Weird electrical issue (dash lights)

[FastAndFurious]

The car is 89 autox prepped.

I've been having a really weird electrical issue. Sometimes my dash lights(EATC lights, fog/defroster switch lights, auto dim switch lights) don't work at all, but if I turn the car off and turn it back on, the lights works. Funny thing is without EATC lights, EATC still works.

Oh and I found a ground wire behind of my stereo hanging out. My stereo is grounded to a metal frame, so my stereo still works.

I also had a small wire burning smell a while ago if i remember correctly. It came from behind the stereo.

Anyone? :thankyou:

 

[FastAndFurious]

My passenger side speaker wasn't working, so I took a look at it, and I found that speaker wires were cut and messed up. I just got it fixed. I wonder the speaker wires were touching the metal frame and messed up whole dash lights?

 

[jonheese]

Sounds to me like a funny/missing ground or a short/open circuit somewhere behind the dash. I don't know of any quick ways to troubleshoot or repair this kind of thing-- you're basically just going to have to look for anything loose, burnt or exposed that doesn't look like it should be.

Good luck.

 

[ForcedSHO]

What jonheese said is correct. My mechanic had to pull my instrument cluster and found a loose wire that caused my many month long issue with no dash lights.

 

[FastAndFurious]

Hm.. I will ground that one ground wire first, then I will look for some more any loose wires. Thanks guys!