Our 1990 Honda Civic DX 1.5 doesn't have any dash lights. When we bought the car the dash lights would come on sporadically. When they came on they would stay on until you turned them off. The dimmer switch was working. Finally the lights quit coming on at all. There is power to the fuse. We're thinking it might be the dash light brightness control unit. There isn't any power to the dimmer switch. If this might be the problem, where would you find one of these control units? I will further check to make sure that the red and black wire has power to the unit. Is the red wire a ground wire? It states that if you attach the red to ground, the dash lights should come on full bright.

Robert

 

More thanlikely its the dimmer switch. Notice that if you unplug the switch and then turn on ur parking/headlamps, the interior dash wont light up until that switch is plugged in. What I would do is go to your local junkyard and pull one from a junked civic. Should be really cheap and for kicks, price one from the local Honda dealer and see if it may be worthwhile to just get a brand new switch and be done with it if you plan on keeping the car for a long time. Hope this advice helps you out!!

 

sounds like the dimmer unit is controlling the current on the ground side of the lights.. the other side of the bulbs has full 12v on it... i'd bet if you turn them on with that dimmer out and take your volt meter to that red wire you'll see 12-13 volts... a junkyard unit is a good way to go.. or if you dont care about dimming them, then just either put a on/off switch inline where the old dimmer was, or attache that red to ground... at least you'll have lights that way...might be an option till you can get yourself a new/used dimmer