Hey guys, my names Alex, I've been a Nissan owner for 6 years and recently a q45 owner as of October.

Everything was going great until I had a tail light bulb melt and ground out to the socket wall.

Car: 1994 Infiniti Q45 base, 124k miles

So as the story goes, driving along, have cruise activated, cruise shuts off, cruise lamp on instrument panel flashes ~10 times, and does not illuminate again. Then I lose brake lights, and next instrument panel lights, radio lights, hvac lights.

After some inspection I find that the brake light bulb has shorted out, replaced the bulb, and the fuses for the tail lamps and stop lamps(can't remember exact verbage). In the process I checked my brake switches, and my tail lamp sensor in the trunk. The switches work, and the tail lamp sensor in the trunk doesn't appear to be damaged(solder joints look okay).

At this point, I have stop lamps(with headlights on or off), but no running lights, no instrument panel lights(including radio/hvac), and when I turn my head lights on, both the low beams and high beams kick on. I replaced the head light switch and it does the exact same thing so I'm guessing it's not the headlight switch.

I'm really kind of lost, hoping someone has encountered this problem and has a fix or can at least point me in the right direction.

Thank you in Advance,

Alex

welcome.
don't have a whole lot for you.
Q are famous for violently rejecting el cheapo 1157 bulbs.
A few guys incl me stashed some of the Japanese toshibas from the dealer years ago. not sure you can still get them or not.
search the old posts on the melted socket.
my guess is you have some harnessing that is shorted together or shorted to ground.

to NICO Alex!

I had a similar issue on my old Q. Try unplugging the brake lamp assembly that had the short. It's possible that the assembly is damaged... I had to replace one years ago on my first Q.

Re-check your fuses. It's possible that you lost more than one. Don't forget to check the fuses in the box under the hood, as well as the ones below the steering wheel. With my issue, voltage would "back feed" through circuits and cause all kinds of weird issues.

If the fuses check out OK, I'd start browsing the factory service manual (available at www.infinitiservicemanual.com ) paying particular attention to the LAN system.

Good luck!

Heath

Check the ILL (illumination) fuse in the fuse box under the steering wheel. I have brake lamp assemblies for a 94-96Q if you find that yours is melted or shorting out.

Found a blown tail lamp fuse in the engine bay after messing with everything. Still no dash illumination, but it's getting there.

Edit: it was bright out and I couldn't see my lights, they're back on now.

Welcome, dewd!

Glad that fixed it!