I have a 1998 SLT with a Cummins diesel and tow package. I tow a 5th wheel trailer. While I was driving with my lights on, all of my instrument lights suddenly went out as well as my truck's parking lights and all of my trailer towing lights. Headlights and brake lights wotk fine on both truck and trailer. Does this sound like a problem with the dashboard light switch? or ??? Thank for any help.

Steve Z

 

Sounds like a bad switch to me. Did you recently add any kind of load to the dash lighting? Stereo, gauge lightting, etc?


Check all the corresponding fuses before you replace the headlight switch. You will have to check under the dash as well as the PDC under the hood.


Good luck with your ride.

 

its a blown fuse in the box in the engine compartment.. forgot what fuse it was for.. maybe parking lights or dash asseccories.. but my truck did the same thing.. was offroading 1 night and i noticed my dash lights were working.. got out to look at the fuse and my parking and marker lights werent working either.. just a fuse bud.. find it and you'll be set

 

I had this problem and I know a few other people on here have. Usually its a short in the dash from the head unit. It blows a fuse, and will keep blowing a fuses until you find the short.

Do you have an after market head unit? If you do just take the unit out and make sure all the connections are good and ANY bare wires, even the ones not being used are covered up with electrical tape.

 

its just a fuse in the fuse box under the hood.. only happened once and i have a after market headunit so i know its not that.. it just randomly blew.. im just saying to check that 1st because i KNOW its blown.. and see if it happens again.. if it does.. then you the expensive /time consuming route of finding the problem

 

Are you all sure it's a fuse under the hood and not in the fusebox to the left of the dash? I just went through this with my 1997. I am certain diesels and gassers have fuse panels laid out in the same fashion.

Check your 5 amp fuses. The cover has a layout of what fuses control what functions.

 

Thanks for all the timely advice! There are inded two fuse boxes - one on the driver's side about seat level when the door is opened, and the other is under the hood. Tomorrow, I'm going to check every fuse in each location. Wish me luck!

 

well not each and every one lol.. im sure the wiper or a/c fuse wouldnt affect the lights.. but something related to the dash or marker lights... i dont really understand why the marker lights and dash lights are connected though.

 

Bummer. I checked all of the fuses in the power distribution unit under the hood as well as all fuses (except air bag) in the fuse box in the extreme left of the dashboard. None of the fuses is blown. I didn't merely eyeball them as sometimes you can't see the break in the fuse. I checked the continuity between the blades with a meter and they all have continuity. The problem circuit is likely the one for the Park Lamp as the parking and dash lights are out when I pull the light switch out to the first detent. In my fusebox, that fuse is in cavity #1. I checked the hot side of the fusebox for cavity #1 and I've got 12V. So I'm getting power to cavity #1 in the fusebox and the fuse isn't blown in cavity #1. Any other thoughts before I replace the light switch?

DieselDemon: Earlier this year I added transmission temp and pyro gauges and they are connected to the dash lights. If they caused the dash and park lights to die, wouldn't this be reflected in a blown fuse? In addition, since I have the tow package, my understanding is that the factory beefs up the wires for the current capacities to accomodate the additional running lights of the trailer. In my case this amounts to about an additional 8-10 lights on my trailer. Hard to imagine that the low current draw of 2 more gauges would compromise that circuit.

Thanks for any of your insights.

Steve

 

so you didnt pull them out to check them?? thats something i would do just to make sure..