Dash light mutiny!!!

It seems the dash lights in my '92 have decided to gang up on me. They've always had a weird habit of comming on for about 30 seconds after the driver's door is shut, with key and headlights off. As they did turn off, I wasn't all that worried and ignored it. Recently, they started staying on all the time, resulting in a dead battery within several hours. The only way to prevent this has been to pull the fuse. The dimmer does have an off position, but it doesn't work. My guess is there must be a 12v short to the dash light power wire somewhere before the fuse and after the switch, but shouldn't the leads go through the fuse before they go through the switch?

I'd like to know if anyone else has seen this before I go pulling my dash apart in 6 million pieces, take off 5000 layers of electrical tape, and follow one of 200 wires to find a short. As a last ditch effort I may end up cutting the lead to the fuse block and tapping it into an ACC wire so they can't work when the key is off.

I had the same problem in my 1993 Regal Limited. I replaced the headligt/parking light switch and it fixed it. The light are supposed to come on after you exit the car and go off after 30 seconds. I pulled the fuse for 3 months. I decided to take out the dimmer switch to see if I could see any problems with it, I broke it and got a replacement at the junkyard for 15 bux. Fixed the problem.
Hope this helps.
Matt

It seems the dash lights in my '92 have decided to gang up on me. They've always had a weird habit of comming on for about 30 seconds after the driver's door is shut, with key and headlights off. As they did turn off, I wasn't all that worried and ignored it. Recently, they started staying on all the time, resulting in a dead battery within several hours. The only way to prevent this has been to pull the fuse. The dimmer does have an off position, but it doesn't work. My guess is there must be a 12v short to the dash light power wire somewhere before the fuse and after the switch, but shouldn't the leads go through the fuse before they go through the switch?

I'd like to know if anyone else has seen this before I go pulling my dash apart in 6 million pieces, take off 5000 layers of electrical tape, and follow one of 200 wires to find a short. As a last ditch effort I may end up cutting the lead to the fuse block and tapping it into an ACC wire so they can't work when the key is off.


Had a similar problem. I replaced my headlight/dimmer switch with a used one for about 7 dollars. Fixed the problem. I was advised there is a variable resister within the dimmer switch which shorts out. Hope this helps.