I recently purchased a 1993 Honda Civic EX. I love it and it's in decent shape, but the one nagging problem is the dashboard lights. They don't come on. All the warning lights/indicators work (seatbelt, high beams, turn signals etc) but at night I can't see how fast I'm going or how much gas I have.

The other problem, which I believe is related, is that the radio gets no power. It came with no radio so I hooked up my own head unit and it gets no power; won't turn on at all.

I have checked the fuses and the only one blown, inside and out, was the Back Up fuse under the hood. I switched it out with the horn to see what it fixed and it only made the clock work correctly.

I am planning to test the power going in and out of the dimmer switch tomorrow, but I thought I would check here in case anyone has run into this before. It's very annoying, since it's keeping me from getting my car inspected and registered completely. Anyone have any ideas?

 

Either the dimmer switch, or every single illumination bulb in the cluster is burnt out, which is actually more likely than you might think. I think the dimmer controls the ground circuit for the lights but not sure of that.

Do the tail lights and front corner lights work? If not the fuse is likely blown, which also feeds the dash lights and the lights in the stock radio. A short in the wiring behind the radio is the likely cause of blowing that fuse.

 

My bet is on a faulty dashlight brightness controller (assuming that it just isn't dialed all the way OFF). Here's how to test:

 

Check the fuses, if they are burning out quickly you may have a problem with the relay and along the wires somewhere.