Dash light fuse blowing

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jade944er
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Hey yall, newbie and aspiring hack mechanic here.
Hoping someone on here with a little more experience with the electrics on these cars could chime in an on an issue i'm having

I noticed yesterday, as I went to turn the headlights on for a drive that my gauge lights, the lights on the HVAC controls and the fog light switch had all gone. Then I saw that my rear plate tag lights had gone as well. I quickly located fuse number 38 for the instrument lights, and it had blown. So I threw in a new 7.5 amp fuse, went to turn on the lights, and again it blew the new fuse in about half a sec.

I suspected a short somewhere near my right tag light, which I had recently replaced, but couldn't see anything wrong. I wasn't able to start testing the tag lights or any of the wiring because it's currently snowing here in NY, and I dont have a garage atm.

Anyone experienced something similar? Most of my poking around online about dash lights has been about them being too dim, where those not saying to replace your reflective paint point to the dash light dimmer, and the potentiometer inside becoming dirty or corroded. Some kind of failure at that dimmer seems plausible to me but not sure what else it could be shorting on or what else I could check before I have to start taking the dash apart.

Thanks everyone :)
'86 944 8v (N/A) :mrgreen:

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Outlaw944
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Mine dash light blew twice once. I beleive it was a short on the glove box light. I think... although it could have been the rear license plate light.

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walfreyydo
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You will have to review the electrical diagrams and test every component that shares that system for a short.
http://p914-6info.net/944%20Manuals.html

I had this same issue and identified the dimmer potentiometer as the issue/source of the short. I simply hard wired/bypassed to fix my issue as opposed to replacing the potentiometer/dimmer. The drawback is that all lights wired to the dimmer are at max brightness, but thats where I would have them anyways.

Again, that may or may not be the source of your particular issue, so testing will likely be necessary.
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spacecad3t
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Outlaw944 wrote: Mon Jan 19, 2026 8:53 am Mine dash light blew twice once. I beleive it was a short on the glove box light. I think... although it could have been the rear license plate light.
Check this. Disconnect your battery first! They put the glove lamp on top and the wiring is weirdly close to metal. I pulled my glove box once without knowing this and blew that fuse + shot sparks everywhere...

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