Dash lights, electrical issue

[ducrnd]

01 exp 4.0l xlt.
problem is sometimes I turn my lights on and no dash lights, console lights tail lights come on.
then after a few minutes , sometimes they will , sometimes they dont.
I turn on and off the key, sometimes help, again sometimes not.
turn the light switch on and off, again sometimes yes , and no.
I have taped on the fuses and relays, and have never had them come on doing this.....
Anyone have experience like this and found out and answer ???

 

[J_C]

I hate to have you tear out the dash and find it's something else, but from what I've seen that is most often a dash circuit board, or solder joint, crack. It is something that someone familiar with soldering and who has a multimeter can DIY repair "if" that's the cause.

Otherwise, I think that tapping on the fuses is not quite enough to find a blown one. These days it's a real pain to work on electrical issues without a multimeter.

Usually you would pull it and look at the element inside, or stick multimeter or test light probes between the two exposed slots on top (or pull it and test on the fuse blade contacts), or swap in a known good fuse, or measure for 12V on the output of the respective circuit, or check whether other things operating on the same fuse still work, or check whether power is getting to the dash connector.

I'll see if I can dig up a wiring diagram from what I have here, keeping in mind that I meant to collect them for my '98 so whatever I may find would hopefully apply to yours as well. Okay, from what I can make out, it looks like the dash illumination power should come through a red/black striped wire, so with a multimeter you could check whether you're getting 12V between that and chassis ground to confirm power is getting to it when you have the dash lights set to come on.

If power is getting to it then you'd trace the circuit to see where power is interrupted if you can't find a circuit board crack or broken solder joint. There may be a topic somewhere on this forum with pictures of the dash circuit board.

If it does turn out to be the dash, many recommend that you replace all the bulbs on it while you have it out, and use LED type for that IF you want that next level of repair, although truth is, standard incan bulb replacements at this point will probably last most 2nd gen owners until they retire the vehicle, and if the product is not carefully matched to the dimmer control then it may not dim equally to everything else which could be good or bad. The '01 dash went with a light colored background too didn't it? That could also make a difference.

 

[BrooklynBay]

Check the headlight switch, connector, dimmer function, and the multifunction switch in the steering column. See if the high beams work the next time you have an issue with the main headlight switch.