Instrument lights dead

[soundguy]

Thanks Kevin for the suggestion. I installed a new light switch about a year ago, so hopefully it hasn't gone bad already, but maybe I'll pop it out and clean it.

[KevinH1990]

Originally Posted by soundguy

I installed a new light switch about a year ago,

That seems to decrease the likelihood of a faulty switch.

Given your description of the symptoms leading up to the failure, (i.e. The instrument lights have never been as bright as I'd like, even with the dimmer turned all the way up ) is it possible that the dimmer switch in the cluster has gone bad? This YouTube video shows someone working on a Mercedes cluster with a bad dimmer switch. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=itzEX3ow5uY I couldn't find one for Porsche.

You may want to spray contact cleaner on the dimmer switch or gently play around with it to see if that helps. If that fails, consider contacting an instrument cluster repair shop (e.g. Palo Alto Speedometer) ask them whether they are aware of dimmer switch failure on 986 or 996 clusters.

[soundguy]

The dimmer switch seems to be working as it does still dim the LCDs under the tach, speedo, and fuel gauges. Good suggestion Kevin and maybe a little contact cleaner is in order. I am getting pretty good at taking it all apart at this point...

[muledog]

Replacing the headlamp switch fixed the lack of instrument lights for me. Similarly, I pulled apart the instrument cluster and found no problem but a new switch fixed it.