[don3194]

1994 Oldsmobile Bravada with digital dash.
I seem to have the opposite problem people have when it comes to dash lights, they just will not dim.
Neither the digital dash, nor will the other incandescent dash lights dim.
They will turn off when I move the switch to the lowest position.

I figured it was just a bad dimmer switch, so I ordered a new one and it did the same exact thing. No dimming but it turns them off.

I decided to clean the old switch up(they are really easy to take apart) and I tested the ohms on the dash light pins of both the new and the old switches and they are both a consistent 0-10 ohm range. Even tested the voltage drop at one of the dash lights and started at 13V and went down to 12.4V then to 0V after they turned off. But still no visible dimming.

So I'm wondering if anything is really "wrong" from the stock setup and they never dimmed much in the first place. I can't seem to find anything wrong with the switches or the wiring in the truck itself, it all seems to match the service manual scehmatics.

Also I got curious and tested some various high amp rated resistors I had ranging from 10-70 ohms and that gave a very nice dimming effect to the lights on the dash and other lights. 70 ohms seemed to be about the dimmest they would be before they would just turn off.

If anyone knows a bit more about this I'd love to hear it. Maybe the digital dash never dimmed much from the factory and I will have to add some additional resistance some how?

Thanks

 

[wrongway1]

Hi Don3194, Are all the dash lights the standard incandescent or are they converted to LED?
I found that the dimmer has to have a certain amount of load to work. I converted my 96 S10
dash to LED and now they run full brightness, can't dim except like you say by using resistors.
I used a DPDT switch and 15 ohm and 60 ohm 3 watt resistors to have high and low.

 

[don3194]

Hi Don3194, Are all the dash lights the standard incandescent or are they converted to LED?
I found that the dimmer has to have a certain amount of load to work. I converted my 96 S10
dash to LED and now they run full brightness, can't dim except like you say by using resistors.
I used a DPDT switch and 15 ohm and 60 ohm 3 watt resistors to have high and low.

I do have the digital dash and the rest of the instrument lights are still incandescent.

I wonder if there may have been a digital dash dimmer and a regular dash dimmer.