I was driving my 1985 Coupe last night, and the dash lights suddenly died out, as did the fog lamps. No matter what I did with the switches, I could not get them to power back up; the fog lamps completely died, and the dash lights were at minimum power. Here's the strange part: the head lights were still running fine. I got home and turned the car off, then back on. The dash lights flickered to full power for just an instant, and then went back to minimum. Still no response from the completely dead fog lamps.

Any ideas?

Thanks in advance!

Sounds like a bad connection somewhere. I'd start by checking the fuse, if that's OK, then check power to the switch.

When I got my car the fog lights were dead and the dash only half lit up. I pulled the cluster and half the lights were out, so I changed them all and it was good to go. As far as the fog lights, the switch went bad. I replaced the switch and they worked again. The previous owner had said the alternator went right before he sold the car to me and it was overcharging. I think it might of fried the fog light switch and burnt out the bulbs. There were a few other switches that were also fried and needed replacing.

Check the fuses and check the bulbs for the fog lights. If they're good, the switch might be bad. For your dash lights, it sounds like a bad connection. Sometimes the connections get dirty and just unplugging and replugging corrects the contact issue. It worked on certain components on my 99 Caddy.

Hey thanks guys, that was it, it was just a fuse! For some reason, the fuse for the dash lights and fog lamps is labeled "tail."

Well that will do it. Cheap fix. By the way, did you happen to replace your fog light bulbs recently? The reason I asked was I had replaced mine with higher wattage ones and after 10 minutes, they would blow the fuse, happened 5 times, so I reinstalled the original ones and its been good ever since.

I did replace one fog lamp, but that was back in april. I use the fog lamps every time I drive at night, and there's no problem.