turboshjosh

hey guys and gals, my girlfriend has an 86 base model. i installed an after market cd player for her and did not have a drill so i just used the cigarette lighter ground to ground the cd player. the stereo works fine but now she has no dash lights. she took her car to a local audio shop to see if what i did caused the problem. they said no, and told her that there is a switch inside the dash that only a mechanic would know how to turn back on. were they blowing smoke or do they know what they are talking about? ANY SUGGESTIONS OR COMMENTS WOULD BE MUCH APPRECIATED.

kliftin

You might of simply blew a fuse. I do it with my dash lights all the time. Its a red 10 amp underneath and to the left of the clutch pedal.

turboshjosh

that was the first thing i checked. all the fuses are intact. thank you for the feedback.

HAILERS

Theres one fuse that is'nt under or next to your left foot that is involved. Its in the engine bay under that black rectangular box near the l/h shock strut tower. Its a sixty amp fuse. Question. When you turn your head lights on, do all the tail lights work? Does the cigarette lighter still work. Does the light in the glovebox work? Only answer those questions if you do not find a bad 60 amp fuse in the engine bay.

quick 7

hey, I had the same problem, it turned out we blew a transistor or somthing, its a small black square box, If you know how to use a multimeter, thats how my mechanic found it. be warned, it's really tricky to find. If I can find the exact part name i will let you know, I hope this helps alittle

turboshjosh

hailers to the rescue again! the 60 amp fuse is ok, the glove box light does not work, tail lights do work, cigarette lighter does not. i'm going to try seperating the grounds tomorrow and see if that solves the problem. as far as the problems with my tII i put them on hold for awhile, i'll let you know how that works out. thanks alot james!

turboshjosh

hell yeah quick 7, if you can find that part name i'd be much obliged! thanks a bunch for the feedback, my girlfriend drives bad enough at night, it would probably help her to know how much she is breaking the speed limit by. josh

HAILERS

I wish you had the electrical schematic that I'm looking at. Its for a 87 model and I'm sure if you saw it you could figure exactly what the deal is. It starts out with power being fed from that 60amp fuse in the engine bay, goes to a 15amp fuse next to your left foot, then to inside the light switch. Now in the light switch there are two paths it can take. One path takes you to the tail lights. The other path goes through a rehostat(can't spell for flip) which feeds the cigar lighter and the (a) Meter illumination lights (b) Hazard switch (c) Wiper and washer switch*just the lights for them* (d) the cruise control switch*just the lites there also* (e)Electronic Control switch*I think thats the lites for the Logicon. So since your tail lites work, I'd say its inside your light switch. In particular the little **** that adjusts the intensity of the lights. Fiddle with that **** and see if anything happens. Like I said, its a shame you don't see the schematic I have, or you'd know right off the bat what is happening. Your car is similar to the one at http://www.iluvmyrx7.com/Technical_I...ice_manual.htm look in the electrical schematics and find the ILLUNINATION LIGHTS. I think the heading might start with HEADLIGHT blah, blah, blah ILLUMINATION LITES. That lite sw in Texas junque yard is probably about five to ten bucks. EDIT: I forgot that its not your car. That rheostat sw is apart of the large **** that turns the lites on and off. A **** at the end of the large ****. Rotate it back and forth a few times.