Instrument panel lighting

[PumpdUpKicks]

My dashboard lights went out and i am having trouble locating the problem. I am getting the entire bottom line to work (park brake, check engine, etc.) and the top turn signal lights but not the middle (gas level, tachometer, etc)
I removed the panel and the bulbs were good, i checked fuse #23 and it was good, i followed the wires to check for anything grounds, splices, and found nothing.
anything else to check?
thanks

[PumpdUpKicks]

anything?

[kmarei]

Did you change the 2 w3w bulbs?
They are the only two with a brown holder if I recall correctly

[PumpdUpKicks]

Yes I did change those. Still no light. They were working fine and I was driving a little aggressively in a open lot and they stopped working.

[ELVA164]

Aggressively enough to jar it over a bump or something? It's just speculation, but maybe it took a shot and messed up a socket/solder or something.

[PumpdUpKicks]

Possibly. It was working intermittently for about a week and I would tap on the dashboard and it would turn on. Then just decided not to turn on again. Which socket/solder are you referring to? Sorry I'm new to this car.

[ELVA164]

I was talking about the bulb socket in the back of the gauge cluster, or possibly the solder holding that socket to the circuit board.

[mcskibadee1]

Check the bulb behind the headlight switch. My cluster and everything else in my dash was super low lit and I couldn't dim it. Replaced that one bulb and it fixed everything.

[PumpdUpKicks]

Check the bulb behind the headlight switch. My cluster and everything else in my dash was super low lit and I couldn't dim it. Replaced that one bulb and it fixed everything.

Thank you sir, I will be checking this tomorrow.

[PumpdUpKicks]

so ive tried everything, and now im wondering, could the dimmer on the headlight switch go bad?

[ELVA164]

It's possible the dimmer doesn't make perfect contact (mine doesn't). If you jiggle the dimmer, does anything happen? Do the HVAC lights dim but not the cluster lights?

[PumpdUpKicks]

ELVA i appreciate you helping me.
I put in a new cluster just to see if there was something wrong with mine, but im still having the same issues.
The HVAC panel i've never seen light up, so i honestly don't know whats suppose to light up and whats not.
One thing weird i noticed was when i had the headlights knob pushed in the ac (snowflake) button and recirculation button light up, but when i have the knob pulled out for the parking lots, and pulled out for headlights those buttons dont light up.

[PumpdUpKicks]

heres another picture of the red wire coming out from the bottom, it is soldering into the board, what is it for? i dont think any of the PO have ever taken the board out because the sticker is still attached on to the board and the cluster on the right side (the sticker that would tell a dealer if the warranty was voided)

[PumpdUpKicks]

heres a better picture of the board out, the batteries are missing. now i would assume no batteries no lights, but everything else works on the board, and i put in another cluster and still had no lights.

[Poorboyz]

I don't believe the batteries make the lights on the dash light up. The SI board batteries are for the tach and instant mpg gauge.

Where do those wires go? Did the PO put batteries at the other end of those wires?

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