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Half of dashboard lights come on late

Hi all,

1994 GMC Safari, when the headlights are turned on, only the right side of the dash lights up (near stereo, HVAC controls). "About" 10-20 minutes later, the left side will turn on. If I turn the lights off and back on - they still all work. Makes me think that it has something to do with temperatures (Van is parked indoors at night). The dashboard lights will operate just fine, until the next time the van sits and gets 'cold'.

Then the process resumes again.

No fuses are spent - any suggestions on where to look?

Many thanks in advance.

Reply to
deanride
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If your dashboard is anything like the recent vehicles I'm familiar with, it's just a big plastic molding with a flexible, printed circuit board on the back. The lights are likely little "grain of wheat" bulbs in twist-in holders. I am guessing what has happened is that the plastic has warped enough that when it's cold, the little "fingers" on the twist in bulb bases aren't making proper contact with the flexible printed circuit board. I'd crawl under the dash, remove the bulbs, and pry up the little metal contacts with my thumbnail so they make a little tighter contact, then reinstall. Hopefully that will be all you need to do to make this work. If you drive a lot at night you may just want to replace all the bulbs now since you're going to be under there and they're cheap.

good luck,

nate

Reply to
N8N

Interesting theory - I buy it, and will check it out - but don't you think it's funny that the left side of the entire dash goes out, then works again? It's not sporatic, but exactly half the dash.

Are there two relays here? There is only one fuse/switch...

TIA

Reply to
deanride

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