Dash and Taillights dont work
Dash and Taillights dont work Hey guys, I have a strange issue and I just want to burn the car to the ground at this point. Neither my dash lights or my taillights work at all when i try to get them to turn on manually. The weird thing is that when I hit the unlock/lock button on the key fob, everything lights up as normal for that brief second. What the hell is going on? I've checked fuses, fusible links and replaced bulbs, nothing seems to fix it. I did notice that the wire for the light in the spoiler had been chaffing against a rough edge inside the housing, which caused it to fray and there was a few strands exposed which could have possibly touched. Could that have caused my issue....maybe? I don't know anything about electrical issues, any help would be appreciated.
Joined: Nov 2003
Posts: 11,328
Likes: 346
From: Jacksonville, FL (originally from Toronto Canada)
First, try replacing the TAIL LPS fuse since it protects the parking lights and instrument panel illumination. Never rely on a visual inspection of a fuse because it can look fine even when blown. Always test with a tester or multimeter or replace with a known-good fuse of the same amperage.
If that doesn't solve the problem, get a multimeter or test light, pull out the headlight switch and check for power on the brown wire when the switch is in the P or ON position. If no power there, check for input power on the orange wire. If orange has power but brown doesn't then the switch is faulty. If orange doesn't have power, go back to step one and check the TAIL LPS fuse again.
If that doesn't solve the problem, get a multimeter or test light, pull out the headlight switch and check for power on the brown wire when the switch is in the P or ON position. If no power there, check for input power on the orange wire. If orange has power but brown doesn't then the switch is faulty. If orange doesn't have power, go back to step one and check the TAIL LPS fuse again.
Thank you for your reply. I tried swapping around the fuses with some other ones that worked correctly that were also 20a, and that didn't fix anything. I tested the wires with a multimeter and i am not getting power from either wire. This is my first time using a multimeter honestly, so i wasn't sure i was using it right. So i tested the bigger dull yellow wire and i received a reading from that so im pretty sure im using it right. I also have another headlight switch laying around and tried that and it still doesn't work.
Joined: Nov 2003
Posts: 11,328
Likes: 346
From: Jacksonville, FL (originally from Toronto Canada)
That circuit has power going directly from the TAIL LPS fuse to the headlight switch via the orange wire. Since you're not showing power on the orange wire at the switch but the fuse seems to be good, the next thing to check is if you are getting power at the fuse itself. Pull the fuse and use your meter to check for power in the fuse socket. If there is power at the fuse socket then the problem must be in the wiring between the fuse panel and the switch. If there isn't power there then we'll have to start looking at fusible links further back in the circuit.
After reading I found that the I/P 2 fuse in the engine bay is where the TAIL LPS fuse gets its power from, ive got power going to that fuse so im good there. Now I guess I need to trace the orange wire from the engine bay to the TAIL LPS fuse. How the heck do I do that? I guess I need to get under the fuse box to start chasing the wire down, but I don’t want to **** anything up under there, everything is wired so close together that its hard to tell where anything is coming from. Is there an easy way to trace the wire to test?
