1984 300D; The lights behind my ACC dont come on, as well as the window switches, and the "upper" console switches. ive replaced the bulbs in the "daisy chain" behind the ACC and the one in the octopus. The lights still dont work. Any ideas?

btw, when i push the rear window defroster button, it lights up and stays lit, even after the window is defrosted.

im not too good with electrical, but i think ive found the main ground up behind the steering column (tons of brown wires hooked up here). ive traced the blue end to a block of some sorts that has two other blue wires going to it. ill try to attach a pic.
when i put my meter on the ground i found and on this block thingie, i get continuity but no 12v. I hope im using the tester right...any thoughts?

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Ibe300D,

The lights on the dash are all controlled intensity wise by the rheostat on the instrument panel. If the main instrument lights are way dim, then your other lights will be dim too. If this is not the problem, let us know. Also, the rear window defroster circuit is timer controlled and stays on for a half hour or so. After that time the light should go out. It does not have a sensor to check the window condition, but if you are happy with the clarity of the window before the half our expires it is ok to shut it off manually. Good luck and I hope this helps. Also, if someone else knows what he has shown in the photo is all about, please pipe up. Jim

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Own:
1986 Euro 190E 2.3-16 (291,000 miles),
1998 E300D TurboDiesel, 231,000 miles -purchased with 45,000,
1988 300E 5-speed 252,000 miles,
1983 240D 4-speed, purchased w/136,000, now with 222,000 miles.
2009 ML320CDI Bluetec, 89,000 miles

Owned:
1971 220D (250,000 miles plus, sold to father-in-law),
1975 240D (245,000 miles - died of body rot),
1991 350SD (176,560 miles, weakest Benz I have owned),
1999 C230 Sport (45,400 miles),
1982 240D (321,000 miles, put to sleep)

I actually briefly looked at Ibe300D's wiring issues, but ran out of time. The lights are not coming on at all, even with the rheostat on FULL and the other instrument panel lights on nice and bright.

I didn't have a wiring diagram, but that screw that Josh's pointing out in that picture has continuity with ground, implying that the blue wire's the ground wire, or that there's a severe short somewhere. I didn't have a chance to trace the brown wire before I left...to be honest, it looks like a previous owner did some (bad) rewiring; I traced the brown wire as far as the steering column, where there was a huge bundle of it stashed in there like someone had run the wire without cutting off the excess.

Also, I don't know if this is connected to the ACC lights, but the lights for the window switches and the hazard light switch aren't lighting up either. However, the light for the shifter is lighting up.

I thought (although I could be wrong) that MBZ uses brown for all of it's ground wires.

__________________
'99 S420 - Mommies
'72 280SE 4.5 - looking to breathe life into it
'84 300SD Grey - Sold
'85 300SD Silver - Sold
'78 Ski Nautique

in my hand is the first light in the chain, the octopus light. The blue leads to this block thing in my hand, the brown leads to what i believe to be the main ground (M1) up behind the steering column. ill post a picture of this in the next reply.

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the brown, which i assume to be the ground, leads to this mess

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i found the wiring diagram in the back of Warden's haynes manual, it calls this block thing "Cable connector, terminal"(45).

According to the diagram;
The blue line comes from the 1st light in the ACC chain of lights.
The yellow line goes to the "Blower switch with lamp"(46).
The green line goes to the instrument cluster.
The red line goes to the "Warning flasher switch, timer".
The orange line goes to the window switches.

Note; the lines are colored in the diagram for highlighting purposes only, they really are all blue wires.

Now that i have this information, what next?
I dont know if the wires in my car actually go to the places the diagram says they should.
Help please

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"According to the diagram;
The blue line comes from the 1st light in the ACC chain of lights.
The yellow line goes to the "Blower switch with lamp"(46).
The green line goes to the instrument cluster.
The red line goes to the "Warning flasher switch, timer".
The orange line goes to the window switches. "

The green line is probably 12v coming from the panel being distributed to the lights. Since the panel lights work, I'd be tracing that wire back.

Jerry

The very upper row of my console does not light up, even though everything else does. What is the easiest way to remedy this? Is there a light behind that panel? How do I get the panel out to replace the light? What kind of light does it take?

thanks!

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Aaron
'84 300D 267,000 - Running WVO - Rice Bran Oil - Mmmmmm, fishy...
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I assume you are taling about the lights in teh switches? All of them (maybe not all but most) are fed via fiberoptic cables that trace to a main light source wihich is one little bulb in a holder with all these fiber optic lines going into it. It is behind everything so you have to pull the console to get to it.

__________________
'99 S420 - Mommies
'72 280SE 4.5 - looking to breathe life into it
'84 300SD Grey - Sold
'85 300SD Silver - Sold
'78 Ski Nautique

BTW, my problem with my interior lights has long been solved. It turned out that the rheostat in the instrument cluster was burnt up. I had a replacement cluster laying around so we swapped it out. Big thanks to my little brother whose sleuthing found the problem.