I know this has been discussed before but to make this old guy happy can one of you kind XJ-S nuts like me point me in the right direction.

With side and / or headlights on, there is no lighting up of the dash. Turn signals etc all light up but not the light connected to the dimmer reostat under the steering column. From what I’ve read and researched I’m tending to fault the dimmer before pulling apart the binnical. Appreciate your learned advice.

cheers

Mike

 

That's simple enough to test and in fact if is the issue do away with. Take the underside cover off and disconnect the three connectors to the dimer switch. Get two pieces of wire and connect spade terminals at one end of each. Then put both the wires in another spade terminal together and plug all three into the 3 connections. I have done away with mine as its much brighter without.
Also check you have voltage there and its not just the fuse under that side.

​​​​​​If you still have the old glass fuses the fuse can have 12v on each side if not blown but due to the rubbish holding contacts not enough current passes through. Remove fuse and if you can clean the holder contacts and also with a small screwdriver behind them ease them towards each other a bit more tightening the hold on fuse.

Assuming all OK. Yes you may have to pull binnacle. At the top you will see a metal plate behind the warning lights. This is where all the earth's run to. Under the screws you will see the earth connections coming off the ribbon cable. I took off each one and ring crimped a wire under each one then connected them all to direct earth on top of steerng column. If no good my ribbon cable was very down trodden and there wasn't hardly any exposed cable at each of the bulbs. Sometimes just removing or jiggling will help. I ended up buying some sticky copper tape to replace the damaged track. But in the meantime I just got small pieces of foil and wedged them down the side of bulb when putting back in which done the trick.

Upgrade led bulbs are very cheap on ebay and you can change the whole colour if want to and brighter as well.
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Had the same problem on my 94, rear lights were also out. Turned out to be a bad relay o the LHS of the engine compartment. Pulled it apart and cleaned the contacts and all was fine

 

Thanks Alex. Being an 86 model all fuses are glass fuses. I’m very fortunate my 86 is in pristine condition inside and out so at this stage I should be grateful, fingers crossed, that dash lighting is all I have to worry about. I’ll follow exactly as you advised and let you know outcome. I may have to leave until after Xmas so my attention is not disrupted by petticoat government demands.

mike

 

I second stuizzy's comment--he helped with a very similar issue. Check your rear lights. If they're out as well, it's probably the relay. You might need a new one if the cleaning isn't enough. I did. See this thread here: Instrument Lights Not Always Showing (Solution on second page, with photos.)

 

No problem. I replaced my glass fuses in main board with inline fuse box as I was having gremlins due to the bit I mentioned. I need to do the headlight one in the engine bay at some point as random headlights go out and a quick remove and refit of fuse sorts it. It threw me first off as with a light tester you have 12v each side and think well it can't be that then! But the tester will draw so little current it works but headlamp won't.

Happy Christmas.

 

I have had this problem occur on a mate's car. Have you got, or would you please take, a photo of what you did please, and a fuller description?
Thanks
Greg

 

Greg not sure which you mean, do you mean what I did for the dashboard lights? If so see my post a few up. Or do you mean just the bit about inline fuses?
The glass fuse holders are quite bad. When you check with a 12v light tester. You get 12v either side of fuse but due to the connections there is not enough current getting through. So if you take the fuse out there are two flaps on either end of the fuse holder just get a flat blade screwdriver behind them and bend them in a bit, to hold the fuse better.

As say I bought a 12 way inline fuse box from ebay. Wasn't much bigger than original. Cut the wires off one at a time a recrimped into new one. Hard work on the knees whilst fildling under steering wheel! The only thing I did do as I think the new fuse box was rated to 40 amps and you have a fifty for the heater. But it's two wires anyway so put one into box with a 25amp fuse and then just bought a single inline fuse holder for the other wire and again 25 amp fuse.

 

I meant the fuse box replacement. This is a great idea and very good improvement, but I have always been timid about such a major bit of surgery, partly because the length of the wires going into the OEM fuse box seem to have almost no slack to work with.
A photo of what you did would be a great help.

 

I'll see what I can do, but this was the one I bought.

https://www.ebay.co.uk/itm/NEW-12-WA....m46890.l49292

Simple design, there is enough slack to work with. The good thing with this box is you only have to take the wire off the existing fuse box cut the crimp off and re-crimp with spade terminal. So you don't need loads of slack to work with.

I had to drill a couple of holes in it to place into existing screw holes but that's easy.. The only thing once refitted is the relays that sit at the top of these fuse box wouldn't fit back on the bracket so I just cable tied them secure.

​​​​​​It's not a difficult job just a bit fiddly. The only thing to remember is the crimps need to be rated higher or the same as the fuse.