Pulled out my instrument panel today to see if I could find some loose wire or connector that was knocked loose but I couldn't find anything, tried another instrument panel to eliminate that from the list of variables, still no lights. As of now I’m short on ideas, thinking of pulling the fuse box and seeing if there is something not connected correct on the back of it. Any ideas are welcome, as I'm tired of using a flashlight to see my speedometer and having it go flying across the cab anytime I take a corner to fast or hit the accelerator to hard. I am close to just taking it down to the shop and paying someone to fix it.

Hazard, idiot, blinker, and interior lights all work. A couple lights from the center console appear not to work, but that may just be a result of the ghetto-wiring job in that area. The wires running to the instrument panel are still in the stock wire plume.

 

check your "ghetto wiring" it could be grounding out, and backfeeding to the dash lights making them not work, they all go thru the dimmer switch.

 

did you turn the dimmer switch up?

 

Have you checked your dimmer switch?

The dimmer switch dies on a LOT of these cars. I bought my car with the switch gone, and didn't know it. First night out, I didn't know what speed i was goin .

For the fix, I ripped out the dimmer, replaced it with a switch. There really isn't a need to dim those lights anyway.

 

lol, my car is having the same issue, i'm getting a new switch to see if thats the issue, if not, i'm gonna custom my own lighting.

 

I lost the the gage lights in one of my RX-7s and I just pulled out the dimmer cut off the three wires that are on it and used a marr connector to give me full pright lights when the lights are on.

If you do this you can pull the guts out of the switch and put the face and wheel back in place so you don't have the hole jsut sitting there.

 

Thanks for the ideas. Here's hoping it's just the dimmer switch.

 

yes for mine I just bypassed the dimmer switch, its ugly but at least I can see how fast im going at night, now the question is should I replace it with another stock dimmer or just cover the hole with a plastic peice?

 

You haven't connected a red and a black wire inside your shifter boot lately, have you?

 

To bypass do you just wire all of the wires together? Or just certain ones?

 

The two that are not the ground. If i remember correctly, one is a green ground wire. Someone correct me if I'm wrong.

 

yeah that automatically kills the dimmer switch

 

The dimmer switch blows to protect the fuse.

If you have a manual transmission, under the shifter boot there will be two bullet connectors, one male one female, and I think they are both red with green striping, or maybe red with blue striping. People like to find them, think "oh, something some moron left unplugged", then plug them in together.

Problem is, those connectors are for the PRNDL light in automatics. One wiring harness for all cars. The light is part of the instrument panel circuit and will dim with the dimmer switch. Connecting them causes a short to ground, and you waste your dimmer switch.

That is SO incredibly common that it should be the first thing you check.

Once you disconnect them, take out the dimmer switch, cut the wires off at the switch (there is a conenctor further down so you can fix properly later), connect the red/blue wire to the red/green wire. Replace your fuse and you should have dashboard lights.

 

Thank you Peejay sir. I now have instrument panel illumination thanks to you. It's been 3-4 months using an accursed LED flashlight to see my speedometer and part of my tach. Thanks again. Going driving.

 

ROFL!!! thats halarious so thats what screwed my dimmer switch up, haha and I thought the stereo installers left something unplugged heh stupid me!

 

Out of the two 1st-gen RX-7s that I've purchased, exactly two have had this condition when I bought them.

Funny thing though, on the SA the fuse blew. Probably because it doesn't use a transistor for the dimmer.

 

Yeah, that's why when I hear about the dimmer switch, that's the 1st thing I mentioned.

 

luckily my dimmer switch died on my 81 with the lights turned all the way up