Dash/climate control lights problem - Resolved

[marcrunner]

Hoping to gain some insight on a small problem of mine.

Dash lights/climate control lights are out. Checked fuse, and after replacing #10 fuse, it quickly blows again as soon as the headlights/parking light switch is enacted. Any ideas before delving in further into the electrical system? 06 T1N

Thanks,
Marc

 

[autostaretx]

Re: Dash/climate control lights problem

Full schematics for the 2006 are section 8W in the service manual located here: http://aie-services-2.net/Sprinter/

good luck
--dick

 

[marcrunner]

Re: Dash/climate control lights problem

Thanks Dick!

 

[marcrunner]

Dash lights/instrument panel not working solved

Hello Everyone,
Wanted to share my findings with a recent quest to figure out why my instrument lighting had not worked since I purchased the van. In my scenario, every time i installed a new fuse into the corresponding instrument light fuse holder located underneath the steering wheel, the fuse would immediately blow every time the headlight switch was turned on

I had the help of a certified technician to help me with the process, and we traced the wiring from the fuse panel back. We traced the wires coming from the fuse panel under the steering wheel to just left of the fuse panel where he located what he called a "Z connector" which was basically a factory way of binding multiple wires together, almost with a molded plastic cap to register all of the wires together. From there, we were able to track down the loom that headed back to the rear of the van. The instrument lighting, which also ties into the head and tail lights, follows along the driver side frame rail underneath the van. It breaks off into 2 separate looms once it gets back to the spare tire.

Before any wire testing was done, we also opened the rear doors allowing the contacts for the rear license plate lights to disconnect, and therefore be omitted from the scenario just in case it was an easy fix like this.

Tracing the wires from their beginning just left of the fuse panel all the way to the spare tire carrier in the back, we looked for exposed wiring, or evidence of chafing along the underbody.
Long story short, we finally found the problem. When Uhaul had installed the hitch, they had pinched the wiring harness between the hitch and the body, and then torqued the hitch down. I would imagine the previous owners wouldn't have noticed any problems, as I am sure the wiring held up for a little while before chafing away the insulation causing the problem.

I believe the wire color we were tracing was grey with a white stripe and red bands, but if anyone knows off hand, please correct me if I am wrong.
Thanks,
Marc
06 140" Passenger

 

[220629]

Re: Dash lights/instrument panel not working solved

...
Long story short, we finally found the problem. When Uhaul had installed the hitch, they had pinched the wiring harness between the hitch and the body, and then torqued the hitch down. I would imagine the previous owners wouldn't have noticed any problems, as I am sure the wiring held up for a little while before chafing away the insulation causing the problem.

...

Thanks for the followup.

I'll bet "long story short" literally applies. Tracing harnesses can be tedious.

A simple mistake again causes an owner headaches.

Knowing that the license plate lamps are on the same circuit, a quick troubleshooting method might just be to find that wire under the dash and snip it in a place easy to splice in a small(er) value in-line fuse.

Horrors that I would even suggest such a butcher move, but it has been effective with intermittent control system problems that radiate out into a building filled with production equipment. Divide and conquer. Of course once the shorted/grounded wire is isolated, from there I would employ test equipment like a Pasar Current tracer to (hopefully) follow to the problem.

vic

 

[marcrunner]

Vic,
That's exactly what we did to find the problem circuit. Measuring resistance, and with a little luck, the first one we snipped notified the problem circuit. I didn't have a chance to look at the wiring schematic myself, but was told that daytime running lights, as well as map lights were on the same circuit for anyone searching.