89 corvette dash light problem

[davidray]

Hey everyone! I got an 89 vette with a little problem, i think. When the headlight switch is in, the dash lights up fine. When you pull them out, they go dim. I live in missouri and i was making a trip to michigan when i think i fugured out the problem. When i started driving it was daylight out, as it started to get darker, i turned the headlights on. As it got darker, the interior lights got dimmer, finally the dash went black when it was dark outside. I had to use a flashlight to see how fast i was going. Does anyone know if there is a sensor to replace?

[StarsEnd00]

it's not a sensor, the digital guages in the c4's were just plain bad. do your turnsignal and high beam icon's light up when it's out? you'll probably need to have it rebuilt which runs about 300-350 depending on who does it. ecklers does it for 350 and I haven't had a problem with mine since. also I've been told there is a conversion kit for analog guages, the custom kind, though I haven't found it yet.

[davidray]

the turn signal and bright light work. At night when the dash lights go out, if you use a flashlight, you can still see all the numbers and everything, its just not backlit. I noticed the problem after installing a new stereo. The previous owner had cut the wire harness off. There looks to be a couple of bare wires left. I talked to another corvette owner and he has had the same problem immediatley following a new stereo install. I wonder if there is a connection there somewhere. Now my stereo dont work at all. The radio does come on, but no noise out of the speakers. Im going to order a new wire harness and install a different stereo. Ill see if that helps.

[MalRay]

The reason the dash lights dont work is the power feed for the dash lights runs through the radio first. If you or whoever installed the radio used a adapter to adapt the wires there should be two orange wires that need to be conected together one should be labeled dimmer and the otherlight feed conect these together and the lights will work. Hope you get it fixed Mal

[Catman-'87]

Originally Posted by davidray

Hey everyone! I got an 89 vette with a little problem, i think. When the headlight switch is in, the dash lights up fine. When you pull them out, they go dim. I live in missouri and i was making a trip to michigan when i think i fugured out the problem. When i started driving it was daylight out, as it started to get darker, i turned the headlights on. As it got darker, the interior lights got dimmer, finally the dash went black when it was dark outside. I had to use a flashlight to see how fast i was going. Does anyone know if there is a sensor to replace?

Sounds as if the photo cell has gone bad. This is a small window above the speedo which senses the light and brightens the dash in daytime and dims it in darkness. Check Corvette magazine tech article by Gordon Killebrew on Corvettemagazine.com. Hope this helps.