1997 Chevy Silverado lighting

Tiny
JERELCRAIG
  • MEMBER
  • 1997 CHEVROLET SILVERADO
  • V8
  • 4WD
  • AUTOMATIC
  • 164,000 MILES
I recently bought my truck from a local car lot. The instument panel would not illuminate. I replaced the fuse (#9) and the dash lights came on briefly and then blew the fuse again. This also effects the tail, backup, and liscence plate illumination lights. I have checked all of the bulbs in the instrument panel and they are fine. I see no bare wires touching each other under the dash. Could I have a worn out or faulty headlight switch causing this?
Tuesday, December 9th, 2008 AT 7:45 AM

4 Replies

Tiny
BUDDYCRAIGG
  • MECHANIC
  • 2,262 POSTS
That's good, most places will not let you return electrical parts.

When the fuse blows, do your tail lights also go out, or is it just the dash?
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Tuesday, December 9th, 2008 AT 11:11 AM
Tiny
JERELCRAIG
  • MEMBER
  • 1 POST
That's good, most places will not let you return electrical parts.

When the fuse blows, do your tail lights also go out, or is it just the dash?[/Quote:f935d53794]

Yes the tail light also go out
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Tuesday, December 9th, 2008 AT 11:16 AM
Tiny
JDL
  • MECHANIC
  • 16,098 POSTS
Hey, the cheap diagram, I was looking at, isn't very good.

Have you tracked it down to one circuit, like the dash or tail lite circuit? The information I looked at, was for a C1500 pickup. The orange wire at the headlight switch is the fused voltage circuit. The green wire is voltage for instru lite. The brown wire is voltage for the taillites. With the headlamp switch disconnected, you might try using a fused jumper between the terminals for the orange and green wire, see if the fuse still blows. If it doesn't blow, then try the brown wire. At least it might tell you which circuit is the problem circuit. You may be way ahead of me on this, maybe some of the others have better wiring diagrams.
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Tuesday, December 9th, 2008 AT 11:32 AM
Tiny
TALLCOWBOY
  • MEMBER
  • 1 POST
Have had same problem recently. A broken passenger side front marker light wire was rubbing off and on so it took some time to find. Good luck and happy hunting as it is a tough one. P.S. This was found by someone replacing fuse as it blew so others could look for spark-Flash in the dark. Not high tech but quicker.
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Monday, February 2nd, 2009 AT 9:36 PM

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