dash lights GONE- HELP!!!!
Hi guys, :wave:
I have a problem and desperately needing Help!
On Monday night I switched on my headlights as I do normally to find that my interior dash lights failed to light up. I also found out my OEM style fog lights no longer work either. My newly installed HIDs work fine- no problems there. The obvious and logical cause is a blown instrumental lights fuse which I had traced to be in fact blown. So I replaced it with one of the same power, 7.5amp and now every time I switch the lights on, it immediately blows (I think it blows at the first turn- parker stage). I've probably blown about a handful to date, possibly more! I have yet to try a more powerful fuse because from reading it could lead to a serious shorting if you are not using the recommended power.
My HIDs were installed 10 days before my problem started to occur by a good mate of mine who knows what he’s doing. During these 10 days I probably took the car out at night 3-5 times and everything worked as per normal. My Bi-Xenon H4 Hi/Low HIDs are budget ($170 including delivery to my door) and Made in China. It's the type that uses a relay leading directly to your car battery.
After searching on ozhonda I dug up an old thread which has pretty much has the same problem but with on a euro. This guy (007) claims his problem to be a faulty ballast of one of his HIDs however I don’t get the logic there as for one, shouldn’t a faulty HID ballast lead to a headlight not switching on at all and two, the two things aren’t connected.
Among searching on ozhonda, honda-tech, and even google/yahoo I’ve found this to be a not-so-rare issue however the causes are varied. Some have replaced the dimmer switch (most common cause) and some have rewired their head units. However I am told by many friends these things are unrelated and shouldn’t be the cause! I had a brand new Alpine head unit installed about 6-7 weeks ago (therefore probably about a month before I installed my hids) and before that I had a DVD, single-din slide out 7” head unit.
I also have eluminescent dials which I’ve had on for a while and they've never failed on me however it does flicker quite regularly when it's used but isn't very noticeable. I removed this today and it didn’t fix the problem so I blew another fuse. ><
Next, I intend on is removing my HIDs and go back to using halogen bulbs and see if that fixes my problem although I reckon it won't resolute this crisis.
My last resort is to get it professionally looked at, so does anyone know [melb] of any highly recommendable car electricians or should I take it directly to Honda?
I want this problem fixed ASAP as it restricts me from driving at night cos I have do not know precisely how fast I'm going or revving!
