Acura RL interior lights question
 

A few months ago alot of the lights in my car started to go out. For ex. almost half of the lights of my gauge cluster went out, then some of the buttons on my car dont have lights on them anymore. I was wondering if anyone had the same problem. Is there anything i could do to fix this problem? THANKS. (it wasnt the fuses because i replaced all of them)

I had the same thing happen. Not sure why. I have spent a shit load of time finding the solution, but it has been found. Lots of foot work and time and frustration spent on this one.

PM me for further details.

Definitely a relay, I'd have a shop check it out for 30 or 40 bucks and get a professional answer. Good luck!

I know this one is pretty old, but I just bought a 97 RL and am having the same problem with the instrument panel lights. Can someone give me the fix for this? Is it just one of th relays?

By the way I was just forced to trade my 06 TL for the 97 RL. It isn't the greatest car in the world, but so far it rides better and rattles less than the 06 TL. I am just afraid now that I will eventually be buying a new RL!!!

Update
 

Just a small update regarding the strange behavior of my instrument panel lights.

The lights are sometimes out when I first start the car, sometimes not. If they are out they usually come on at some point, once they are on they never seem to go out again until the car is turned off.

Any ideas would be appreciated. I pulled all the relays (that I could find) under the hood last night, but none seemed to affect those lights?

Sounds like a loose ground to me. Those can be pretty tricky to hunt down. Still, I think your lights would only work intermittently. Have you ever been behind your dash or instrument cluster?

No, I just bought the car a couple weeks ago. Seemed to work fine for a couple days and then started going crazy. The only thing I can remember doing around the same time is tightening the hood latch so the hood didn't rattle around. Any ideas as to where I might start to look for that ground?

No, unfortunately not. I have seen this behavior in my RL, but I have really tinkered in my RL a lot. In fact, most of the lights in my car were burnt out when I bought it. I ended up replacing them all and then put my dash back together only to find that one of the screws in my cluster was not grounded properly.

2002 Acura RL instrument cluster lights, gauges, master window switch lights out
 

2002 Acura RL

I have been dealing with this interior lighting and instrument cluster problem for almost 2 years.

I really don't think that the problem is with the instrument cluster, It seems to be a voltage issue, battery is new, no problem with the alternator either. There seems to be a shortage somewhere in the lighting system, replacing the lighting and gauge relays have not solved the problem either.

There I also am issue with the left front turn signal, which also seems to have a shortage or grounding problem somewhere in the wiring.

The battery slowly discharges and is often very difficult to start despite adequate battery voltage.

Parts of the interior lighting system and gauge assembly only seem to be recieving 6volts, that starter fuse in the fuse panel is also always grounded but it isn't blowing any fuses. I tried removing the lighting relay. Has anyone else ever experience all of these issues all at once? Please help!!