Great site I need a little help I have a 1995 bonneville and my dash lights just went out and I can not locate a fuse for same there is nothing listed in owners manual everthing else in car works ( cruise,door locks,gauges,etc the only thing that does not work is dash lights and the radio light but the rest of the radio works fine ANY IDEAS
thanks in advance
zilly

Maybe you have the dash light dimmer control accidentally turned off?

Welcome to The Bonneville Club!

The fuses that will generally effect it are under the steering column. Many of the fuses under there feed eachother, especially lighting ones. I've blown obscure fuses that killed my lights.

6 and 14 are common offenders for me. Someothers can do it as well. Just pull them one by one and check.

thanks for the input I will check and I have checked my dimmer contol several times
this a real strange one as every once in a while the radio light will work and show the time and as soon as i turn pull headlight switch out the radio light goes out
REAL STRANGE
Thanks again

I think your headlight switch rheostat, the thing that operates as a dimmer when you rotate the **** of your headlight switch, is toast. You might try turning it slowly all the way in both directions and see if the dash lights will at least flicker. If they do, your rheostat is probably oxidized from lack of use, but still in one piece. If they're stone dead no matter how you turn the ****, the rheostat'* probably cracked. (It'* a coil cast into a ceramic insulator, which sometimes breaks when it ages.)

I'd have to look at a wiring diagram to be sure, but I think your radio/clock display has its own power supply, but adjusts its brightness to match the dimmer/gauge lighting when it detects that the vehicle lights are on. If it detects that they're on, it'll dim itself, and if the dimmer/gauge lighting is set to zero (i.e. dash lights off or rheostat failed), it cranks its own brightness down as far as it can to match that. Once you replace your headlight switch (where I think your problem is), your radio display will recover by itself.

My car is doing the *exact* same thing. The dash lights will at least sometimes "click" and flicker when I turn the dimmer switch. So I guess I need a new switch?

Right. Instructions on how to replace it are in the TechInfo section.

-- Andy

I'm having the same problem in my '99. Thanks this info should help me as well.