My dash went completely black the other day. The Clock and the Radio still work, but the door chime and all dash lights are totally out.

I did notice that one of the lights behind the heater/air cond. controls were out before this, but I expect that's just a bulb out.

I check out all the fuses, and they look good. Even replaced the ones that I thought might be the problem. And, in case someone might ask, I did check the dimmer.

I _did_ have a new head unit put in several months back...and this happened sometime after that, maybe 2 months after.

Any ideas on why I'm in the dark? (jokes are welcome)

Thanks,
Matt

 

Matt,

I've had same problem, it turned out to be the headlamp switch. The entire turn signal stalk should be removed, and then when you carefully open up the base, you will see ALOT of carbon deposit on the contacts. Either use a dremmel, or scratch it off until it's all shiny.

When your dash lights and chime are out, do you find that your tail lamps are out as well? When this problem progresses this happens and later, you get no headlamp...

 

Thanks for the reply.

Interesting. I'll have to take off that part of the dash and have a look.

No, my break lights are just fine. But, if the headlamps might go out as a result...no good. I'll check it out.

Anyone else with a similar experience?

 

I have the same problem right now also. I had posted a thread a couple days ago. Someones was saying that the TCU (Timming control unit) was reasponsible for this. Also you should check your back running lights. The nice lady police officer told me yeasterday that mine are not working but i didnt mine..

 

Hmm... So when you guys talk about the tail lights and back running lights, you mean the red lights that are in the back on when your headlights are on, no? I will have to double check this.

Matt

 

when the dash lights go out, your tail lights will go out too. same circuit.. your brake lights will still work, but the ones that come on when you turn on your headlights will not.

most of the time when I've seen this problem, it's because the illumintation wire behind the stereo has been cut or installed improperly. on our cars, there's the illumination wire, which provides a +12V when the lights are on, and there's the dimmer wire which changes voltage based on the dash light's brightness. often times the installers will get those confused since they are the same color wire, but a different color stripe.

might want to spend 10 minutes to pull the head unit and make sure those wires aren't dangling loose behind the head unit or crossed or anything like that.
for the wire colors, go here:
http://mattblehm.com/faq/wiring_info/radio_info/

 

That would link my problem to my recent stereo purchase. If the illumination wire is not connected correctly, the dash lights wouldn't work. I believe the work is under a lifetime warantee (BestBuy). I could probably have them take a look at it as well.

Thanks for the info...I'll investigate and let you know what I find.

Matt

 

I checked the tail lights and sure enough. No worky. Scary that I've not known for so long. I think I'll have fist the bestbuy guys check out the illumination wiring from when they installed the stereo, and then go from there.

Matt

 

Took me all Friday afternoon and better part of Saturday to figure it out. My dash lights went out and shortly after, one of the headlamps died. I ended up tracing the wires from headlamp through the firewall, and figured out that it was somewhere between the fusebox and the inside part of the firewall. I ended up just pulling the dash apart, and after pulling the turn signal stalk, I tried "jumping" the contacts in the wiring harness, and foundout that I could make the dash lights and headlamps light up...

Anyway, hope it's the wiring behind the stereo. If not, taking the dash apart isn't so hard, just time consuming...

good luck

 

_sigh_ I took the maxima back to BestBuy and they looked at it for a few hours. When I came back he told that the factory stereo had an illumination wire as well as a dimmer wire. Makes sense. The new stereo doesn't have either. So, he did _something_ to them so that the tail lights and dash lights come on whenever the car is on. Did he splice them right into the battery wire or something?

So, I'm driving home, and I stop at the ATM, and my car starts going a little nuts. Radio and heater on and off, on and off. Lights dimming and brightening over and over. In a parking spot, I turn off the car, and of course...it wouldn't start.

So, my wife came and jumped the car so I was able to drive it home. On the way there, if I let off the accellerator, ALL the lights on the car dimmed to nearly nothing. (Headlights, taillights, interior, dash...everything). The faster I was reving, the brighter the lights got. Also, ever since the jumpstart, the radio and heater no longer come on at all. A few fuses in the process maybe? Also, the battery holds no charge now....or doesn't charge up or something. The car doesn't even TRY to start now.

I called the BestBuy guy, and he told me that it's probably my Charging system, and is most likely not related to the work he did, or anything with the stereo. He said the would have a look at it, and suggested we "put it back to how it was before" (when the tail / dash lights didn't work.) I've never had any electrical problems before this...so I know it can't be something un-related to the stuff he was doing.

Does anyone know what he might have done to cause the lights to all dim with the engine like that? I'd like to tell him how to fix it when I go down there tomorrow.

When you put in a aftermarket stereo with no dimmer / illumination wire...what do you do with the stock wires?

I so don't want this to turn into more of a mess.

Matt

 

Man, I'm having the same trouble! I recently installed a new head unit with a metra kit. Maybe they have the kits wired wrong?

My instrument lights don't come on, and chime doesn't work either, first it was kind of intermittent, but now they just seem to be out. Also noticed that the wipers only work on the higher speed setting. Will have to check tail lights, that's pretty dangerous!

The only other thing that I think could have caused my dash lights to go out is I connected my alarm light flasher output to the parking light wire in the harness connected to the TCU (timing control unit)(clear box in front of factory alarm box). Anyone know if this would cause trouble?