Technical Instrument Panel illumination problem

[Riv]

Hi

I hope someone can help.

I've got a 2004 2.0 Dyanamic and being the car is a Swedish sold version the headlights are set to be on permanently (and of course it's a left hand drive).

The problem I have is that the instrument lights (speedo, rev counter, fuel/temp gauge, stereo and heating instrument back lights) only come on intermittently. They normally come on when I start the car up and then stay on for a few seconds and then go out. They then come back on for a few seconds at random times during a trip. There are no problems with any other external or internal lighting.

Not really knowing much about car electronics, I'm assuming that the fact all the lights do actually illuminate that it's not a fuse or bulb issue, but perhaps a "earth wire" problem?

I've had a quick look around for any obvious loose wires under the dashboard, but I'd really appreciate and pointers/ideas as to where I should be looking if indeed it is a bad/faulty earth problem. And hopefully it will be something I can fix myself.

Many thanks and regards

Gavin

 

[Brittleware]

There's a dimmer button on the warning panel in front of the driver. Normally, the little left hand push button zero's the trip distance whilst the right hand one dims - and brightens - the back lights on the rev counter, speedo etc. It just might be that this is faulty. Repeatedly press this and the displays should change in small steps.

 

[Riv]

Hi Brittleware,

Thanks for the post, appreciate it.

I did try the dimmer button before but the lights never stayed on long enough to see if it worked on not. However after reading your post, I did manage to try it with all the lights functioning and the dimmer switch does work. The lights have been staying on a lot longer than previously (but they still turn off randomly) and as a result I've been trying to see if there was a common point when they went out and although not exclusively, they will always tend to go out when I indicate.

So maybe rather than an earth problem, it could just be a loose wire somewhere.

Shall I start looking around the stearing colomn area (indicator stalk, dimmer button etc) first?

Thanks again.

 

[Brittleware]

Hi Riv,

Sorry for delay - couldn't get to this site for a couple of days. If the lights often go out when you indicate that sounds as though it's all stalk related. So, worth checking for connections around that...

 

[Riv]

Nice one. I'll have a look and see if I can find anything in that area. Think I mentioned before, they don't exclusively go out when I indicate but it's a good place to start. Will let you know how I get on.

Thanks again.