Hey guys,
Need help with my 95 Bonnie SE. On friday night went to put my lights on, I had no dash lights. Pulled on **** a few times, dash lights came on. On saturday night same thing again. But this time on the way home the dashlights went out twice, once for 5 minutes, about 10 minutes second time, then came back on by themselves. Also radio lights out except clock/radio station light is on, pre-sets aren't. Now tonight Sunday (about 12:30 am) I left to go home and no dashlights at start up. Didn't go back on at all. Had to drive home with no dashlights. And lucky me gets pulled over by a NJ state trooper. He said my tail lights were out. I explained to him my dashlight problem, and he actually understood and let me drive home with my emergency flashers on. And he also told me my brakelights were working. We both thought that was kind of odd. Anyway I'm, going to check my fusebox in the morning. Are the dashlights/radio and the tail lights on the same line? What else could cause this. I'm not the most handy when it comes to my Bonnie, so if its not something simple I'll have to take it to the shop. If I do, what should I expect them to check so I don't get screwed?
any help would be much appreciated...
thanx..

also I had my altenator replaced in mid august.
and 3 weeks ago at the GM dealership while I was getting my oil changed, the mechanic said my negative battery bolt was loose and stripped, so he replaced it.
Does that help at all??

At first thought it appears that your headlight switch/dimmer is faulty & may need replacement. A 92-95 Gearhead will more than likely chime in with fuse locations & where to check. NJ State Troopers are not always that nice.

The brake lights are a totally different circuit. And it won't be a fuse. They can't be intermittent like that. They either work or don't.

Your most likely culprit is the switch itself. They have an occasional tendency to have connector problems. You'll have to remove it and inspect it, but if you're going to do that, get one from a wrecker first.

Not at all; the brake lights are on a separate circuit. Your dash lights, although they have their own fuse, get their power from a branch of your exterior lighting circuit, for reasons explained below.

See above. I just wrote about this in a similar topic here... um... Here we are:

http://www.bonnevilleclub.com/forum/...ic.php?t=41475

Just by way of background: All your exterior bulbs are fed from the same circuit, usually brown wires to the external bulbs (with tracer colors, if the vehicle has a Lamp Monitor). The fuse for those is probably fuse 14, in the fusebox under the dash near the steering column; on a '93 at least, it would be the second from the right in the middle row. This includes the dash backlighting: although that has its own fuse (#21 at bottom left in the same fusebox), that is powered by a feed from the exterior circuit, so that if your taillights go out, your dash lights will go out, too, alerting you to the fact that there'* a problem.

Having said all that, it sounds like your problem may be in the headlight switch, if you can wiggle it or something and your lights come back on again. (It might be a loose fuse, too, but that seems unlikely.)

If wiggling the headlight switch **** does actually affect the problem, replace that switch right away. You'll find a TechInfo article on that here if you need it:
http://www.bonnevilleclub.com/techinfo/?article=39

-- Andy

Very good information so far. As Willwren says if you are going to pull the headlight switch out to grab one from a junkyard/salvage yard/wrecker first. I'd add about a foot of the wiring and the connector going to the switch.

This doesn't seem to be the typical problem, but has been seen in two 95 SSEi'* on the club. Check the connector for any signs of melting and see the below thread from Harofreak00 and my thread link in his thread.

http://www.bonnevilleclub.com/forum/...323&highlight=

Thanx for the info....
that helps. Its not any fuses. I'm going to the mechanic on Wed to have it checked out.
I'll let ya know what he finds...

Yes, from your description it didn't really sound like fuses; if you can wiggle the headlight switch and get _any_ reaction at all, even for a second, then that'* where your problem is.

If you're paying somebody else to take out your headlight switch for you, print out the TechInfo article and give it to them. Unless they're a Pontiac mechanic, they're not likely to get specific details out of a Chilton manual that'll help to prevent their breaking something along the way... mainly the faceplate retainers and stuff like that.

-- Andy

Hey,
Took it my mechanic this morning. He said headlight switch was fine, it was the harness that connects to it. he said it was basically fried. he called our local pontiac dealer, they told him part was no longer avaiable. He told me that it didn't make any sense to him why they would dis-continue it.he said all he could get was the harness holder new. So he'* going to make me a new harness himself.. He told me around 200 bucks total for everything..he said not really a pain the butt to get too, just a little time consuming..
Anybody else ever had this problem??

Why would GM dis-continue the harness?? I called a pontiac dealer I know where I used to live and they told me same thing, he said he could try and track one down for me at another dealership but that was it...
Either GM is braindead as usual or these dealers are hoseing me.

thanx again for the help...
d man

Go to a wrecker and cut one out of a car with about 3" of wire. Splice it yourself. You're not the first to have a melted connector there.

But for Gawd'* sake don't twist the wires together; solder them. Twisted connections on high-current circuits will get hot and melt the insulation, putting you right back where you started...

-- Andy