No dash or park lights on 280ZX

[swiftless]

Hey guys,

 

Just the other night my dash and park lights decided to stop working. They were going fine, then I stopped the car, went away for 5 minutes and when I came back and turned on my headlights, I noticed that I didn't have any dash lights.

 

I've checked all my fuses and they are fine. This may or may not be related, but my horn also doesn't work. The relays for the horn and lights all click on when I turn them on and the headlights and stop lights are fine. The park lights and I'm guessing also the dash lights appear to run off of the same fuse which I've also tried replacing (I take out that fuse and the relay no longer clicks on).

 

I don't suppose anyone has had a similar issue or knows where I should start looking? I can't say I know too much about electrics.

 

Thanks in advance.

[Zedman240®]

Best investment is a good ol' test light with a small 12v globe in it. Fuses sometimes "look" fine but are actually broken/burnt. Reason is it has fooled me once before; fault was found to be a fuse that looked good but when removed, came apart in two pieces. That may not be your problem, but the test light tests circuits alot better than a multimeter. Buy one and get prodding around the circuits.

[swiftless]

Thanks for the response. Definitely a good suggestion to have.

 

Unfortunately the fuses aren't the issue, which I was hoping it would be to keep things simple :/

 

The head lamps run off of the same fuse as the park and dash lights and the head lamps still work, plus I can hear the relay literally click on and I've tried replacing the fuses to double check.

 

Thanks,

Donald

[Lynton]

I had a recent problem similar to what you are experiencing and it ended up being the internal headlights switch with dirt on the contacts worth a clean and let them burn for a while. Lynton

[zeds4ever]

Try checking the earth wire, had problems with my headlights & found that the black earth wire cnctn in the steering column shroud had parted company. Could be something of a similar nature.

 

                                        Regards: Alan. 

[swiftless]

Sorry for the late response guys. Ended up booking it into the mechanic as I didn't want to take my daily driver out of action while I play around!

 

If anyone is wondering, turns out the headlight switch was messing up and there was also quite a bit of corrosion on the wires.

 

However... They managed to mess up the electrics even more. Front and rear water now only spray when they want, interior lights sometimes turn off and I have to tap the steering column to bump them back on, the system check never performs when then car is first started, etc. Got it back in worse condition than I gave it to them and had to take it back to get it fixed up again.

 

Never going back to them!

 

Cheers,

Swiftless