About a week ago my gauge lights stopped working. It didn't bug me too much because I could still get around, but then last night I found out that my tail lights weren't working either. The headlights work just fine, turns signals are ok, hazards work, and brake lights work. Can anyone tell me what's going on or where to start looking for my problem?

 

Did you check the fuses?

 

Dude same thing happened to me. Guages dont work and tails dont work AND parking lights dont work either but headlights work fine...For a while i was able to get my hands back behind the headlight switch to mess with the wires. after poking and prodding i could get them to come back on. Just yesterday that trick stopped working. I pulled guage cluster out and looked at the plug to the headlight switch and one wire to the connector was fried!!! Now i am in search for a ....umm... pin? that is small enough to fit. went to home depot, radio shack and local auto parts stores and no luck? anyone know where to find those dang things? I would pull your guage cluster out to see if you had same problem.
Oh and TAILs WORK when brake is pushed but not when off brake.

 

Covered in the FAQ for FC sticky thread

 

Thanks for the reference icemark...so in the faq. its says to replace the lightswitch AND the harness. On the back of my lightswitch its just mildy burnt , i really wouldn even call it burnt since i can rub off the black, the burnt part was mainly on the harness plug. Now the faq said replace the harness...is there a point down the harness where you can disconnect just that light switch from the rest of the harness? Im not familiar with that. Thanks!

 

had this exact problem the board on my switch fried replace it first and then if doesn't work replace the harnass

 

I got three tickets because of this problem. just figure out what has fried back behind your cluster and replace it. it was the headlight switch for me

 

You can try a new harness only, but at the very least I would clean all the bulb connections and/or wire up an heavy duty relay to act as a buffer for the switch.

But generally when the connection overheats enough to start damaging the plug, it also melts the solder joint at the circuit board for the pin that that harness connects too. So, then if you just replace one or the other, the remaining weakness is where you next have the problem.

So then you end up buying two harnesses and a light switch, instead of one of each... or you end up buying to light switches and a harness instead of one of each.

But usually no matter what you end up replacing both in the long run.

The harness is only about 20 inches long and plugs in to the main interior harness right next to the power steering computer (behind the drivers dash speaker). It is one of the two large blue plugs there.

 

Thanks icemark. I fixed mine today. After going to a jillion hardware stores to try and find the lil "ping" that was fried to replace it. I ended up goin to mazda and luckily got a replacement in the right size. My wire was fried up close to the switch and the metal conductor had actually fallen/ burnt off when i took guage cluster out so . options were 1. replace harness or 2. replace wire with conductor dealio. Of course i went the cheaper route. on my car. THe headlight switch only had minor burn , the plug that the ping went into is what was toasty, but only melted the plastic around it, other wires were fine. The part i bought had the metal conductor with about 3-4 inches of wire attached so a simple attach and crimp worked perfect. slid the ping back into the plastic plug and attactched to guage cluster an WALA fixed...before i succesfully pulled the burnt conductor off the wire, i noticed in my case that the copper wire was exposed outside of the plastic plug. Proboblly what my problem was.
I saw the blue plug while workin, thanks for the tip icemark!

 

the lightswitch costs $400..... anyone know if I can fix the problem for cheaper of if I can find a better deal for a lightswitch?

 

Icemark can rebuild it for you for around $75 I think. I also have one I rebuilt for an S5 if you have an S5. I'll sell it for $50.

 

Or yo can check FS section and find someone selling a used one, not like its a hard thing to replace

 

Ok so I bought the headlight switch (for $400!) and installed it with relative ease.....the dash didn't want to come apart and I had hardly any play to work with, even with the turn signal switch unscrewed. I noticed that one of the metal circuit thingies on the harness plug was fried....is that going to cause my new switch any problems? The tail lights work now, but I don't want to fork over another 4 bills if this new one gets fried again.