My Dimmer switch took a crap on me (93 Civic EX)... I always left it on full power and never adjusted it, i was wondering if anyone has managed to bypass it using resistors and connecting the power wires? Im not that electronically savy and dont have a multimeter or anything, or i would try and measure the resistance of a good dimmer myself. My other question is, the dimmer switch is also grounded... what would i do with that wire? Any help or suggestions are appreciated.

EDIT: I was searching google and found two different answers...

One answer:
Sounds like the dimmer/Rheostat switch.Should be three wires going
> into controller on switch.Jump the RED and the RED/BLACK wires.If
> lights come on,brightness controller in switch is defective.Also check
> for a good ground on the BLACK wire.You could by-pass the switch all
> together by hooking up the red and red/black wires direct.

Second answer:
Instead of hooking the red/black to the red. Try hooking the red to black with a jumper. The lights will light and the problem is the dimmer/Rheostat switch. You can leave the jumper in or buy a new control. Basically what happened is the instrument cluster blubs ground through the dimmer. The red wire is the return and needs to be connected to the black ground. The red/black wire is connected to fuse 19 in the fuse box and is the 12 volt supply.

anyone know this for sure?


Modified by greenblurr93 at 7:41 AM 10/16/2007

 

not sure if you found an answer yet or not.

remove the dimmer switch before any shorting of the wires. If you're going to leave the short in place, do not reconnect the dimmer.
all wire colors are at the dimmer plug.

I'm not sure why you'd ever want to connect the red to the red/black, it will turn off the lights. Even if the dimmer is bad/shorted/open.

Connecting the red to the black will turn the lights on at full brightness.

 

Awesome, thanks for the info. Any insight on a possible resistor? Like i said i dont have a multimeter or a working dimmer to figure it out.

Thanks again

 

a resistor for what?
to make the lights dimmer?

you may be able to stick something in there but it's going to take some experimenting.
the dimmer doesn't work like a variable resistor, it's more of an adjustable power supply.
it raises the ground reference to make the lights dimmer. (less voltage across the bulb)

 

Ah, i see. Thanks for all your help!