I just finished swapping EVERYTHING from my wrecked car onto a new chassis, and after driving it for a month, the dash lights just quit working suddenly. The external lights still work fine, but the key in ignition buzzer and dash lights dont work at all. The courtesy lights (the ones in the door and for the A/C control head) never worked in this car to begin with, but they worked in the other car (I used the other car's complete harness and EVERYTHING). The fuses are all good. Any ideas where I should look?

 

not shure where to look but for starters i would do a lil wire shakking and if they flash on, maybe test for voltage at the fuse for those lights at least that will give you a place to start.

 

I had a similiar problem in a lumina I had. I lost lights but the fuse was good. Somehow, the wire from the positive junction block to the fusse block was bad. I had power to the junction block, obviously by other items working, but had no power at the fuse block. I would start there. If you have no power, then you know the problem is more towards the battery. Try it, only takes a minute and might save sometime. I also replaced headlight switch and turn signal switch cause I was dumb and lazy. I sorta had to do the turn signal switch cause I lost my hazards but it was still Feb. in WI and I hate being outside in the cold!!

 

OK, update on this junk. I found that the tail light fuse blew after I realized my low taillights weren't working. So I put in a fuse and it would pop in less than a second. I put in a bigger one long enough to see the taillights were still not working at all with the headlights on (unless I hit the pedal) until the fuse box started getting hot...but the dash backlighting and everything started working. Anybody have a better idea where to look?

I'm thinking there's a short going back to the taillights somewhere. I drove with it for 2 weeks fine until this problem came up.