farmer Posted January 19, 2014 Share Posted January 19, 2014 (edited) I have another post on here with my dashlights not working and I have ordered another module - about fifty dollars, which isn't an issue with this car. We have winter in Iowa and the car's worth a lot more than I have in it. I tried grounding the wihite wire (ground) to by pass the dimming function, but no luck. i have the hot purple wire, the white for ground and a number of blue and a couple of black wires. I'm trying to figure out how this works. The hot feed is apparently from the purple wire and the system grounds the lights incrementally to the ground with the metering done at the stalk on the steering column. But are all the lights involved connected to the module with their own ground and hot feed? I don't see any other way for it to work. If this is sthe case how does grounding the one main ground wire to the module plug bring on the lights... unless some parts of the module are still working to connect everything. Appreciate the help. Edited January 19, 2014 by farmer Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Fairtax4me Posted January 19, 2014 Share Posted January 19, 2014 The illumination module is tricky. Basically it controls ground on both the white/yellow and yellow/blue wires. But it also gets its power from one (or both, not entirely sure which). Theoretically if you ground the yellow/blue wire, the lights should come on full bright. If your module fried, (did it let out the magic smoke?) it could have blown the fuse as well. Be sure to check that. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
farmer Posted January 19, 2014 Author Share Posted January 19, 2014 No smoke from it. There is a 10 amp protecting it and that's good. I did ground the white wire by peeling a little insulation and grounding that, but no luck. The purple wire is hot. I was assuming just grounding the white in some manner would get me lights if it could do it. I did check the light fuse under the hood and it was still good. Thanks for the reply Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Fairtax4me Posted January 19, 2014 Share Posted January 19, 2014 The fuse for the illumination relay (20A) is under the hood, but the fuse for the lights and the module (10A) is in the dash fuse panel. Both the white/yellow and yellow/blue should have 12V with the key on and lights on. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Cougar Posted January 21, 2014 Share Posted January 21, 2014 I assume the car is a 2000 Outback you are asking about. My info shows a blk/wht wire as the return wire for the lights. The fact that the lights didn't change when you grounded the white wire means you are not working on the correct wire. If power is good under load to the lights then forcing a ground on the return side will force the lights on full brightness. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
farmer Posted January 21, 2014 Author Share Posted January 21, 2014 Thanks a lot Cougar. This is my 2000 Outback and the plug connecting to the module only has one white wire, but there are black ones. If they don't need the module in the circuit, I should be able to test the black wires with an ohm meter for continuity to ground. Let me check that out. I grounded the only white wire (a completely white), but maybe I should be on a black with maybe a white stripe. It wouldn't suprise me if I had the wrong wire, but I swhould be able to narrow this down. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Cougar Posted January 21, 2014 Share Posted January 21, 2014 My info shows that the same violet wire that supplies power to the lamps also ties to the module. I assume you are working on the correct module. My info doesn't show any white wire going to the illumination control module, but maybe my info isn't for your model year. If you were on the correct wire the lights would have changed. The info shows six wires going to the module. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
farmer Posted January 22, 2014 Author Share Posted January 22, 2014 (edited) Well, in checking this further, on the plug as it sits, without the module plugged is - a hot purple (or violet), a hot black with white stripe, and a white wire that is not grounded to anything. I'm sure of the module as being the illumination control module. It's labeled as a Cont Assy - Illumi # 83023AE01A. It is a six wire plug. The question I have in that I can get dash lights without the dimming function (which I'm fine with) is which wire should I ground and when I do should I leave the module plugged in as a jumper between terminals or should I take it out and jumper with wires at the open end of the plug? As always, appreciate the help. Edited January 22, 2014 by farmer Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Fairtax4me Posted January 22, 2014 Share Posted January 22, 2014 If the module is bad just leave it unplugged. It appears the black/white stripe is the ground for all of the lights. Jumping that wire to ground should make them turn on. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
farmer Posted January 22, 2014 Author Share Posted January 22, 2014 Ok I'll give that a try. My order on a replacement module was cancelled for availability reasons. So I'm over to plan "B". "C" was a flashlight, which i've been using. Appreciate it. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Cougar Posted January 22, 2014 Share Posted January 22, 2014 What you describe about the connector and wires seems to indicate you do have the correct module though I can't explain the white wire. Here are the pin number and wire colors that my info shows: Pin 1 Blu/grn Pin 2 Blk/wht--return ground through module for lights Pin 3 Grn Pin 4 Blu Pin 5 Vio--PWR Pin 6 Blk--Gnd The other wires not designated are for the dimmer control pot connections. It would be normal for the blk/wht wire to show battery voltage on it if it is not connected to ground if it is the correct wire since the circuit would be open and no current can flow, so all the voltage will be across the open connection of the series circuit. If you want to be safe you could use a test light probe connected to ground and the probe tip tied to that wire. If it is the correct wire hopefully you will see the dash lights light up slightly at least, while the probe is in series with the lights. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
farmer Posted January 22, 2014 Author Share Posted January 22, 2014 Thanks Cougar. I plan on trying this afternoon and will post back on hopefully sucess. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
farmer Posted January 22, 2014 Author Share Posted January 22, 2014 I grounded the black wire with the white stripe and it brought on the dash lights - hallelujah!!!! I looked more closely at the white wire and see it has a light blue stripe on it so it may have been referenced as something other than a white wire, dunno. I really appreciate the help from Cougar and Fairtax4me. This helps to no end. I may go ahead and see I can come up with a module for this car, but if not, still OK. Thanks a bunch, Later. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Cougar Posted January 22, 2014 Share Posted January 22, 2014 You're welcome for the help and glad you got the correct wire at last. Using the blk wire as pin 6 what pin is this wht/blu wire on? Since it isn't power or ground and doesn't go to the lights it seems it has to tie to the dimmer control by using the process of elimination. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
farmer Posted January 23, 2014 Author Share Posted January 23, 2014 This wire, Cougar, would be positioned like this: There are six pins. Four across and one up on each side to form a "U" shape. If you laid the four pins flat, looking at the end profile, on the top right would be a blue wire and just under it on the right would be the white wire with the light blue stripe. The black/white ground that got me lights is on the left side of the "U". I'm not sure how to reference it with pin numbers, sorry. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Cougar Posted January 24, 2014 Share Posted January 24, 2014 Your description of the U shape fits the diagram shown in the manual. The wire is in pin 2 and pin 1 is the other wire position across from it. Pin 3 is under pin 1 and pin 6 is under pin 2. The black ground lead, pin 6, is under pin 2. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
farmer Posted January 24, 2014 Author Share Posted January 24, 2014 That sure sounds like this. Appreciate all the help on this thing and other Subie issues I've had. I did find a broken wire on my taillight problem. Hopefully that will be my last Subie frontier for a while. Take care Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Cougar Posted January 25, 2014 Share Posted January 25, 2014 Well I guess we have things "pinned down" here. You're welcome for the help and if you have more issues let us know. Technicians are standing by. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Brandy69 Posted February 20, 2016 Share Posted February 20, 2016 I replaced the illumi module in my 2001 Outback and got my instrument lights working again. Part number of the module is 83023AE01A. I like to fix modules whenever possible so I removed the cover from my old module and snooped around. The only thing I found that didn't look right was a large transistor riveted to a large heat sink. The circuit board is discolored where the legs of this transistor are soldered. BTW, the part number on the transistor is D1062. I found this transistor to be available on eBay. Has anyone here tried fixing this module? I'll add here that I had another module available to me- part number 83023FA000 (pre 2001?) I plugged it in to my car and all its functions worked. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Brandy69 Posted February 21, 2016 Share Posted February 21, 2016 I purchased 5 of the D1062 transistors for 7 bucks shipped on EBay from a vendor in China. I should have them in about 12 days or so, then we'll see if a new transistor will bring this pricey module back to life for cheap. Stay tuned... Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
robm Posted February 22, 2016 Share Posted February 22, 2016 Let's hope you are going to get real D1062 transistors. Fake transistors, especially large power transistors, are really common. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
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