I'm coming down the road at night and the left side of the dash cluster lights go out.I'm thinking at this time its about time I needed to replace the bulbs anyway when the lights come back on.So,is there a possible short or maybe just the light switch needs to be replaced?I know the dash is just a "push-in" type with electrical connectors behind it.Maybe I should give the contacts a good cleaning as well.

-Ken

 

Clean the contacts, and while your at it pick up some new bulbs. They are really cheap and your local parts store.

 

your head light/dimmer switch prolly needs to be replaced... mine was so bad that when i would be driving down the road at night i would hit a bump in the road and the lhead lights would go out on me and id almost reck the car a couple times after that i replaced the switch and all my probs went away... any way id check that first thing man because over time it looks like it will do the same as me and trust me 60mph going around a corner and your headlights go out at night and u cant see to know how much to turn the wheel will get you killed real fast man i litteraly almost had a heart attack when this happend and i quickly took my left hand off the wheel and messed with a switch and they came back on... any way trust me get it fixed ASAP

 

Check what these other guys suggested first. They are probally the easiest and most common problems. If these dont fix it, I will tell you what the problem I found with my car that caused this. Well this fist thing happened to a different car but where the fuse went in ..... the 2 metal contacts that holds the fuse blades ... the spingyness (if thast a word) wasnt tight enough to hold the fuse in.... especially when I hit a bump... I would lose the radio in this case... could happen with the lights too. Now what caused my lights to go out. It started out not too bad but got worrs to the point it happened everytime I turned my lights on. Where the big harness comes out of the fuse box it make a turn around a corner and was resting on a sharp metal edge, a support of the entire instrument panel and dash board. Well from the factory it rested on that edge with not plastic cover or any chaff protection. Well after 15 years it finally rubbed through and shorted out. The only reason I finally found it was when I tried to replace the fuse for the 10th time I saw a spark come from that area when it imediatlly blew the fuse. Like I said it got worse over time. Anyways. I found and repaired several individual wires (lights and wipers and headlight motor wires)and put that plastic covering over it. Something you might want to look at anyways because it can cause problems later and preventive maintence is best.

 

I don't know if you have tried to fix this problem yet, but I have had a similar problem, but all the gauges on the left side went out too. The problem was the printed plastic that has the "wires" through it cracked so that the ground right in the middle lost contact. To fix it I solderd a jumper from one side to the other, but if you try this be carefull it can't take much heat.

 

Don't bother trying to solder the copper traces.. it'd be frustrating and highly likely to just fail again. Here's a tech article I started writing and never got around to putting the finishing touches on...

http://members.***.net/techsmurf/Clu...und/index.html

 

Well, today I replaced the illumination bulbs and when I checked them at night, NONE of the panel lit up.The radio still had dimming capabilities and I checked the fuse to see if the 5 amp one was good and it was.I'm going to go back and make sure the panel lights are in the right spot in the holes.I can't believe all of them are out.I replaced them with 194s so I know I have the right bulbs.Any ideas?

-Ken