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I have a 91 Accord lx four door automatic. Old. High mileage. Just bought it so don’t know history. I am not an expert but not a complete novice either.
Some of the lights in the instrument panel do not light up: Turn signal/hazard indicators, High beam low beam indicator do not light up. The other lights in the instrument panel work fine.
The turn signal lights and hazards on the outside of the car do work and I can hear the clicking, but the bulbs in the instrument panel do not light up. I pulled the instrument panel out, opened it up, and pulled the bulb from one of the non working turn signal indicators. I tested the bulb with a DC power source. It lit up just fine. So it’s not the bulbs. So the instrument panel lights are partially working. Maybe the problem is in the wiring harness? I am not sure how to diagnose this. I can’t find any kind of diagram that shows signal path between the turn signal/headlight switch on the steering column, the instrument panel, the lights, etc.
Thanks for your help.
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well I would first see if you can track down which wires light up the light on the panel. That is if it isn’t a circuit board design. If you do have individual wires that control the panel lights then test to see if you get any signal with a multimeter. If it is a circuit board see if there are any burns or anything, you might be able to repair it, but not likely, and if not you could most likely find a used one somewhere. Also check number 10 fuse in the passenger side fuse box, its 10 amps, I believe it controls the instrument panel lights.
I have a 97 Acura CL (fancy honda) and oh yeah, dash lights just LOVE to act stupid.
In my case it was mostly the climate control lights. Sometimes tapping on it made the lights work.
Bench tested the lights and they read infinite resistance (bad). Replaced the bulbs and all is fine every since. But this was after the lights worked sometimes.Just for the heck of it, go ahead and install brand new bulbs on at least a couple of the bad ones and see what happens. Or with things apart but still connected, read the voltage across the light connection points (make sure turn signal is on or whatever should be on to light the lights in question). Should be 12’ish or 14’ish volts if engine running.
I have NO clue why the old bulbs in my climate control (and the reverse indicator in the gauge cluster) work intermittently but they did. Makes no sense.
When you do replace the bulbs, just make sure and clean up any connections just for (poops) and giggles. Try the bulbs before giving yourself a headache chasing down a bunch of wires.
It is a circuit board design. The dials, lights, and odometer are all in one unit soldered to a board. All fuses are good. I don’t know how to tell which wires are the right ones to check continuity for.
The easiest first step once the dash is apart is checking for voltage across the bulbs. Make sure to activate the lights, as I said. Or just use a 12 volt test light. ONE thing – an analog meter would work better cause digital meter take a second to stabilize readings. Since the lights (and voltage) pulsate, it may be hard to get a good reading with a digital.
To see if the dead lights are at least getting power, just turn on the lights and put the multimeter (or test light) leads across the solder points of each bulb and should read voltage (probably 12)
Getting replacement bulbs might be hard, you could check radio shack. Err on the side of physically smaller. AND go with 14.4 or 15 volt bulbs. 12 volt will work but not last as long since alternator voltage is ballpark 14 to 14.5
They will also have soldering irons, solder, desoldering wick, and desoldering bulbs.If you get a soldering iron, go with at least a 30 watt. The 15 watt ones are cheaper but do not work very well. Ask me how I know that.
If practical, get the board onto a bench instead of trying to fumble through this job with the board in your car with wires attached (if there is a connector you can disconnect.)
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