermarket item tied into that circuit.

Kalidor

Not that I am sure this will help. But the illumination fuse that controls the panels also runs electrical for the tail lights. (already covered)


On my car the previous owner put in a new radio and put a harness adapter in, which he modified to use some box speakers. He diked out the box speakers and I found that basically that caused a surge in my system as long as the radio was connected, and that blew the fuse.

I have since disconnected the radio till I have enough time to get a new adapter. If you confirm the switches and all are working, might want to look if you see anyone having messed with any wiring behind the radio as people tend to do that a lot and come up with some crazy configurations...

JohnHF

yes the illumination fuse is a 15 amp, i accidently said 25. i did not know this fuse is for both the tail lights and instrument lights. problem makes more sense now

there is no aftermarket wiring tied into the headlight harness, i actually just rewired my cd player tonight. i do have aftermarket gauges though and i dont know how the previous owner wired the power to those.

jumping the wires is defiantly an easy way to figure out if the switch is bad, i will do that. if the jump doesnt work, then it means i have another problem and the switch is probably good. i cant really imagine what else could be the problem. the switch is ussually the problem right? ill go do the jump and we'll go from there

thanks for all the awesome help

JohnHF

and heres an idea, instead of replacing the switch... the headlights work so i could identify the wire(s) coming out of the switch for those and tie in the the R/B and R/G wires. so when the headlights get power it will power the tail lights and instrument lights.

JohnHF

woohoo! jumped the W/G and the R/B wires and got my tail lights working. jumped the instrument lights but got nothing, the beeping noise didnt even come on like it did for the tail lights. maybe the bulb is out, i tried pulling the gauge cluster out but the wiring for my aftermarket tach and speedo was too tight and i couldnt. honestly im not too concerned about that though because it would only light up the fuel and volt gauges, i have aftermarket gauges for the rest.

so now i know my switch is bad. i would like to try and tie the R/B wire in with the headlight wire but need to know what color wire that one is. so then my tail lights will come on with my headlights without the switch needing to turn them on seperatly.

HAILERS

Naw, you don't want to tie it to the *headlight* wire. The headlights work by you turning the **** and putting a GROUND on the headlight circuit. In other words the headlight wire is a ground wire.

While we're here, when you jumper the White/Green to the Red/Green AND have the key to ON, can you turn your turn signals one way or the other and see the turn indicator green arrows on the instrument cluster blink on and off??????

Also, when you just have the jumper in the White/Green to Red/Green, do the lights inside the Cruise switch, Cigar lighter, windshield switch come on? Not if the wipers work or not, but does the little light inside those items come on? Should. Just trying to figure out why the instrument lights didn't come on. They should have.

If these other lights don't come on when you jumper the W/G to the R/G, it MIGHT be the problem is in the OTHER end of the short harness your doing the jumpering on. Look at the Mazdatrix picture I attached above of the light harness. It's a short harness AND the single plug on the other end is BLUE in color. If the other lights don't come on, you MIGHT pull that BLUE plug apart and see if there is any burnt wires/pins/sockets on that end of the plug OR the plug it mates to.

I have a car with your problem but the W/G wire in the Plug is burnt up and melted the plastic of the plug. I'm not keeping that particular car in the near future. Sooooooooo instead of buying a harness used or new, I ran the W/G to one side of a simple switch and then joined the R/G and R/B together and ran them to the other side of the switch. I had to add wire lenght to all those wires and located the switch in the plastic under the steering wheel. So at night I turn the headlights on and then reach down and turn the NEW switch to on and have lighting again. LIke I say, I'm getting rid of that car in the future. Cheap I am.

HAILERS

I was just thinking about what I wrote above. I think your switch might very well be good, and the Problem lies in some item that is fed with the R/G wire. So I suggest you don't run out a buy a new/used headlight switch.

Or in the meantime, you might just depin the R/B wire from the plug, then reconnect the plug to the switch for night driving. No instrument lights, but at least no ticket for no side/tail lights.

Icemark

well as long as he has not used the Red/black and/or Red/green for the ground for his re-wired CD player, he should be able to jump the Red/black to the Red/green and have the dash lights and parking lights work, with any 10 amp switch to the White/Grn.

The dash lights will be on full brightness but they should work then.

If they are not either every single dash bulb is burnt out, or the wire harness is smoked somewhere, or he has the wrong wires.