picked up my 83 240D on saturday. discovered sat. nite there are no dash lights. changed the fuses no difference. yesterday the turn signals went out. checked the #12 fuse and it is good. brake lamps work. by the way hazards do not work. fella i bought the car from thinks its the hazard switch and he will send me a new one.

what do you think?

fiddle with it until you get some level of glow, or you can "jump" the dash lights (should be several threads you could search for here). If fuses are OK, I would try to "mash" the flasher switch a few times...often after taking my car through the carwash moisture gets in under the window / flasher / sunroof rocker switches, and no contact will be made until the switches are "mashed" hard or often enough so that any residue that's in the way is worn off by use.

Sometimes its difficult to figure when a lot of functions were last used, and these ARE 20 year plus old cars and subject to some age-related problems...try these fixes...won't cost nothin'.

okay i pulled the console but first disconnected the neg battery. cleaned the haz switch contacts with iso prop alcholal and took the switch apart and cleaned inside. took the fader off and cleaned it and the mirror button for the right miorror. put them back on and viola(or cello) tghe haz blinker came on. the turn signals came on, the radio stopped working.

okay this is a work in progress.

tomorrow i set the parking brake.

You might try to determine if you have a bad ground in there somewhere behind the instrument cluster.