I ran a search on here and found nothing. I checked all the fuses and they are fine and when I turn the lights on the A/C **** will light up but not the cluster or the HVAC controls. I pulled the cluster out and checked a few bulbs and they seemed fine. The car does have a JDM front conv. I just bought this car fri, so I'm not one hundred percent familiar with the car yet? If I had a bad dimmer switch would it cause this? Please help. Cause driving to work in the morning will suck.

 

yep my 98 the same way , i just learned to use cruise control and my cell phone as a perma-light(or the ipod lol)- sorry no help though

 

Yes thats exactly what I was thinking.

 

you have a short somewhere, thats all i can think of, maybe a relay, time to start following wires

 

get a wire tester and check to make sure that there is power to the wire. if there isn't I'm sure that you can come up with a way to rig it up so when you turn the key or lights on it comes on. It my last car the cluster didn't light up, I went to AutoZone, and bought some led lights, that wire up to a switch and did it that way.

 

thats a hell of an idea. I had to do the flashlight and cruise control this morning. Its wierd driving in total darkness.

 

just replace the lightbulb and the wats the one thing called that holds the light bulb..lol..the parts are fairly cheap...u should be able to get all the lightbulbs and the thing that holds the lightbulb replace for less than 15 dollars...if its not that then iono ur on ur own.

 

you got a pic of that setup. I mean how good does it light. I could wire it in with the radio Ignition wire to give it power along with a switch.

 

the ground seemed bad so I redid it, still not light. I'll check tonight. I think I'm getting around 17 volts? thats kinda wierd to me. I thought its suppose to be 12? I'm speaking about the dimmer switch red wires.

 

which setting did you have the tester set on? amps? volts? ohms? direct current? alternating current? you should never have a reading that high, it will change a bit, usually between 11 and 13 volts, if you are reading 17 you have some serious problems, like a voltage regulator or something, check your main batter fuse under the hood, sometimes they just skits out, if the electrode is corroded or nasty looking replace it, your alternator should only put out like 13.x volts, if you trully are reading 17 volts then i suggest you drive the car as little as possible untill yo fix it, check the current coming directl off the battery, from the terminals, then check the alternators current, then come back with more results


if your still reading over 13 volts there is a good chance you could over power part of your ecu


electical problems are tricky, just try what i suggest then come back with the info and we can go from there

 

I checked the cluster and right by the bulbs I'm getting 4 volts which sounds right because they are only 3 volt bulbs. I have power to the the cluster for illum. and the grounds are all good. I'm going to get another dimmer switch and go from there. I'm guessing the cluster is bad. You know the blue flex emery board. I'm going to pick up a cluster too. I hope an auto one will work with my manual cluster.