HELP No dash lights

M

My99Rover

Guest
My dash lights went out the other night. Along with that the console lights i.e climate control, window control do not light up either. The light on the clock and radio do not dim either. The headlights work, both high and low beams but the driving lights and my tail lights do not work. I have checked all the fuses and they are fine. I think there maybe a connection issue in the on/off switch for the lights. Any suggestions would be greatly appreicated. By the way I have a 99 series I Disco
 
DeanBrown3D

DeanBrown3D

Well-known member
Apr 29, 2004
765
0
www.discoweb.org
Is there a dimmer on the dash lights? My kid once turned it down fully (forget which vehicle is was now) but I had no dash lights for a (very painfull) moment until I realized what she'd done.
 
M

My99Rover

Guest
Yeah that was the first thing I checked. But that is not the problem. The dimmer switch wouldn't cause my driving and tail lights to stop working. Any more suggestions.
 
A

apg

Well-known member
Dec 28, 2004
3,019
0
East Virginia
I've lost my dash lights, too, and I can tell you what it *isn't*. Checked the rheostat first, but that wasn't it. There seems to be a separate fuse for every bulb or circuit *except* this one. On the D1, main panel fuse 8 also powers the glove box light, and 'marker' lights front and rear (the front is the low-wattage one inside the headlight nacel), plus a few others I have forgotten. I thought I might have blown/crossed something hooking up the Sankey trailer a while back, but that was not the case.

I removed every bulb and connector from the circuit, yet the fuse would still blow the moment it was energized. Dead short...somewhere. I finally ended up cutting the wire to the instrument lights so I could regain the tail and other lights which were needed for the state's annual inspection.

There's a short somewhere in that Medusa-like mass behind the dashboard. So far, I haven't worked up the courage (or made the time) to delve deeper into the wiring.

Cheers
 
K

kferg

Well-known member
Feb 28, 2005
183
0
Eastern NC
I had this happen on my '95 D1. Check your fuses, I had one blown that contolled these. However, the fuse was not the culprit. I would replace the fuse and everything would work. But as soon as I drove off a few yards, "pop" and off go the dash lights. Finally I figured there was a short in the system and looked in my Haynes manual at the wiring diagrams. At least in my '95 the dash lights and the lower rear bumper lights are on the same fuse/circuit. So I traced it back and found that on my lower rear passenger light that the wires had chaffed on the frame and worn thru the coating. So, when I replaced the fuse - no problem, BUT every time the truck moved the wire bumped the frame and blew the fulse. Some electrical tape and chafe protection cured the problem. Take a look at the wiring diagram for your electrical system and determine what is on the circuit/fuse. Then take a look at those connections and trace it back starting at the easiest culprits to get to. Good luck, I hope that helps.
 
S

sanger

Guest
it could be worse, my dash has more colored lights on than my x-mas tree did :mad:
 
D

Discoverme

Guest
Yea, this is your cars way of telling you that a short has happened and it won't light the dash lights because the rear lights are not functional. I'm guessing it's kind of a warning to tell you to investigate further. Any part of the lighting system that isn't functional will cause this; broken light switch or switches, pinched wires etc. A week ago when I changed the fog bulbs, I continuously blew the 20A fuse under the hood, ended up being a pinched wire. In fact this is the 2nd time, about a year ago when my light switch AND dimmer switch went out, the dash's wouldn't light and I had to replace the switch, yet if I continuously turned it on and off several times, it would eventually light the dash lights, all the while the main lights would be fine as they run on a different circuit than the rears and the dash etc.
 
M

My99Rover

Guest
That sounds like what my problem is Joe. Any clues as where to start? I am quite the novice.
 
M

My99Rover

Guest
Also, would it help just to replace to turn signal switch?
 
J

jlessard

Member
Apr 20, 2004
13
0
San Antonio, TX
I have the same problem with mine; all the dash lights are out along with tail lights I determined it to be the turn signal switch, because I can take a wire and touch the right connectors in the harness that hooks to the switch and every thing turns back on as normal.
Also for some reason when its real cold the switch starts to work.. or if I?m lucky I can switch on off on off real fast and sometiems it will stay on.
I just need to figure out how to take the turn signal switch off... It has me rather stumped.
 
D

Discoverme

Guest
It may but make sure you don't throw money at the problem. I'm banking on either the dimmer or headlight switch. With my car, I fixed the dimmer only to uncover that the headlight switch was also involved. If you have any electrical know how, you can bypass the dimmer so your dash lights will show up at full brightness (dimmer switch sits within this current which explains why if it fails, your entire dash/rear light system fails). Personally, I didn't do the dimmer fix so I can't go into much detail as I had just gotten the disco and was kind of scared of british electronics. It shouldn't be too hard to do and I'm sure anyone on here could tell you how to bypass it to find out which of the two it is. But if you're lucky and put out this extra legwork, you can save on buying two expensive electrical parts.
 
D

Discoverme

Guest
jlessard said:
I just need to figure out how to take the turn signal switch off... It has me rather stumped.
Click to expand...

It's actually not that hard to do, I did it in 5 minutes in the junkyard to get my $25 one ($250 savings). I wish I still had pictures of it but it was exactly 2 years ago that this happened to me and discoweb has switched servers so I doubt its in the history still. The haynes manual has some info on it if you need scans I have them.
 
B

benny

Well-known member
Jan 30, 2005
150
0
McGaheysville VA
I've been posting about this the last couple of days. My 96 D1 was doing the exact same. Found trouble to be the light switch. Wiggled a few wires and made sure connections were tight and lights magically appeared. I'll be getting a new switch soon to make sure it doesnt happen again. I can get by without the dash lights but I'm not too thrilled about driving around at night with no tail lights ;)
 
edthediscoman

edthediscoman

Well-known member
Nov 4, 2005
1,377
0
53
Rivertucky, Ca
Thats why they have rear fogs on there....turn them on when your rears go out
;-)
Mine is the stalk, I turn it halfway between and voila......... and this one is almost as popular as "the 3 amigos"!!
Then again I love quirky cars. No one EVER asks to borrow one of mine, as they know they WILL be stranded somewhere. I once gave away a Volvo to a buddy and I gave him the shop manual. He called me two weeks later and asked me if I had my own manual of wiring and bypasses, cause it looked nothing like the manual anymore.
So there are benefits!!
Ed
 
M

My99Rover

Guest
I sent an email to a guy at Atlantic British about a turn signal assembly. They sell it for $149 plus shipping. I'm going to give that a try. I have printed out distructions from Joey about how to replace the switch. I will let y'all know how things go. Thanks for all the input. It is always nice to know I don't own the only possessed Disco.
 
D

Discoverme

Guest
edthediscoman said:
Thats why they have rear fogs on there....turn them on when your rears go out
;-)

Ed
Click to expand...

Haha, I did the same thing for 2 weeks. Funny how land rover owners have a lot of unneccesary stuff on their trucks like that (headlight washers!!?) and even funnier how we find ways of using them
 
M

My99Rover

Guest
Thanks for all the input. I got the switch assembly from AB and it solved my problem. I'm legal again.
 
M

morrell

Member
Jul 7, 2005
13
0
I know this last post was from a while ago but thought I would give a shot at reviving it because I seem to be having a similar problem. In the last post, seems like the solution was a new steering column (turn signal, head/tail light switch/stalk) switch? How difficult are these to change?

My problem: Sometimes when I switch on the headlights, the dashboard lights and tail lights will go out. They will usually come back on at some point. The lighting on the dash and tail will be unaffected if I only turn on the parking lights.

Does this sound like a problem with the switch?

Thanks in advance for any help. -- Matt
 
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