Today I was replacing that bulb that sits in the ash tray because it was bad. Well I pulled the bulb out and was putting in a new bulb when BAM, all lights went out on my gauge cluster, door lighting and hvac lighting. I assumed I blew a fuse, so I go to check the gauge fuse, it is good. I even replaced it with a new one. I then thought maybe it was the accy fuse, checked it, it was fine, replaced it with a known good one and nothing. I then started pulling each fuse individually and checking them, they all were fine both in the dash panel area and under my hood....

When I turn on the defroster the little orange light comes on as usual like it would when the switch to the lights was working before. My headlights and tail lights also come on like normal. So it looks like the switch is working correctly. Any ideas why the doors, guages, ash tray, and and hvac lighting is not working?

All the other courtesy lights work just fine.

I also noticed that the ashtray bulb came on with the courtesy lights before. I may be mistaken when I say ashtray light that I was replacing, I removed my console a couple times and the bulb was actually laying in the ebrake area, so I am guessing that its the ashtray bulb.

 

Ok, took my continuity meter out today. The IP Dimmer fuse was blown. I couldnt see it with the human eye, however the meter doesnt lie. I replaced the fuse and it fixed the problem. The fuse is just a 5amp fuse so it prolly overloaded the circuit. I tried installing a 20mcd led in place of the light bulb. so I put a 10a fuse in its place for now, the wire looks to be 18awg wire so it should be ok for 10amps. I havent tried putting the 20mcd back in yet because i replaced all the bulbs with leds and I havent a clue how many amps them leds are pulling. I am thinking of running some new wire through the firewall with an inline fuse of 15a and see if I can run leds underneath my driver and passenger seat as well as hide on in the ebrake area so it shines through.

 

this helped me alot. i pulled my aftermaket deck out to see if i could hide some of the wires behind it and i also checked my ashtray light to see if it was working. (it got so hot it started melting the plastic around it, so i just took it out) and then my lights turned off too. sure enough it was that exact fuze that was bad for me.

 

sorry, im not much help, but just fyi, the ash tray bulb lights up with the gauge/radio lights.