It's happening again

[sic86]

It's happened ever since i got the car, but all of a sudden in stopped, now 8 months later it is back again. I'll be driving along and all the lights in the interior turns off. I have to bump the dash for it to work for a little while again. Does anyone know how to fix this problem? As when you are flying around cornors at night time it is kind of a distraction.

Cheers

[Jusdrifn 86]

that is the same thing that happens to me hey...
tap on the switch and they come back on, i dont get it

i pulled the switching unit out and cant find fault... but seeing that the lights behind the air-controls and headlights dont go off, it must be in the wiring to the dash, i will pull that out next week when my immobiliser goes in

[[MET]]

ive had 3 sprinters, all had this problem in way shape or form, be it the dash only the headlights only or everything all together.

All 3 times i found the only problem was the actually switch, it is commonly known to be faulty. It doesnt look like it but it is the connection between the actual place where the plug joins the back of the switch. Not the actual plastic plug join but the part with makes contact with the metal of the switch itself

Solution? new switch $$$$ or try and pull it to bits and improve the connection by solidering it etc. I just used afew rubber bands to push the connection together better it seemed to work fine lol

[sic86]

Was this type of switch set-up only on the ae86's?

Cheers

[Jusdrifn 86]

i put an extra washer into the shaft to push the metal contacts hard up against each other to stop my headlights loosing contact...

but the dash lights just dont work sometimes

[[MET]]

washer on the front yeah? your problem may lie in the rear connection, one of those wires is the dash one, otherwise like you said may be deep in the dash!

[Sprinter_Seth]

just do what i do, give the dash cluster a bit of a punch works for me

warning though it will crack your dash as i just did the other day can u just get the replacement clear plastic cover?

[blackers]

From my experience (yes I've had it too) it's not actually the plug into the light switch, it's the switch itself. Carefully prise the rear section of the switch apart, you will find a small circut board with wires coming out of it that join to the rear section bit that you just prised out. The solder around these wires cracks and causes the problem. Re-solder the wires, board and anything else that you can see with a soldered joint, snap the switch back together again and you will have no further dramas. The reason why most people find that the lights work again after removing and reconnecting the plug is that it slightly disturbs these broken soldered joints causing them to reconnect and work again. Hope this solves the problem.
Cheers
Mark

[rthy]

hey guys try this: take the plastic suround off around the gauges, behind the headlight switch is a single black wire. Tap into that black wire and ground it to an aditional source and let me know if that fixes it.

[blackers]

Put that black wire to earth and it will set the dash lights at full illumination and the dimmer will not work. You will also find that the lights at the heater controls will not work.
Cheers
Mark