By Diesel on Saturday, March 03, 2001 - 02:35 am: Edit

OK, so this really strange. I was driving down a local road, stopped to check the air pressure in the tires, and when I returned to the vehicle, the dashlights were nonfunctional. Before I got out of the vehicle to check the tires, the lights were functioning properly. Does anyone one know of similar problems with the dash lights? I remember reading a post about this awhile back, but cannot remember what the exact problem or solution was at the time. All the other lights including the turn signals, high beam indicator and abs light worked properly. The lights on the shifter failed to light up when the headlights were turned on, but once they were extinguished, the shifter lights illuminated. I checked all the fuses I could think of while I was looking for the problem. Any help with this issue would be greatly appreciated.

As a side note, I installed four Hella 4000s on the roof rack two days prior to this event. I wired them independently of all other circuitry in the vehicle. They are properly fused and grounded.

Thank you,
Diesel

'97 XD
61.5k

By Diesel on Tuesday, March 06, 2001 - 10:06 am: Edit

Does anyone have any ideas?

By Dan Sanderson on Tuesday, March 20, 2001 - 05:49 am: Edit

I think I have the solution. The exact same thing happened to me. All fuses are good, but still no Dash lights. Do this:

open glove box. Look in the upper right/front corner where the lens is for the glovebox light. Remove the lens and see if the light is burned out or any wires are loose on the metal connector. This piece broke on my 97 disco and my dash lights, shifter lights, and radio lights all failed to work. For some reason, LR tied the dash lights into this connector or visa versa. Let me know if this helps!!!!
Thanks,

By Diesel on Tuesday, March 20, 2001 - 09:34 am: Edit

Dan,

Much thanks to you. The glove box light bulb holder was broken. The positive terminal of the glove box bulb shorted to the frame and blew the #8 fuse. That fuse controls the RH running lights. Apparently, it also controls the instrument lights, shifter lights, radio lights, and who know what else. Once I changed the fuse, all was well. Thank you for your help.

Diesel