98 Bonneville Dash light problems

[jpark09]

I just recently bought a Bonnie and, shes got some issues. The dash lights behind the gauges, the steering wheel lights, and the radio buttons wont light up. Also, the radio/fan controls display flickers on and off from time to time. My only guess would be that there are some broken or loose wires somewhere. What is the best way to approach this problem and will I be diving in over my head?

[toddster]

obvious question would be, have you checked to see if your dimmer switch isn't just turned all the way to off??

Once you confirm that the dimmer is on, you can start by checking for loose fuses. Then follow up by looking at your ground bus connections. there are two of them, one in the drivers side front door sill and one in the passengers side front door sill. over time they corrode and cause all kinds of electrical quarks! does your steering wheel controls work at all? if they don't there is a set of fuses located up under the dash just below the steering column. they are for the steering wheel controls....


click here for ground bus visual

[jpark09]

Its not the dimmer switch that was the first thing that I checked. I have not gotten a chance to check the ground bus connections but I will look into that. As for the steering wheel, all the controls work it just wont light up. Could there be a problem with the dimmer switch maybe? Does the power for the lights have to come through the dimmer switch and maybe its not getting the power to the lights? I really have no clue at this point..

[toddster]

It may be worth your time pulling out the dimmer switch to take a look at the connector and plug going to it. The older Bonneville's (1992-1995) had problems with the headlight switch burning up or melting causing all kinds of flickering and dash light outages. The dimmer/headlight switch is an all-in-one type unit, so typically you will have to replace the whole unit once you determine that is the problem.

Do you have an auto salvage yard close to where you live?

You could find another switch from an another Bonneville of the same year to swap them out to see if that is in fact your problem.

The older switches will not work in your car from 1992 to 1995. But you can use 1996 and newer. Even if the wiring is not the same you can swap out the wires going to the switch. I've done it and fixed my 1995, and 1996 I had...

[jpark09]

yep there are a few salvage yards nearby I'll have to take a look for another switch. I have a pretty good feeling that my switch has gone bad.

[jpark09]

I finally found a headlight switch, does anyone have any tips on how to tackle changing it out? I havent really tried taking anything off yet but it looks like just one piece up above the cluster held in by 3 screws i know it cant be that easy though.

[jpark09]

Well, I replaced the headlight switch a everything started working perfectly until smoke started coming out from behind the dash and my headlight switch burnt out...