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Dash lights not working

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lookingfora944

New member
Hello,

The instrument dials do not light up on my newly purchased 944 s2.
I have checked every fuse and replaced the blown one (left head light) and everything else works. Cigarette lighter, all the other internal lights etc. Its just the lighting behind the speedo, rev counter that does not work. Anybody got any ideas on what this may be. Will there be a separate bulb behind there that is relatively easy to check?

Also. Where the hell is the trip reset switch?

Any help would be much appreciated thanks

 
Could well be the potentiometer for adjusting the brightness is gone or needs a tweak as there could be a bit of damage to the potentiometer. The trip reset is a button to the right of the centre main air vent, it looks like one of the fins.
Alasdair
 
Thanks for the information. Is the potentiometer the thing with a little sun symbol between the lights and heated windscreen?
I just had a play around with it and there is a very low lighting of the dash, but not really enough to see the instruments clearly whilst driving. I guess this means that the Potentiometer is not adjusting the brightness as it should
 
More likely the bulbs have failed or the reflective prisms in the dash have lost their shineyness (if shineyness is a word).
 
+1 for the bulbs. The pot dims all of the dash bulns not just the binnacle so all would be affected equally. You need to remove the binnacle to get to the bulbs. Not a particularly hard job just fiddly. Like James said refurb the prisms while you are in there. I removed all the old paint and covered them with aluminium duct tape. Then replaced the original bulbs with blue LEDs at around £8 for 4 (1 spare). Now looks proper trick [;)]
 
Thanks for the advice, will take it apart at the weekend and have a look.

Are these the sort I should buy

http://cgi.ebay.co.uk/PORSCHE-924-944-928-BLUE-LED-Dash-Bulbs---UK-SHIPPED_W0QQitemZ120621673334QQcmdZViewItem?rvr_id=165047293615&rvr_id=165047293615&cguid=f6304d7212a0a0aad54151f1ffce9d8a
 
Hello,

Well I too the dash apart and got to the instrument dial. All three blue bulbs light up fairly brightly. Whether or not they are as bright as they were I don't know, is that possible.
I think it may be the reflective prisms, as you say, but I have no idea how to remove them without breaking something, they don't seem to want to come out, its like they are welded onto the bottom of the dash housing and not screwed on.
Maybe I can just buy some very bright bulbs instead?

Thanks
 
You don't need to remove the prisms. Just remove the old silvering with nail polish remover or something similar. I used graffiti spray. Then recover them with tin foil or as I did with aluminium duct tape.
 
I did mine on my S2 a while ago, you can use acetone free nail varnish remover to remove the mirror finish from the prism, I used spray glue to attach mirror foil from a hobby craft shop, then covered it in black tape to stop light leakage. I used white LEDs with a wide field of view to increase the light spread and they are pretty good once dark however not too bright at dusk.
 
Same here with mine mate. Not too good at dusk but the blue LEDs look proper good when it is dark. I think it is a feature of how it was designed that the illumination isn't good in day/night transition. I did replace them with brighter normal bulbs at first and that wasn't half bad. But I prefer the look of the LEDs any day.
 
unfortunately not as most LEDs (as opposed to a filament lamp) but I would suspect even after replacing the lights for LEDs and replacing the reflectors the light is not so bright as to need dimming.
 
I changed my bulbs at the weekend, got the bulbs from halfords.
Much brighter than the one's I took out. (Think they were Phillip's bulbs) and the dimmer switch still works as they aren't LED bulbs
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