well, since I have to...

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[audiodane]

hello.

have a 2000 buick regal with all sorts of troubles, but nothing worth ditching the car over. Still runs and handles wonderfully.  Briefly:

- Lowest air conditioning speed doesn't work (not huge, but would be nice to fix one day)
- interior dashboard backlights don't work (frustrating, but not horrible. would fix if I knew how)
- Fuel gauge no longer works (not too bad, just refuel every couple hundred miles..)
- odometer burned out (..oh- well.. then just every couple days...  )
- Anti-lock brake dash light always on (just hang back a bit more from the car in front of me)

Anyway. Hello!

cheers,
..dane

[SofaKingWeToddDid]

Sounds like you have an electrical gremlin...
Welcome.
Did you check fuses for the dashlights/oodometer?

[audiodane]

radio is nice and bright during the day, when the car 'thinks it's night', when the dash should come on, they don't, but the radio does dim (to almost completely off). and very rare and random times all the lights will come on fully then blink back off. When they do come on, the odometer can still not be read, but the radio does brighten up when the dash lights do come on (for that very fleeting moment).

I was thinking just a bad contact somewhere. have not considered the bad contact might actually be in the fusebox. hahaha. I will look at the fuse.  Someone else recommended the headlight/dimmer switch circuit.

I do not have a 2000 regal repair manual. I'm guessing I'm going to need to get one if I want to start looking into these matters..   Was hoping with a car 11 years old there would be some online pictorials already made for these "common problems."

..dane

[SofaKingWeToddDid]

the dimmer switch circuit sounds like a likely cause, maybe a faulty switch or bad ground? i would look for a freshly removed remote starter or something else under there.

the repair manual is basically junk. its generic to almost any car and doesnt really give you that much valid vehicle specific info, especially by comparison to some of the peoples knowledge here. any questions can more than likely be answered here

[audiodane]

good to know on the repair manuals, thanks. I recall looking at one over 10 years ago and the pictures were for such a different car than the book was actually for, it did me no good.  Sad to know it hasn't gotten any better.

On another note, I took out the dimmer and took it apart.  pieces flew everywhere (didn't realize there were springs in there!).  Found all the parts, set them aside. Saw some really nasty black looking junk on one of the contacts- took an exacto blade and carefully scraped it all off (neither alcohol nor contact cleaner would get it off).  Figured out where the springs and brass tops went (they give the resistance stops in pulling the knob out (two stops) as well as the interior "all on" switch click/stop), reassembled everything, reinstalled, and could see the radio display intensity varying up and down- YAY!  Too bright to see if the rest of the dash will light up or not. Will know that tonight.

When I was going to reconnect the vehicle connector, I noticed that the plastic around the pin that was all black was somewhat melted. It was a corner pin all by itself. Not sure what happened there, or if it will happen again.  Wish I knew the pinout, maybe that's the power to the dash/console lighting?

..dane

[Chris]

Welcome to the forum!

That black junk was old, decrepit dielectric grease. It works great at keeping the moisture out of electrical contacts until it doesn't.

[audiodane]

Ahhh, thanks.  Scraping it off has ended up working great.  I also had to remove the instrument cluster and replace the resistors to get the odometer display working again.  That's worked great as well.  All that's left now is to mount my new rearview mirror, keep an eye out for a new driver mirror (it's leaking as well), eventually replace the fuel pump (gauge erratic), fix the air conditioning lowest-speed (very low priority), and see about the last 2' of wiring to each of the ABS connectors at the wheels and see if rotted wiring is the cause there (per some other forum posts). Sounds like a lot, but with the rest of the car working so well, I can't complain!

..dane

[SofaKingWeToddDid]

sweet! It works!!!