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Alright guys, I need the wisdom of the club here. I haven't had dash lights since I bought the car. I tore apart the instrument panel and tested the bulbs which all worked. The printed circuit board looked fine. I than probed the fuse for power and was receiving none but when tested for continuity it was fine. The wiring diagrams I'm following out of my Chilton manual suck, none of it matches what I'm looking at. So, any ideas? Suggestions? Its a 1988 Bonne LE.

Make sure the dimmer switch is turned up. Do you have power to either side of the fuse when the headlights are on?

Haha yea the dimmer switch is all the way up. When I tested the fuse with my test light I got nothing so I assume power to the fuse is bad.

I have FSM for 89 but not with me here at work. I am not sure if 88 was different or not. Unless someone else chimes in, I will look in the morning.

Cool, thanks! My chilton manual has the diagrams but they seem so haphazard its hard to follow.

Please note I am looking at the 1989 FSM and it may not be the same for the 1988.

Do you have any other lights (heater controls backlighting, power window switch illumination, radio backlighting)? The dash backlighting is on the same circuit as these.

If no, look at fuse 25 (5A), if power is not there, look at headlight dimmer switch. Between fuse 25 and the headlight switch is a remote dimmer module I am not familiar with. Headlight switch gets power from fuse 14 (25A).

If yes, then the problem is most likely in the cluster or wiring.

Images of FSM

Thank you for the diagrams!!! I have no radio backlighting, heater backlighting or window switch backlighting. I'll have to look at that fuse again. With the headlights off I do get normal illumination from the window and radio but when I turn on the headlights is when the radio winks out and I have no illumination from the others.

Where is the remote dimmer module and what does it look like?

Not familiar with it. I would check the fuses and switch first.

Remote dimmer module is i believe the scroll wheel on the light switch. Id pull one from a yard and swap it, if you can't find one i think i have a spare at home. And i can cross reference the 88 circuts tonight too.