Hello, I’m new to the community here. I was wondering if I could possibly get some help.
My dash lights stopped working one day. The speedometer lights work, just not the ac buttons and radio or any other buttons that used to be lit up. The car I have is a 2005 TL. It used to have a remote car starter that I removed. Also I put in a aftermarket radio and removed the factory amp. Is there any chance that some of the changes I made could of messed with the dash lights and how could I fix it ? I appreciate any feed back, thank you.

 

Does tail lights and side marker lights work when headlights are turned ON?

Start by checking the fuses and let us know.

 

Yes everything work except for the dash lights and all fuses are good

 

If you want to diagnose the problem yourself I would start by getting service manual. You will also need a multimeter and maybe a test light. Oh and basic tools to take interior apart.
And yes, installing radio or any other modifications might damaged the system. So is water dripping on MICU from clogged moon roof drain tube. So is many other things.

But if all of the interior lights went out at the same time, including radio and window switches, it's either
- Micu went bad - It's build-in to under dash fuse box
- Gauge cluster went bad
- Broken wire, badly shorted bulb, etc.

Powerful scanner, that can retrieve body codes, might be helpful to diagnose which part exactly went bad. Car might had set some codes. Not very likely, but if you happened to have access to one, check that first.

And why I say gauge cluster? Well



Here's very basic test for power and ground for gauge cluster. But I doubt any of those is bad.





Can't really find anything useful. Hard to test as Micu and Gauge cluster communicate with "B-Can" which is basically ones and zeros - multimeter will do no good here.

 

Thank you so much, I’ll give it a try

 

[QUOTE=Michal Hewak;16417928]Yes everything work except for the dash lights and all fuses are good[/QUOTE]


I'm not saying you're lying.. but I also can't tell you the number of times people have come in here saying that exact thing and leading us down this wild goose chase of troubleshooting (which ultimately wastes your time as well) and the culprit goes back to a being a fuse. Check the fuses physically by using a continuity tester or 'fuse tester' and make sure the fuses TRULY are 'all good"