TpCpLaYa

iTrader: (10)

Problem: Dashboard backlights do not light up. Just noticed after new radiator install. I have taillights and sidemarkers that light which are on the same TNS relay.

well heres the quick backdrop.....my radiator failed on me and sprayed coolant everywhere....i thought it might of messed with the fuse box above the radiator but the TNS relay appears to be good and even if i jump the terminals in the fuse box i still wont get any dash lights....though my tailights and sidemarkers will light with it jumped.

I have opened the relay box and dont see any wires that look shorted. I cleaned the terminals of the relay really good with electrical spray as well.

I have checked all the fuses in my fuse box and the tail lamp fuse was blown. I replaced it but it didnt seem to help anything.....i messed around with the ashtray light because the connection broke on me the day the radiator went out. I would find the tail light fuse blown maybe 15 mins later after i messed around with the ash tray light wiring and the relay box in front. I believe it could be related.

Question: I have power from both wires that connect to the ash tray light....is that correct?

I would think one would have to be grounded...and i believe that is what the dimmer switch does. My dimmer switch is plugged in....i checked, and it is all the way to the brightest setting. Could it be possible that it just so happend to of died while the radiator did?

I can get the ash tray to light if i take either one of the original leads and run the other wire from the bulb to ground....but connecting both bulb wires to the original 2 wires results in no illumination (because i have power at both maybe?)

maybe its simple for the experts but im stumped
if anyone can help me out it would be greatly appreciated. Also i attached the wire diagram for this circuit.

TpCpLaYa

iTrader: (10)

EDIT:

with normal operation...when i switch on the parking lights i get absolutely no dash lights,tail lights, ect

however, when i jump the TNS relay terminal I will get the beeping,tailights, and sidemarkers to come on but still no dashlights.

crcleofdst

Sounds like you have a short somewhere. Also, have you checked your fuses with a meter? I've had fuses blow on me and not look blown at all.

charlies7

iTrader: (4)

Ted, you home?

BOTTLEFED

iTrader: (1)

I doubt you have a short - sounds more like an open
IIRC, the dimmer provides the ground, not power. The lights are powered by the TNS. Check for 12V at the lights and the dimmer with a meter/testlight. If none, then it is somewhere between the TNS and the lights. If 12V, then your dimmer is bad or you have a bad ground at point6.

TpCpLaYa

iTrader: (10)

ok well I tested all the fuses with a test light and they checked out except the tail fuse. I replaced it with no good results. AFter some messing around with dimmer,ash light wires, and jumping tns the tail fuse was blown again. I cant seem to get it to blow again but i still have no dash lights.
(this was all last night)

Bottlefeed...when u say check for 12 volt at the light do u mean the ash tray light? THats part of the circuit and i have power to both wires going to the light. Not sure if its a full 12 volts....ill check and get back to you.

Also I will check the dimmer switch out to see if i got power there or not.

Mr problem i think like u mentioned bottle is that i am not grounding the circuit. What a good procedure to test the dimmer switch (can i bypass it?) Also how can i find out where the point 6 ground is?

one more thing....in the mess of wires near the ash tray there was a green wire that went to a ground on the rear passenger side stud that the shifter insulation boot goes on. the connection seemed very flimsy/ bad and i couldnt get a test light to light up when i put it in series with this wire and the ground connecor. I thought it mighta been a problem so I ran the wire to a better ground with no change in my problem. Anyone know what this wire is for


I was afraid nobody was gunna respond, thanks a lot guys. I swear by this next comment and Im sure more then half of this forum does as well.....without this forum I wouldnt be able to own/take care of my car. The problems (all that i have encountered in 3+ years) would of drained ALL my money getting repaired by someone else and i wouldnt have the slightest bit of knowledge to keep her happy.


OFF TOPIC: I spent the 2 weeks cleaning/detailing every inch of the car it seems only to have the radiator fail a week ago. I just got the new one in and got her started up only to find shes not ready to be driven at night i guess.

thanks for ur help guys

TpCpLaYa

iTrader: (10)

update:
I have power to the red/green wire and the red/black wire going to the dimmer switch. I verified with a test light. I then switched the leads around and determined that the dimmer switch ground wire connects to a good ground. verified with test light.

SO for right now the wires to the dimmer switch are good. Is there a way i can bypass the switch by jumping the wires so the dash lights get full power. Im not sure exactly how i would do this since im not completely familiar with how this circuit operates with the dimmer. Im not confortable just jumping random wires as it will probably only short sumthin else out with my luck.

TpCpLaYa

iTrader: (10)

update:
With a voltmeter i saw 11.5 volts to the both ashtray light wires (r/b and r/g) and the same was true for the dimmer switch (r/b and r/g). Like i mentioned before the ground wire from the dimmer switch was good enough to fully light the test light.

Also i check continuity of the dimmer switch and it is as follows:
-----
l-1-l
l----l
l-2-l
l----l
l-3-l
-----

1= r/b
2= ground
3= r/g

Switch set to full bright
from 3 to 2= 3.67 ohms
from 3 to 1= 1.58 mega ohms
from 2 to 1 = 1.58 mega ohms

Switch set to full dim
from 3 to 2 = 3.6 ohms
from 3 to 1 = no continuity
from 2 to 2 = 1.58 mega ohms

TpCpLaYa

iTrader: (10)

progress:
with the TNS relay in, when i switch on the parking lights I get taillights,sidemarkers, and the beep, but no dash lights. I get 11.5 volts to r/g and r/b ash tray wires and i get 11.5 volts to both r/g and r/b wires going to the dimmer switch. The black ground wire to the dimmer switch is good. All fuses are good. All tailight bulbs are good.

If i take the TNS relay out and jump the terminals I get the exact same results as above..............AHHHHH help

TpCpLaYa

iTrader: (10)

updated diagram, still not sure how to bypass the dimmer..do i ground the r/b or the r/g wire?

BOTTLEFED

iTrader: (1)

Don't ground the r/b! ground the r/g
First try grounding the r/g at the ashtray light and see if it lights, then try the r/g at the dimmer switch to see if all the lights work.
You need to eliminate the dimmer switch in the circuit to see if it is the problem.
When I said check for 12V at the lights I meant any of the lights that should light with the switch ON, so the ashtray light qualifies, but I would check some of the others as well. You may have to pull your gauge cluster.
I'll check back later to see how its going...

TpCpLaYa

iTrader: (10)

see thats why i didnt want to start grounding stuff to bypass the dimmer switch...i will try that.

Also i geth 11.5 volts to the ash tray light as well as the wires for the fog light, defroster, ect ect. In each of the plugs that connect to the center dash i have power.

TpCpLaYa

iTrader: (10)

btw......thanks a lot for giving me your thoughts on this problem

I also took the car for its test drive today after removing airpump, cruise control, and new radiator and it drove beautifully. I also did it with the hood off and MAN heat soak succcccccks. Makes me wanna get a vented hood asap. Car felt as fast as it has ever been in the 3 years ive owned it.

TpCpLaYa

iTrader: (10)

well ya know....i am a straight man but Bottlefeed i think i......i think i.....LOVE YOU!

ha, you can guess whats coming next....its fixed!

ok well with the dimmer hooked up i ran the r/b wire to my gauges which in turn is grounded. So now i was left with the other ashtray light wire (r/g) and with ur suggestion i grounded it and BAM all the lights came on.

i had a feeling it was sumthing simple and i think i just became too overwhelmed with it all. My mind has been on every section of the car for the last week straight and i was thinking it was probably sum complicated *** **** like it always is.

So now i have my ash light bypassed and im gunna see if i can work it back in...i will post my results

WOO HOO..........BTW charlie aka charlies7.........your car is the **** man. After we left ur house today my buddy wouldnt stop talking about it. BADASS single turbo setup....i will get mine eventually just probably not for another 3 more years..ha!

But man u werent kidding about that titanium JIC exhaust sounding sweet. 4 inch baby is the way to go. Hopefully tuning goes good tonight with Luis( i think thats his name)

anyways dont forget to call tonight.......i planned on having a party tonight but wasnt feelin that good beacuse of the car but now im down to PARTY!!!!
So hit me up and stop by with the FD so the rest of my friends can see what an Single Turbo FD is all about.......they drool over my car.....and i drool over urs..lol

TpCpLaYa

iTrader: (10)

ok well now the dash lights all light up but the dimmer doesnt dimm....obviously because the r/g wire is grounded. My question is how to i hook things back up.

I have the ash tray r/b going to a wire that runs to my 2 gauges on the a-pillar that eventually runs to a ground. Thats good. Then i have the r/g wire going straight to ground. It seems that when i would try to put the ashtray bulb back in it doesnt want to work.

If i disconnect the gauges completely and im left with just the r/b and r/g wires and i connect them to the ash light nothing works. I have tried reversing connections to the ash light as well with no luck.

But just grounding the r/g wire and leaving the r/b wire capped or running it through the gauges allows the dash lights to work but not dimm. Whats the solution to that?

bryant

+1^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^ ^^^^^^

i think.... if your bypassing the dimmer switch to see if the lights will work then a new dimmer switch would be the only solution?

BOTTLEFED

iTrader: (1)

Well it sounds like your dimmer switch is bad but you may also be experiencing some reverse grounding through your a-pillar gauges. You could run the ground for those gauges to your r/g wire at the ashtray and they will dim with everything else - once it is all working properly again. Try disconnecting the ground to those gauges and see if that simplifies things a little.
Until you can get another dimmer, just ground the r/g for now and leave the ashtray bulb out and things should work fine, just without dimming.

TpCpLaYa

iTrader: (10)

well i had already taken the gauges out of the equation and i cant get the stock circuit to work like it did. I dont really ever use the dimmer anyways but its nice to have beacuse its already there.

right now the ashtray light is out and i have the r/g grounded and the r/b going to my a pillar gauges.

At least they work......ill update if i ever get a dimmer switch i can swap in for a test

samad

iTrader: (1)

i kind of have the same problem. but its just my instrument cluster that wont light up.
when i turn on the parking lights the odometer just turns off and ther no lights.
i took it to an electricion and he hooked up a ground wire to one of the bulbs and it was fine.

i had the cluster out for some work and when i hooked up the ground again it burnt one of the connections. lucky i had another cluster lying around.

anyway my dimmer is disconnected but it always was and never worked. but the cluster did light up.

sooo any ideas?