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I’ve searched and read. Lots of similar issues out there but couldn’t find this exact scenario.
1. When I turn the ignition on, my dash lights (gauges, dic, hvac) turn off. They do turn on when I turn the parking lights on.
2. When the car is running, I sometimes have to quickly flip the switch (on-off-on) to get the headlights to pop-up. They always illuminate, but don’t always raise. Quickly flipping the switch raises them. When the car is off, they operate normally.
Tail lights and all other lights (brakes, signals, drls, fogs, HUD) work normally.
I’m leaning towards the problem being the multifunction switch. The fact that the headlights always illuminate and work normally with the car off has me wondering if it could be something else?
Could anyone confirm a bad multifunction switch could cause these issues? Would hate to bark up the wrong tree.
To answer question one sounds like an ignition switch issue…as in the picture the ignition switch orange wire feeds the HVAC module and a few other items…do you have a DVOM ??…I see you’re in central Florida…be glad to look at it for you if you want to make your way over to the west coast !!
Thanks so much for the reply and offer to help. I think you’re right. I should gain some experience with my multimeter and do some investigating. It could very well be both things.
You’re about 3 hours SW from me. I’ll pm you if it turns ugly. Haha. Always nice to see the gulf anyways.
You might also want to check out the head light control module. I had a problem, where both head lights would not come up. If i played with the multi-fuction switch, I sometimes could get them to come up. It turns out the problem was with the head light control module. i purchased an after market module-- at about half the cost of the GM module-- and have had no further problems.
Just a thought, check the connector between the headlight motor and module. My passenger light started acting up again 30 days after a new headlight motor was installed. I opened up the connector, cleaned all the connections and reconnected. The light has operated for 15 months without further problems.
I followed the instructions on the diy sticky to clean and refurb the multifunction switch. So far, that seems to have fixed the issue with the lights popping up. It was always intermittent so time will tell.
Still have the issue with the dash lights going off when the ignition is on but the parking/headlights are off.
I checked all fuses in the ignition switch diy thread and all were showing >12v with the ignition switch in the on position.
Then I cleaned the 4 under hood grounding points and the connections to the headlight control module. Lots of sand but little corrosion in any of these.
Still have the same problem. Dash lights go off when ignition switched to on until parking/headlights are switched on.
I guess it could be worse. You can’t even tell there’s a problem on a sunny day. Until you’re under an overpass wondering why the gauges are dark.
Lighting troubles. Multifunction, Ignition, something else?
