Zafira dasboard lights cut out

Have you tried the brightness adjuster just below the light switch? It adjusts the brightness of the dash backlights when the sidelights/headlights are on.

I`m not a mechanic, first and foremost :-}

Many cars have a "dimming" dash when you put the headlights on - at a guess, there may be a resistor pack somewhere that gets put in series with the dashboard lighting circuit with the headlights on.

Either the dashboard light adjuster is turned all the way down or broken, probably the former, they're only a pot & tend to last forever.

"mikeyex" schreef in bericht news: snipped-for-privacy@m79g2000cwm.googlegroups.com... Got a strange fault with the lights on our 2000 Zafira 1.8 - when the headlights are turned on the dashboard lights go off so can't see the instruments - but they come back on as soon as the headlights are turned off. Have read elsewhere that potential battery problems may mean there is a power drain so don't know if it might be connected to this - would have expected it just to dim the dashboard lights though. Could buy a new battery and try that but wondered if anyone has any idea - it's out of warranty of course and local dealers charge about £90 just to diagnose faults.

Do you mean the background illumination or the warning lights... As background illumination is not turned ON when the headlights are OFF, it can't be turned OFF by turning ON the headlights....

How are the different lights called in English? In Dutch we have 1: standlichten, 2: dimlichten, 3 grootlichten...

Maybe you mean the dash goes out when you switch from 2 to 3 ?

Excellent!! - Never even realised it was there - obviously not used to modern cars - many thanks for pointing it out - it was all the way down so problem solved and I don't have to even contact the main dealers let alone give them any more cash - ideal - Big Thanks to everyone