HELP: i have no tail, dash and park lights

[vr4boy]

went to go to work today and none of them work, checked all the fuses, they are all fine. the only thing i did do yesterday was pull the stereo out and remove the budget water temp gauge that was in it.

[Al]

It is a fuse. You will have an exposed wire behind the stereo. Find the exposed wire, then replace the fuse. Try the fuse box in the kick panels.

[siren676]

Did the stereo have an illumination function? The wire might be shorting on something

[Stott69]

How did you check the fuses? You may be shorting the lumination wire

[vr4boy]

i pulled all the little fuses in the fuse box by the kick panel out as well as the fuse box in engine bay. not sure if it has an illumination wire. someone said it may be the park light relay, anyone have any idea which relay this might be?

cheers
Dan

[evil_si]

Get a multimeter to check the fuses, sometimes cant tell by just looking at them
See if one is labelled dome fuse, some cars its in fuse box by battery, others in the kick panel or under steering column

These are common to blow when wiring in guages or stereos, a wire wont be correct, or earthing out

[AE82 FXGT]

Probably dealt with by now but a quick way to check fuses is with a test light , clip the earth on the chassis turn the key on and press the tip of the tester on each side of the fuse with the fuse still in the slots. You will see small holes on either side where you can contact the metal on each side.

No need to remove the fuses and easy.

[evil_si]

I use my multimeter on diode test, and test each fuse in place, it beeps if its good,

[DVSMOTORSPORT]

No need to remove the fuses and easy.

Thats a quick test, but not always accurate. Corrosion on the fuse terminals, the fusebox terminals broken, or even the terminals on the fuse blew instead of the fuse (dont laugh, it happens), any of these things can cause you hours of diagnosis time, so when you check fuses, take the extra second it takes to pull the fuse out, check it with a multimeter and visually check terminal etc.

[AE82 FXGT]

Yeah valid points, I guess I'm getting lazy because I only deal with newer cars where corrosion is never really an issue.

[vr4boy]

nah still havn't got to the bottom of this, though if i didn't decide to drink to many beers last night i may have been in a better state to work it out today haha. have worked out theres no power getting to the fuse. if you put power to it then everything works.

[headshotnz]

Have made this mistake before on a butched wiring system that wasnt colour coded in my old car. Turns out the illumination wire is a solid earth. untill you turn your lights on.... i dont know about any one else but i had no idea what the problem was so i had too trace the wires using a wiring diagram. sorted in the end however..

[matt dunn]

Have made this mistake before on a butched wiring system that wasnt colour coded in my old car. Turns out the illumination wire is a solid earth. untill you turn your lights on.... i dont know about any one else but i had no idea what the problem was so i had too trace the wires using a wiring diagram. sorted in the end however..

as an auto electrian and i'm most others in the same job would agree,
first thing we ask when someone says no tail or dash lights is,
"have you just put a stereo in it?"

super common fault for people to use the park light feed for a stereo earth.

[vr4boy]

ok so after replacing parts till i got them to work, it was the light stalk that had died.