Re: Instrument Illumination (the lack of)

[Kevin <aventari@cts.com>]

Yeah, my headlight switch has blown about twice before, and both times it
was the little arm of the dimmer that slides along the coils for the
potentiometer

At 05:52 PM 11/27/98 -0800, you wrote:
>Mark Thomas wrote:
>
>> Got in my car before, tuned on the ignition, and turned on the lights.
>
>> A sort of fizzing, crackling sound came from somewhere and the
>instrument
>> lights were really dim.
>> Turned the lights off then back on again. This time there was no noise
>but
>> there wasn't any dash lighting either.
>> The headlights still work though.
>>
>> Has anyone got any suggestions.
>> Please say it's just a fuse.
>
>I watched something very similar happen to my friends '87 16v, it was
>the
>potentiometer for the dimmer switch, you can get a headlight switch from
>a
>wrecking yard cheap and change it without taking apart the dash. If you
>want to
>be sure that's what's wrong if you take the switch out you will notice a
>little
>contact that slides on a track. What I did was shove a piece of aluminum
>foil
>in between the contact and track, and the dash lights worked. I would
>NOT
>recommend trying to fix it like this as it could be a fired hazard and a
>poor
>repair if it worked. A potentiometer (like a volume knob on a stereo)
>creates
>resistance by turning power into heat, whatever happens the heat is a
>factor,
>when my friend turned on his lights there was a little puff of smoke.
>One other
>sign is the knob will turn much easier than before. I believe this is
>most
>likely your problem since if your headlights still work you know there
>IS power
>to the switch. Hope this helps! Good luck...
>
>
>
>
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--
Kevin Fry .:. 81 Scirocco S JH -- turbo soon to come!
      San Diego, CA
"If God had meant for us to use the metric system, we would've been born
with ten fingers and ten toes."

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