Solved My instrument panel lighting was upgraded to LEDs but they aren't working.

[Malk67]

Here's the issue. I just replaced the bulbs in my instrument panel and they worked briefly then all the lights on the circuit went out. I checked the fuse and it's fine. Any ideas or suggestions what may have happened?
Thank you in advance.
:scratch:

 

[Jose A.]

how did you remove and replaced all the bulbs?

did you remove the entire instruments pod ?

or did you just pulled it out enough to get to the bulbs?

 

[Malk67]

I pulled the pod out enough to get to the bulbs from behind.

 

[Jose A.]

ok, I see.

in the back of the pod, there are usually 3 plugs with lots of wires, two are large plugs and the third is a small, 1-wire plug.

you need to pull the instrument pod again and make sure all three plugs are well seated, especially the single wire plug which feeds all the light bulbs.

 

[Malk67]

OK, will do that. Hopefully I haven't "screwed the pooch" and shorted something on the circuit sheet. I'll keep things up dated.

 

[Jose A.]

you cannot cause short circuits back there unless you had the ignition switch ON when you were doing this. and even then, not likely. it's pretty much foolproof.

did the dash lights go off all of a sudden while you were driving?

it's good practice to disconnect the negative cable of the battery when doing any electrical work.

 

[Malk67]

Ignition was off, but parking lights were on so I could be sure the bulbs were making contact while I replaced them. They're LED's so power draw is next to nothing.

 

[Jose A.]

ok, that could be the problem, the LEDs. Try putting back some of the original bulbs and see what happens.

 

[BrooklynBay]

A lot of these small LED bulbs only work when you plug them in one way, but won't work if you reverse them.

 

[Malk67]

It's not a polarity issue. I even went and tried replacing the dimmer switch. Not the problem either (although by doing so is no big deal since she has over 248,000 on her).
Is there a relay that controls the lights?
I'm almost at a loss and thinking about just putting "strip lights" behind the gauges.
The previous LED's work fine but were a little dim for my liking.

 

[BrooklynBay]

Plug a regular incandescent bulb into a socket to test the wiring. You'll be able to tell if it works as soon as you try it before you close the dashboard.

 

[Jose A.]

I agree with BrooklynBay, I would put the regular bulbs just to test if there is 12v power to the pod, if yes, then we know it's the LEDs.

 

[Malk67]

DAMMIT, Simple fix, 5 amp fuse went. I was looking at the wrong fuse. I was looking at the 15 amp in section 4.
Thanks for your help guys.

 

[Jose A.]

well Happy New Year!

 

[BrooklynBay]

Thanks for the update! Your thread is now marked solved in green letters. Take a picture of the dashboard with the new LED bulbs on at night to show us how it looks.

 

[Malk67]

Will do, was thinking of getting a few tonight.
You can actually tell the different colors on the display.