dash lights gone on dash

[smokienutz]

the dash lights on 1990 astrovan are out. when i bought it the PO said to replace it it would need a part that cost $300. atm i am using a little led light to see my dash lol. what would be a good place to start troubleshooting this? i know i could fix it myself, just not a good troubleshooter. according to the PO the trouble started w/ the cab light.(light that is directly overhead) would never turn off, then he lost dash lights. so he had the mechanic snip 1 wire and lol nothing works. well i do have the abs light service light(which periodacally comes on) and brake light( which never goes off). i am new at this stuff so any help would be greatly appriciated. ty in advance.

[MountainManJoe]

I recommend picking up yourself a Hanes repair manual for all the basic problems you're posting about. It has wiring diagrams so you can trace your electrical problems, and a troubleshooting section for your rough idle.

[crash]

i'd be curious to know what the $300 part to fix all this is.. lol

sounds like you have more than one issue going on. i had the intermittent dash lights on the 93 I had. most of the winter (cold weather) they wouldn't work. as soon as it warmed up outside they would work fine. i pegged mine as a bad solder or something in the cluster itself. got an led clip light to use when needed in the winter. threw it in the glovebox during the summer.

as for the light map light staying on with the PO... i'd go with a stuck or bad switch

cutting a wire to resolve a problem? sheesh.. which wire? reconnect it and see what comes on .. then drop the overhead console and bypass that bad switch.

the abs light .. typical gm .. my action: live with it

the brake light. probably a bad ground at the top of the arm the ebrake

[chevymaher]

The dash lights.If he took out the instument cluster on the back is a plug clean the contacts and tweak out the ones that stay on firewall.Mechanic turned my mom on to that before I got it.If they screwed up the instrument lights dont work.I would say first place to start is find the wire he cut that is wrong.Hook it back up.Then you can start finding the problem.

[CaptSquid]

What kind of lame mechanic would snip a wire instead of finding and fixing the problem?

[smokienutz]

have any of u swap dashes? w/ say a newer style? i am liking the 2000 or so look.

[v8famvan]

The most likely reason the interior lights stayed on is because the white (ground control) wire was grounded via a faulty door jamb switch or shorted to ground somewhere.

If a wire was cut & now the dash lights/interior lights do not work, the likely wire cut was an orange power feed wire.

Questions here are:
Do you know what wire was/is cut?
Do you have power on the fuses labeled CTSY or DOME? or the dash light fuse?

As to your upgrading of the cluster to a newer version - yes some have been done. I upgraded my 92 to a 94 cluster. To fit a 2000 style into your 90 will require modifications.

Or perhaps you mean swapping the entire dash assembly?

[smokienutz]

The most likely reason the interior lights stayed on is because the white (ground control) wire was grounded via a faulty door jamb switch or shorted to ground somewhere.

If a wire was cut & now the dash lights/interior lights do not work, the likely wire cut was an orange power feed wire.

Questions here are:
Do you know what wire was/is cut?
Do you have power on the fuses labeled CTSY or DOME? or the dash light fuse?

As to your upgrading of the cluster to a newer version - yes some have been done. I upgraded my 92 to a 94 cluster. To fit a 2000 style into your 90 will require modifications.

Or perhaps you mean swapping the entire dash assembly?

yeah i was thinking to swapping the entire thing. there's enough stuff wrong w/ my dash tht it seems to be a better route. imo