i used to have a problem in my 95 civic ex coupe where the guage lights wouldnt work and i would have to tap the dimmer switch and all it would do is flicker on and turn off and found out the set of 3 switches the dimmer is attached to is 30 dollars used so i decided i would use one of those racing toggle switches with a carbon fiber flip up cover for 10 an excellent place to locate these toggle switches for this purpose is on the piece of plastic that covers the gauges and vents its easy to remove and easy to see where your running your wires the best location on the piece of plastic for this is to the left of the hazard light button and the clock just take it out drill about a half inch hole and mount the switch. what you need to do to the existing dimmer switch is cut the solid red wire and black wire as close to the quick connect as you can leave the red wire with the black stripe attached and wrap the wires and quick connect with electrical tape this is the dimmer wire note if you hook it up through a toggle switch it will always be max brightness you cant dim the light but you can see your gauges at night and the toggle switch is used to cut the gauge lights on after your headlights are on. get some wire same size and crimp connectors and crimp adaptors for the toggle switch connect the wires with the crimps at the old toggle switch the best way to run these wires is just under the gauges there is a perfect gap for them to lay in unharmed do this with the plastic around the gauges off when the wires are ran and the crimp adapters are on attach them to the toggle switch and reatach the plastic note they will only cut on via toggle when headlights are on i have noticed a lot of people have this problem ps if you get a used switch from another car it will probably be shortly lived as well there arent aftermarket ones that are oem i recomend doing this hope this helps good luck