I was driving home the other night and my gauge lights just died, along with my rear running lights, the brake lights work when I hit the breaks though. Those are the only two things I noticed that are affected, uppon arriving home I saw smoke coming from the vent between the door and the dash and smelled something electrical burning, haven't gotten it appart yet but has this happened to anyone else and is it going to be reasonably affordable to repair this? Also, I know the two aren't realated but the car makes a really wierd chattering noise at a stop in neutral with my foot off the clutch but when I push in the clutch it stops, any ideas on that? Thanks to all in advance.

 

O.K. By reading the FAQ I answered my own question, I think. But how do I go about gettting the light switch out to look at it and how expensive of a fix is it? Any help is again, greatly appreciated, especially with second noted issue, think I got the first one licked.

 

Did you check your fuses, I'm willing to bet your "gauge" fuse blew. I don't know about the smoke part though.

 

I don't think it's a fuse because they came on and went back off again a few times before dieing completely. And I wouldn't know, but are the gauge lights and the tail lights on the same fuse?

 

Yea they are on the same fuse. I'd check just to make sure, it would make it alot easier on you.

 

sounds like a burning/burnt relay, rather than a fuse, probably a light relay of some sort

 

I agree, the smoke kind of throws the fuse idea out the window, it still wouldn't hurt to check though.

 

You will have to remove the gauge cluster bezel, the thing which all the switches are housed in it's just 5 screws and 4 wire connectors. If it was smoking, chances are that a repair can't happen, just replace the switch and the wire harness for it. Try to find a harness in the same series as your's, if not there's a two wire difference between s4 and s5. Best bet would either hit IceMark up or go to a wrecking yard and see if they have one. Your second problem sounds like a throw out bearing issue.

 

Carzy Driver nailed it. It's not a relay or anything, you had a connection burn up on you at the light switch. Same thing happened to me. I'm going to be ordering a new/rebuilt switch from IceMark one of these days. If you're low on cash, hit up the "for sale" section of this forum, you should be able to find a used one there. As always with used, it may do the same thing in a while, but it will get you by

I also agree that it sounds like a TOB problem for the chatter.

 

Thanks guys, I ordered the Icemark switch yesterday, checked the fuse just incase but it's fine. Had alot of problems with the tranny being real stiff, like syncros and bearings going out too, just going to get a new tranny and avoid later troubles by just fixing little stuff.

 

the tranny noise is probably your throw out bearing..