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Originally Posted by jwinlaporte  Mine has this same problem. In addition, I was pulled over and informed my brake lights weren't working.
But the instrument cluster is the thing here. I was busy under the hood fixing the headgasket problem and have it running nicely, but there a host of electrical issues. I removed a pioneer stereo (no faceplate) and replaced every light bulb in the cluster, but no change. You the orange wire to the stereo is often suspect. I'll be checking that first. Problem is, I don't know much about circuitry. |
Same thing happened to me when my switch blew. Bavarian Auto Recycling kept sending me the wrong switches. First they sent me a regular e36 switch which is totally different, then they sent me a 318ti foglight switch which looks similar, but has a different pinout, then they sent me the correct 318ti headlight switch but it was blown. I finally gave up and decided to fix it myself. It was a pain in the ass and I don't recommend attempting it unless you're really good at soldering. Anyway, while I was waiting for the correct switch to arrive from Bavarian Auto Recycling, I got pulled over for my tailights being out. I fixed it in front of the cop, it was a blown fuse.
Here's what happened. I was working on my radio when I shorted out the grey/red(dimmer) wire. This blew the rheostat inside the headlight switch which killed all of my interior lighting that was connected to the dimmer circuit(gauges, HVAC panel, window/sunroof switches, cig lighter etc). Then later, I was fooling around with the blown switch and somehow blew the fuse to the tailights(the tailights are also controlled by the headlight switch, they come on when you turn on the headlights).
The whole time, my headlights functioned just fine. What the OP can't seem to understand is that the headlight switch is a multi-function switch. It's possible for part of the switch to fail and the other part to function normally. The part that usually fails is the dimmer rheostat. Obviously this will kill everything on the dimmer circuit. I asked the OP if his window/sunroof switches still LIGHT UP and he replied that his windows work
Again, the dimmer circuit controlls LIGHTING, it has nothing to do with the function of the switches.