Dash lights winking on and off

[Omie01]

My car has developed a new issue, I turn my headlights on and my dash lights work great for about 30 minutes, then they start turning on and off with no apparent pattern. I had a loose headlight wire on my switch and they did the same thing until I fixed the wire. I heard somewhere the switch has a thermal protective feature, is it the same with the dash lights? I have a new printed circuit board and cluster voltage regulator, light switch and all new bulbs, does this sound like an overheat issue? If I turn the dimmer all the way down for a few minutes and then turn it back up the dash lights will work for a few minutes and then start blinking again. Please help! Thanks!!

 

[72HCODE]

i would replace the head lights switch, if anything just to rule it out.

i had a headlights switch where the bi-metal fuse would kick on and off after a while, i had to replace the switch and then i needed to ditch the halogen headlights i had for lower wattage OEM types.

 

[Omie01]

i just put this light switch in, maybe faulty?

 

[72HCODE]

could be, i have seen NOS bad.

 

[luxstang]

If you just put the new switch I and suddenly the problem appears it probably means that the new witch is the issue.

It might be a coincidence but if you change one thing in a working system and a problem shows it's usually the thing you changed causing it.

Like 72Hcode said, at least you rule it out if it's still not working.

 

[Jeff73Mach1]

If you run halogen headlights, you can use a relay harness to lighten the load on the headlight switch. Making one up is easy enough, but they are available for as little as 35 bucks.

For that matter, you can do the same with standard headlights and also reduce the load on that switch.

 

[midlife]

OK...the dash lamps don't use the thermal circuit breaker but instead use a fuse in the fuse box. The headlights do use the circuit breaker.

Now then, why would this happen after a period of time? Heat! As things heat up (particularly in the rheostat area on the headlight switch), metal expands and perhaps the pickup tab is not making contact with the wire-wound rheostat. The other place to look is the dash cluster connector: make sure those pins are curved outward and not flattened to make good contact.

 

[Omie01]

My headlights were doing this before I changed the switch, it was then that I found the big yellow wire to the switch was getting hot. Found that the terminal was really loose, so I pulled the wire out of the switch block, cleaned it, and crimped it a little to make a good connection and it quit heating up, and the headlights quit blinking. But now its the dash lights. I will try a different switch, but this fall I am going to switch to LED's in the dash, and swap new gauges into the triple pods so I will check the main cluster connection when I do that. I did clean all the copper contacts on the main connection and they still looked bowed out, but will recheck them as well. I will keep you guys posted!! Thanks for the insight!!