Hi folks,

I put in my water temp gauge. It works... however, the illumination for my entire dash is not working. A separate, but maybe related, issue is that my driver's side parking light and brake lights do not work.

It happened like this: I disconnected the battery and installed the gauge under the dash, including tapping into a dimmed power source. I used the wires to the bulb behind the switch panel on the left side (if it makes any difference, I think that bulb was burned out - dang, I should have replaced it...).

While I was there, I pulled the dash pod out and finished hooking up a OEM voltmeter that a friend of mine sent me (it's been in there for weeks but I couldn't figure out where to hook it up; I finally got advice from the BB a while ago).

I refilled my coolant with new, connected the battery, started the car (observed 12 volts with key on, 14 with engine on), and burped the system. I turned the parking lights on so that I could see the illumination for my new gauge... heard a faint pop/click and saw that there was no power to the dash lights, and also noticed that the bulb out sensor was lit. My left side lights were out. I turned the brights on and all 4 headlamps worked, but not the left parking light and left rear lights.

I replaced my low beams and all 3 affected smaller bulbs, and the net effect was that the lowbeams work now, but not the other lights.

My oil pressure gauge is wired into the dimmer circuit at a different point from the new water temp gauge, and its lighting is also not working.

So - thanks for reading my long story here. While I was working under the steering column, I tried very hard not to disturb any of the wires under there, but it's possible that I did. What confuses me is that the dash operates normally, save the lighting... and I merely added to the circuit, I did not change it.

Thanks for all your shared knowledge, I look forward to hearing what you all say. My car really does not have to be anywhere for about a week, so this is a good time for me to sort out problems like this.

Ari