no dash illumination lights?

speedo works, tach works, blinkers and high beam lights work, but there are no illumination lights for speedo or tach. I checked fuses and all were ok. I pulled dash cluster out to take a look and found nothing unusual. There are several big bulbs and several small bulbs. By process of elimination im guessing couple of big bulbs provide illumination but they all look ok to me. Any help or suggestions would be GREATLY appreciated..

turn the dimmer switch? lol

turn the dimmer switch? lol
real funny...... That was the first thing i tried :)

check your grounds

I'd say go for it and just change the bulbs, but I'm not sure how hard they are to find. Is your dimmer switch ok cause when I had a dash fire it was because my dimmer switch had a short right behind the cd player and after the fire I had no tail lights and no dash lights. Look under the hood at the tail light relay its in the box by the battery.

I'd say go for it and just change the bulbs, but I'm not sure how hard they are to find. Is your dimmer switch ok cause when I had a dash fire it was because my dimmer switch had a short right behind the cd player and after the fire I had no tail lights and no dash lights. Look under the hood at the tail light relay its in the box by the battery.
Thanks, i must have a short. Tail light fuse was blown, replaced it and it blew again. not sure about the relay, Im tracking one down. Any info on looking for short somewhere would be awesome. I have torn apart dash and am going through the wires right now.

Thanks, i must have a short. Tail light fuse was blown, replaced it and it blew again. not sure about the relay, Im tracking one down. Any info on looking for short somewhere would be awesome. I have torn apart dash and am going through the wires right now.


You didn't happen to just put in a cd player did ya? Cause if you did then make sure that the dimmer wires didn't fuse together cause thats what happened to mine. I had a dash fire make sure that you didn't do the same this all happened right after I got the car.

The fuse that you changed, you said blew again, I changed the same fuse after it had blown the first time and that is when the fire started just seconds after that. But you know what is funny is that the fuse never blew after that but it melted up like a pretzel but never blew. Now how can the colored plastic around the fuse melt all to hell but just so happen to not blow? I don't understand why it will get hot enough to melt but not to blow.

problem solved, it was the stereo. put in a pioneer cd. I worked in a stereo installation place and never had that problem in shop or installing for friends. I tried a coulple of different wiring solutions, all of which kept blowin the f'n fuse. Wired stereo up to a toggle switch, left factory stereo + wires alone=walla problem solved. WEIRD

problem solved, it was the stereo. put in a pioneer cd. I worked in a stereo installation place and never had that problem in shop or installing for friends. I tried a coulple of different wiring solutions, all of which kept blowin the f'n fuse. Wired stereo up to a toggle switch, left factory stereo + wires alone=walla problem solved. WEIRD

Well when I put in my stereo I had bought a wiring harness and it had two orange wires that caused the dash fire I had did you use a harness or did you happen to accidently use the dimmer switch wires? Well you figured it out thats all that matters and welcome to AF.

Just tapped into the factory pos-acc-and ground. called up one of my boys from car toys and he said its because the factory wiring is made for the double din type--cassette and cd player. When I put the pioneer in, i took out the cassette and left the stock cd in just to fill in the lower gap. It totally changes the voltage that goes through the wiring somehow since the stock cd isnt hooked up. STUPID!!! I asked him what the solution would be and of course he said "UH, I DUNNO" pretty pathetic when two pretty good stereo installers cant figure this shit out. its embarrassing using a toggle switch to turn the stereo on and off. LOL