Helping out a young neighbor that appears to have overloaded the instrument panel on his 06 Dakota while trying to add fog lights to a truck that didn't come with the option, but was pre-wired for them. He ran a hot wire to the headlight switch to see if newly added fog lights would light up. They didn't, but every light on the panel did, and stayed on, even after the key was removed. After pulling and grounding the + battery cable for a few minutes the panel lights didn't come on again after cable was reconnected - nothing on the panel lights up at all now, as well interior lights, power mirrors, power locks, turn signals, and radio among the items that don't work now. Truck still starts and runs, blower works, headlights still work. Don't know where to begin on tracing this out - if anyone has any thoughts on this it would be much appreciated !

 

Start checking fuses.

 

Problem solved - as suspected it was a fried instrument cluster, and apparently just that....swapped it out for a good used one, everything works again. Was surprised that things like turn signals, power locks, and interior lights would be affected so thought it was more than just the cluster, but evidently not.