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humanz

Instrument Panel Not Lighting Up

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humanz

My instrument panel is acting weird. The battery light is burning and all the gauges are working (but reading lower than normal except the fuel gauge which never worked reliably anyway) but the warning lights are not lighting up. The lights for the turn signals, park lights, dipped and high beam all light up but nothing else will light up. The stop light, the handbrake light, the red lights for the gauges, etc. won't light up. And they were all working before.

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jackherer

As the battery light is on I assume you have checked the battery, alternator, battery clamps and gearbox ground cable are all OK? If they are all good I would check the grounds for the instrument panel next, they are on multiplugs on the side of the steering column bracket.

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humanz

Just to update this thread. Just finally managed to resolve this, thank God. I checked the ground cables and replaced two ends that I wasn't happy with but that made no difference. The battery was checked and it was ok, and I checked the grounds by the instrument panel to no avail. I traced the instrument cluster illumination circuit back to the fuseboard. There I just happened to test a few ground pins at the fuseboard and found a ground cable that wasnt registering on my multimeter. Traced it under the carpet all the way to the handbrake. Seems like both the cable for the handbrake switch and the particular ground switch had been severely pinched by the handbrake surround. Replaced the end of the ground cable and taped up the cable to the handbrake switch. Reconnected the battery and all the dash lights came on and the heater control lights lit up when I turned on the park lights, as they're supposed to.

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humanz

Just to update my last update. The problem has returned, so it doesn't look like my "fix" actually fixed anything. Will try to work on it tomorrow and see what I come across. It's just very strange. Currently, the instrument panel and dash light up when the headlights are switched on, but the actual warning lights ( STOP, battery light, water temp, oil temp, oil pressure etc.) fail to light up when you turn the key.

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jackherer

So there is no battery light now?

 

Try unplugging the wires to the alternator and oil pressure sensors then one by one ground them to the engine block, the relevant light should go on when the wire is grounded.

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backroadpug

I had a similar problem but was opposite got all warning lights but no gauges.. found a multi plug of earths at the steering colum had came off. Had to remove the shroud and if can remember there were 2 multi plugs at either side. So might be worth a look.

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humanz

As an update to this I got rid of the ground by the handbrake and the issue seemed resolved for a while. Of late, the battery light started glowing but it seems to all be related to a bigger issue I now have.

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