New coupe....New problems

[240RB1]

I recently bought a 93 coupe in decent shape for dd duty and one problem that i want to resolve quickly is the dashlights. when you turn on your headlights, your dash lights usually turn on at the same time. Mine dont. hvac lights work, hazard light work all exterior lights work just not the dashboard lights (gas, temp,tach and clock lights to be specific)

this car has working H.U.D. but when it wants. i mean it works for sometimes a minute an hour or a second what would cause that? i am searching in the meantime i have found threads that link my problem to the tcu box but if that were the case most if not all lights wouldnt work along with the radio. by the way the radio does work lol i will post pics if anyone wants to see my new addition.

[NISSAN240SX12]

i would try the tcu box to resolve the dash lights.

[gnvarnadore]

i have the same problem with mine but when mine goes out i just give the dash a smack and the lights come back on. nothing is more annoying than driving at night on a bumpy road and the dash lights and HUD flicking off and on like crazy.

[breadbox]

check fuses, then look behind the gauge cluster and see if the harness is f'd somewhere. maybe loose/weak ground connection.

[JSDEVILDOG29]

Did you check the bulbs and make sure they are not burnt out? Also could be a fuse for the lights and radio. If the bulbs are good get a testing kit at wall mart and try to see where the power is stopping. Check the fuse panel and the actual light commecters. Luckily the wires shouldn't be too long they are just hard to get to. If all else fails just rewire that hoe. The HUD def sounds like a short. It could only be a fuse if the fuse itself was loose in it's connector. Electrical problems can take a long time to diagnose and fix. I had a fc turbo II back in the day and I had to strip all my tail light wires to find a centimeter long crack in the casing. It took me a whole day. Haha. Good luck! And remember it. All be worth it when you get the lights back up and running.

[240RB1]

My car looks exactly like yours lol except its lowered.

i have the same problem with mine but when mine goes out i just give the dash a smack and the lights come back on. nothing is more annoying than driving at night on a bumpy road and the dash lights and HUD flicking off and on like crazy.

Did you ever find your problem? today i have been driving it for about two hours straight and the hud was up and running the whole time...i didnt check dash lights because its bright out haha

check fuses, then look behind the gauge cluster and see if the harness is f'd somewhere. maybe loose/weak ground connection.

I will pull the cluster out over the weekend to see if anything is loose/missing. hopefully that will solve my problem. thanks everyone for their suggestions.

only pic i have at the moment.

[visser003]

99% of the time if its only the dash lights it is the TCU.

The TCU has a poorly designed circuit board with thin leads running on it. The leads can blow quite easily so all you need is to open up the TCU and look at the board for a burnt circuit. Next, you simply solder a wire connecting over the burnt lead.

FIXED.

[locoluna825]

I once test drove a 92 coupe that was for sale in my neighborhood. Had the the same problem, no dash lights and the the HUD was off. But then digital display for the speed would come on randomly and the dash lights would remain off and so would the projector.

One of my firends purchased a 89 coupe with a HUD and his dash and lights do not turn on EVER. Guages work. But no lights, digital speed or Projector.

I went through the tut on here, for checking and replacing the capicitors. I heated each one to check if it would even come on but no luck. I also checked the board for voltage, and there was voltage. But no lights,speed or projector. We also took a trip to the junk yard and found another coupe car with an HUD. we grabed just the digital display unit, plugged it in, and got the same results.
Modified by locoluna825 at 2:32 PM 11/26/2009

[gnvarnadore]

i havent got around to checking it out, im not too worried about it.