[95 Eclipse] Dash lights/tail lights out

[Cheesepie]

Encountered an electrical problem with the Eclipse recently, specifically the tail lights (+ license plate lights) and the gauge lights no longer work.

Some notes:

• I had the dimmer switch bypass for a while now since the dimmer switch didn't work.
• There is no power going to the 15A TAIL fuse under the hood
• There IS power to the TAIL relay under the hood.
• The TAIL relay clicks whenever I turn the headlights on.
• Brake lights work
• Blinkers in the back also work.
• Stereo/headlights and everything else electrical works.

What could potentially be the issue?
Thanks!

 

[spyderdrifter]

The dash lights and rear running lights are all tied into the same fuse. Replace your dimmer switch and undo the bypass you did and you should have everything running right again.

 

[Cheesepie]

Right, but the fuse itself (15A TAIL) is not getting power. The bypass worked for *months* now and all of a sudden the problem came up a day ago.

 

[Archer Fabrications]

Have you removed your tail lights at all lately? Had same problem and found a wire grouding out on the mount bolt, kept popping fuses when i turned the lights on. Fixed that and everything else worked. Might check it out?

 

[spyderdrifter]

Gotta be grounding on something.

 

[DJ Raydiate]

How did you do the bypass? If it's just taped or crimp connected, it may have came loose. I agree that the dimmer needs to be replaced and hooked back up properly. I think the junk yard wanted like $10 the last time I checked.

 

[Cheesepie]

Here is what I did:

• Removed the covers from the back lights - tested the power. Power comes in to the brake light, nothing to the parked (marker) lights through the green-white wire.
• Hotwired the 15A TAIL fuse to a working powered fuse and made sure that there is power going to it and that the circuit is complete in the box.

So far no luck. Speaking of the dimmer switch, of course I can replace it, but even without it being replaced I had everything working a couple of days ago without it.

PS: Checked the bypass. It's still fully connected and didn't come loose.

Tested the wires in the rear harnesses - the brake/blinker 12V power is there while the green-white is zero. Are there any intermediary fuses I might be missing?

 

[Archer Fabrications]

Check for crimped exposed wires in the tail light assembily like i said

 

[luv2rallye]

If you have 12v on the 15A "Tail Lamp" fuse but not back on the green-white wire on any tail lights, then you either have a broken connection/wire somewhere along the green-white wire or have a short along it. Take another look at the dimmer bypass. With the dimmer switch removed you should only jumper the black-yellow to the black. The green-white wire there should not be connected to anything and be taped up. If it's connected to anything, that's your problem.

 

[Cheesepie]

I have checked the tail light assembly and there are no crimped exposed wires anywhere. So I got back to messing with the dimmer bypass assembly. The image is shown below.

Just to mention: there is no power to the 15A Tail fuse. There is power to the Tail relay in the same fuse box.

Here is what the dimmer bypass (disconnected) looks like. The green/white wire is not connected to anything, I just connect the black/yellow to black - still no power (and obviously, the gauge highlights are not working).

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[luv2rallye]

Try swapping the tail light relay with a different one.

 

[Cheesepie]

Did that - no results. As a matter of fact, I took my experiments even further.

I disconnected my tail light blocks from the wire and forcefed 12V to the green-white wire. Both come on. So I plugged those back in, and then put a powersource (12V) to the green-white line as a whole, and all of a sudden there is no testable power in the line at all - so I am going to assume there is a drain somewhere?

Will post more pictures as I am progressing through this.