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no dash backlights!!

Featured Replies

my 1997 OBW has no dash lights when i turn the headlights on. turn signals, warning lights, high beam indicator all work just no backlights. i tried the dimmer switch, wiggling it, but no luck. any ideas would be greatly appreciated :)

Helpful information needed: is it a new (to you) car? Did the lights work at some point and then died (after you fiddled with _____________), or they have never worked? Do other lights (i.e. ventilation controls background) work with the dimmer?

Anyone put in an aftermarket stereo?

 

(I answered one just like this someplace)

 

The magic smoke escaped the illumination controller. They usually die due to a short or a new stereo improperly installed. They sometimes go due to age.

 

You need to get to a junkyard befreo this guy does :)

 

http://www.subaruoutback.org/forums/110-gen-2-2000-2004/42255-dash-lights-temp-lights-out.html#post396369

i get alot that loose one side of dash lights a good whack on top of dash ushaly makes it come back on the bulbs are finiky but its only ever one side or other but rest of interior dash lights work

Well iof he has no dash lights (spedo hvac prndl glove box) then it is the module.

  • Author

i bought the car a year ago. there was no radio in it. the backlights have never worked and the lights for the HVAC do not work either with the dimmer switch. i have installed an aftermarket radio myself.

Sounds like someone tried to hook up the dimmer on the aftermarket radio and cooked the lighting module.

 

Two wires in the main radio plug, one is yellow w/blue the other white and blue. They are on the same side of the connector one right above the other. These can not be connected to an aftermarket radio because the dimmer control module will short and let out the magic smoke.

Modern cars do not have lights that go to ground. They feed back to a "controller" on a loop. The control is made so some lights dim, some go out, some stay on at full brightness. If they dont read the radio manual (or get a harness adapter) for the radio POOF.

Edited by nipper

Time to put on the expedition hat and go junk-yarding :D

Gte a bunch of them and sell them on ebay or wait till more people blow them up. Seems to happen a few times of year (I even did it)

  • 5 years later...

Anyone put in an aftermarket stereo?

 

(I answered one just like this someplace)

 

The magic smoke escaped the illumination controller. They usually die due to a short or a new stereo improperly installed. They sometimes go due to age.

 

You need to get to a junkyard befreo this guy does :)

 

http://www.subaruoutback.org/forums/110-gen-2-2000-2004/42255-dash-lights-temp-lights-out.html#post396369

Anyone put in an aftermarket stereo?

 

(I answered one just like this someplace)

 

The magic smoke escaped the illumination controller. They usually die due to a short or a new stereo improperly installed. They sometimes go due to age.

 

You need to get to a junkyard befreo this guy does :)

 

http://www.subaruoutback.org/forums/110-gen-2-2000-2004/42255-dash-lights-temp-lights-out.html#post396369

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