dash lights

1999 550 went to drive it last night everything worked except no dash lights. today I checked the fuses under the Pax foot board all tested OK. I plan on checking the rheostat to see if there is power to it. anything else I should be aware of?
thanks

 

Does the icon for parking lights come up (a green one). I have had the same thing on my 550 a few times the last years, and it is bad connection somewhere in the fuse box. I have wiggled and massaged it on the upper right side and then the parking liggt icon dissappear and the instrument light is back. I have no idea why it does that. Turn signals seem to disappear at the same time when this problem occurs.

 

Fuse 12 provides power to the dimmable (rheostat-controlled) lights on the dash (and on the centre dash cluster and HVAC panel), but also to some non-dimmable lights, such as the licence plate lights, "sidelights on" and "parking lights on" annunciators.

The connector Erik refers to is probably connector F (white wire on pin 1):

Image Unavailable, Please Login

You should be able to figure out if your problem is a dimmer issue or a power issue by checking your licence plate lights.

Fuse 5 provides power to most of the other dash non-dimmable annunciators: water temp and oil temp warning (in their respective gauges), airbag, parking brake, brake warning, window heat, suspension, seatbelt and low traction annunciators.

 

You can temporarily bypass the rheostat by shorting out the yellow and white wire on the connector


Image Unavailable, Please Login
That will give you full brightness.

 

If you determine if its your Rheostat... this might help for a lead..

https://www.ferrarichat.com/forum/threads/dash-instrument-dimmer-switch.683356/#post-149332489

 

Thank you everyone for your feed back I revisited 15 amp fuse in spot 12 it seemed to test ok but i replaced it any way and pressed hard to make sure it was seated
I have dash lights again. I honestly don't know what I would have done without the help of this forum dealing with all the little problems that crop up

 

Hopefully there are no dry solder joints in the relay panel. These cars seem to be showing their age. On the F348 it’s now recommended that you remove and reinsert relays and fuses periodically to refresh the contacts. Some DeOxit wouldn’t hurt, either.

When you say you tested the fuses, do you mean with an ohmmeter or voltmeter?