Guages went out!

I was attempting at replacing the door handle lights in my car with some lights i picked up at radioshack and in the process i managed to kill my quages lighting. i Am unsure what may be happening or if it may be as simple as a fuse or what fuse it may be. anyone have any ideas as to what exactly i have done? Thank in advanced!

EDIT* i checked out the fuse panel on the dashboard the interior light fuse is good.

EDIT 2* Checked out the fuse panel underneath the rear seats. no beans there either. 99% certain it isnt a fuse. I am really in need of help with this one.

Does anyone have any suggestions that havent seen this yet? i really have not idea what it could be since it isnt a fuse.

Is it possible that the instrument panel will not light up if the lights in the door handle are non existant because as of now there isnt even a bulb in there it broke when i was removing it. all of the buttons on the door work still aloon with the light on the heated seats.

The only other time i have had this happen is when i had to drive to walmart with the dashpanel removed. the cause then was the button for the trip set and the headlight switch being unplugged. I dont think theese could be the issue because it would be just too ironic for them to go out or become unplugged only when i was messing with the door panel.

i have been searching for the past little bit and it seems that every other similiar issue doesnt have a resolution. or atleast not a very good one.

When my gauge lights went out it was due to a faulty Lamp Control Module which is located in the drivers footwell near the OBDII port. I'm not aware of a method to test this since i pulled one from a junkyard and it solved the issue.

Yeah i have actually just been reading your post. I think i may try this first. Ive checked every possible fuse and its still no good.

Anyone know if the LCM from a 95 is going to be the same as my 98? pull a part only has 95s. or any other cars that may have a compatible LCM? Also when i take off the panel to find it will it be obvious to me what it is?

krazyfish wrote:

Yeah i have actually just been reading your post. I think i may try this first. Ive checked every possible fuse and its still no good.

Anyone know if the LCM from a 95 is going to be the same as my 98? pull a part only has 95s. or any other cars that may have a compatible LCM? Also when i take off the panel to find it will it be obvious to me what it is?

I'm not sure on the year compatibility but I think when i was looking up the part numbers they differed throughout the years. When you get the panel off there will be two identical modules, one is the LCM and one the BCM. I cant remember which is which but i think the LCM is the one closer to the passenger side. Be prepared to try to snake in there because its a very tight fit and requires you to lay down very awkwardly.

im a pretty lanky fellow so i think i will be able to manage. how much should i be expecting to pay for this piece, if it isnt much i will pick up a few out of the rivs and also out of other gm 98 cars. or would it cause more problems to put in a different LCM?

krazyfish wrote:

im a pretty lanky fellow so i think i will be able to manage. how much should i be expecting to pay for this piece, if it isnt much i will pick up a few out of the rivs and also out of other gm 98 cars. or would it cause more problems to put in a different LCM?

I think I paid like $30 or something but i dont know if they really knew what i was taking It might work but it also might cause some issues. See if you can look up the part numbers for each year and see if any match.

IIRC, the 95, 96 and 97-99 all have different P/N's.
Remove yours and see if there is a P/N tag on it or.....
Go to a dealer and ask for the P/N for your year and then look in the junk yards or call Morad's for the correct part for your year.
You can cause problem's installing the wrong one.!!!!!!

Purchased a LCM out of a park ave. (same part number) installed it no change all the same lights work and all the same lights do not work. im gonna try to grab the headlight switch and see if that fixes it. any other ideas other than that?

Could be the headlight switch. Rotating it dims the dash lights, so the switch could be a cause. Have you tried rotating the dimmer back and forth? That might restore your dash lights if the dimmer portion of the switch is to blame.

have you checked the dimmer cct found under the steering columb?

There is a small power transistor there that is used to control the voltage for the lighting cct. if that has gone all dimmable lights will be effected.

radio shack has that transistor and its only a few dollars replace it with a 2N3077 power transistor. worked for me.

make sure you dismantle and put back together correctly as there are insulator parts that have to go back together in the correct way or you will short it out again!.

if you want to test the old transistor use a volt meter set to measure ohms and measure between the 2 pins and the case you should get 2 measurements to read a resistance when it reads one way swap the leads around and measure the other way and it should read no resistance.

a very low resistance (like measuring a fuse) is a bad measurement ie less than 10 or so ohms.

Nigel

i have played with the dimmer thinking maybe i would get a flicker or something but no luck. but it is a inexpensive and easy to replace part so ill give it a shot anyways. I just find it weird that i only had theese problems after attempting to change a light in the door. i have no idea what i may have blown out.

just re read the other posts...

The transistor (and thats all it really is) int the LCM uses the lamps as a load and to reduce the amount of current to the transistor. so buy probably shorting the lamp legs together you removed the load and applied the full available voltage and current to the transistor. this probably has caused the transistor to blow

It is probably the LCM its a bugger to get to but is a real cheap fix as posted in my last post.

Have fun!!

Nigel

oh and also....

a way to check the LCM in situ.. measure the voltage between ground and one of the pins going into the LCM there are 3.

one should have 12 volts or so on it all the time
two should have a varying voltage when you move the dimmer

if the transistor is faulty you will only see one of the pins with a varying voltage (when dimmer is rotated)

sorry this description is long winded but i have no CCT diagram to display and reference.

oh and dissconnect the bulb you were working on prior to the thing failing .. ive seen lamps that were shorted from manufacture!!!


Nigel

I have replaced the LCM with a unit purchased off of ebay. i did not have the bulb that produced the issue originally plugged in so it is a non issue anymore. I feel that the odds of the LCM i got in the auction to be bad in the same exact fashion as the one in my car to be unlikely circumstances. (not impossible i suppose, just unlikely) I will on the next nice day i have i will give checking the voltage a shot.