Electrical- instruments right rear & side lights + lisce

[Daryll]

Hi all,

Toughie for the knowledgable amongst us.

Driving along Saturday night with my lights on, noticed a couple of red glows above my head and saw that my licence plate lights and rear lights warnings were on. Looked back down at my dials to notice all my dashboard lights and centre stack lights were out as well.
Got out and checked, the drivers side rear light and side lights were out as well as the number plate lights.

Next morning I checked the fuses and found fuse 23 - Right side, rear and parking lights , number plate lights, instrument lighting (7.5 amp) had blown. Replaced it, and was fine until I went over a bump again when they all went out again.

The only thing I can put this down to is the work I carried out on Friday. My speedo/fuel gauge bulb had gone out. After I eventually managed to get the cluster out after snapping the instrument cluster bezel and snapping the steering lock getting the steering wheel off, I found that the old blown bulb had snapped in half and melted it self to the orange plastic sleeve.
I managed to get the majority of the melted glass out and replace the bulb and put the trim back in. I did leave the 2 bottom screws out that attach the plastic surround to the clocks and one of the nuts that secures the Lighting panel to right of the steering wheel off. Could these 3 items coz the instrument cluster to bounce around enough to cause the fuse to short??

Any advise would be great as I drove to the gym this morning extremely slowly as I didn't know what speed I was doing. Cheers guys (& gals)

[Daryll]

BTTT

[Andy_magic]

I had the speedo's out on both my cars today and didn't notice any wiring that relates to the side lights or license plate lights.

What I would do is get a handful of 7.5 amp fusesm turn the side lights on and then starting under the dash, wiggle the wiring around and try to make another fuse pop.

Did you loose any of the screws that hold the speedo or plastic trim inm it might have dropped into a connector or something.

I broke the surround on my parts car as well, and the ignition lock plastics and the lower piece the goes under the speedo.

When I fitted the guage into the runner I didn't remove the steering wheel.

[Daryll]

Cheers Andy, will give it a go tonight when I get in. Definately no screws dropped behind the dash when I put it in but I did leave a couple out after snapping my cluster bezel. Maybe it's the dials bouncing around that makes it short out.

Will give it a go...ta

[Andy_magic]

Good luck mate, fellow Essex boy