Hey all,

Here is the description of my problem occurring on my Skoda Fabia 1.4 MPI car, built in 2003:

• The green dashboard light (that illuminates the speedo, rev counter, time and miles) is fully illuminated when I turn the lights on while not in ignition.
  
• The green dashboard light becomes very dim (but stays on) when I turn on the ignition, or start the car.
  
• Dashboard warning lights (ie: battery indicator) work perfectly.
  
• Almost none of the ****pit guidance lights work (ie: charger, temperature control dials, electric windows). The notable exception is that the guidance light on the dial (next to the dimmer) does work.
  
• The dimmer has no effect whatsoever on anything.
  
• My external lights seem to work fine always, as do the curtesy internal lights (ie: the bright white light above the centre console, and the bright white light in the boot).
  
• However, the festoon-based number plate lights at the back of my car do not work, ever.
  

Based on the above, does anyone have any idea whatsoever as to how I could solve this problem? I wonder if it is the reason why I've recently had to purchase a new battery despite the fact that I had already bought and installed one myself half a year ago.

Here's a bonus oddity: If I turn the lights on without ignition, and someone closes or opens a door, then the green dashboard light temporarily dims and then, after half a second, returns to being fully illuminated.

Any advice is much appreciated!

Nick

if you have changed all the underlying bulbs for the interior then it could be an earth problem. Have you checked that the dash cluster illumination is set to maximum on the thumbwheel control.

Hey mannyo,

I really appreciate your feedback but I think you may have misunderstood some of my analysis. The thumbwheel has no effect on dash cluster illumination, but it is set to maximum. Do you really think changing all of the interior lightbulbs is a good first step? It seems unlikely that they would all fail at once.

If this is likely to be an earth problem, do you know approximately where in the car I should look out for this?

Thanks once again,

Nick

Try changing some of the easier ones, the heater one is quiet straight forward and see if that starts working.

I don't think it's unknown for the thumb wheel thing to fail. The dodgy ones I've seen normally spring to life with a tap and a wiggle though.

Edited 23 August, 201213 yr by anewman

Some interesting info can be found here : http://scary-jeff.blogspot.com/2012/07/skoda-fabia-dashboard-lights-fault.html

(This applies for the new type LED dashboard lights)