Weird dash light issue (cheap fix)

[Slartibartfast]

I found a weird issue with my dash lights, stumbled on a fix, and thought I'd share in case someone else has the same problem.

 

When I turned my parking lights on, the dash lights didn't always come on. If they did, they'd stay on, but if I turned them off, there was a good chance they wouldn't come on again. I cleaned the contact in the headlight switch, but the parking light circuit wasn't the problem... the outside lights worked even when the dashboard didn't. It was good to know I wasn't driving with no tail lights, but being able to see the gauges is still kind of important.

 

Upon closer inspection, it seemed like the dash lights would turn on every time if the engine wasn't running, but very rarely if it was. This didn't make much sense. I also noticed that the dimmer did nothing to adjust brightness when the lights were on.

 

I pulled out the dimmer, which was more trouble than it should've been (had to take it apart from the back because the surround absolutely would not pop out of the dash) and found that the contacts for the little scroll wheel whatsit were bent away from the circuit board and covered in gunk. The circuit board behind had a surprising amount of crud on it as well. I cleaned out what I could and bent the contacts to where they touched the circuit board again. I had to hot-glue the control wheel bracket to stop the thing from flickering, especially since I'd broken off the little metal tooth washer thing that held the bracket down. I put it back together, tested it again, and it works again!

While I was in there, I removed the dead incandescent light and its mounting whatsit from the dimmer. I didn't have a new bulb that size, but I did have a new 3v LED and a 1k ohm resistor, so I used those. A few solder joints and I've got one more dash switch that works and lights up like it should.

[adamzan]

Nice! So basically years of filth were the cause, lol.

 

How does that LED look in there compared to the rest. I really want to replace the burn out ones on mine (read: all of them).

[kdj]

Like he said...way too trouble shoot!

[Slartibartfast]

Thanks! I'm happy to have it fixed, I was worried there was something screwy in the wiring, and I'm tired of taking this dashboard out!

 

The LED's not bright enough to be distracting, but it is a little brighter than it needs to be. I might try adding some kind of diffuser if I open it up again. I did try the blue condom off the stock bulb, but that just made the light blue (go figure), which wasn't really what I was after. I'll have to experiment when I do the bulbs in the other switches. Maybe the warm white LEDs would be a little softer.

 

 

Here's some of the gunge that was on the circuit board. Given the other disgusting crap I found in this rig, I suspect it's largely cigarette derived. There was enough greasy crap between it and the board that I doubt it was shorting anything... still nice to know it's gone.

 

I didn't take a picture after installing the resistor, but I ended up just cutting one of the circuit board traces on the far right (that went to the incandescent) and soldering the resistor there.