[OCKanak]

At night my dash lights had been getting so dim I can barely see the instrument panel. They would sometimes brighten up if I rolled the dimmer switch up and down a couple of times. But recently that stopped working. The dome light and dash lights up when I roll the switch up and it clicks, sometimes.

Lately, the dash cluster lights start off in its barely visible, dim state, and eventually turn off while driving. So I can’t see any of the gauges.

The other night, the dash lights turned off (as usual), then the cluster shut completely off, including the gauges that all went to 0. This has never happened before. During this time, the stereo worked and headlights were still on. After a few minutes, the dashboard powered back on. Lights went to full power for a few seconds before dimming almost all the way down. Gauges were working. I tried rolling the dimmer wheel and it didn’t do anything. HOWEVER, for some reason I decided to press the dimmer wheel which caused the lights to comeback on. I released pressure and the lights went off. Did this repeatedly with the same results, with the wheel in different positions. Eventually, the dash lights stayed on in the bright position. I’m afraid touching it will revert back to its dark setting. I assume this means I need a new switch assembly. Here are my questions:

First of all, is a new switch the absolute fix? Do I replace the entire switch box or is there an internal fix. And second, can a bad dimmer switch cause the entire cluster to shut completely off or is this an unrelated issue?

Thank you!

 

[badpoints]

Mine does the same thing. It is the switch. I have been meaning to replace for years now.

 

[OCKanak]

Good to know. Since the dimmer itself doesn’t control power, I’m mainly concerned with the cluster turning completely off. Perhaps, the power is run inline and the switch/dimmer was the cut off? We’ll see if it happens again.

 

[jnrsesv]

I had a similar problem in our 2005 Platinum. Dash lights would dim and eventually the gauges would "freeze" in place while I was driving. The lights and gauges would not return to normal unless I turned key off completely then restarted.

I traced my problem to the electrical connection behind the cluster. I removed dash bezel, unscrewed the 4 cluster bolts and pulled cluster out enough to gain access to cluster electrical connection. I simply unplugged connection, twisted 1 end of connection 360° and plugged back in.

Every so often the problem will arise but, nothing like before. I turn truck off and restart, good to go!

 

[OCKanak]

Thanks. I’ll check the cluster connections.