I know it's not really S2000-related, but I was hoping to just get some general knowledge, and Honda-Tech isn't helping me out too much...

My bf's gauges won't light up. He has a 92 Honda Civic. I was trying to test it out yesterday, and I found two wires that I thought were connected to the gauge lights. When I measured the voltage when the headlights were off, it was 0. And when I measured it when the lights were turned on, it'd be close to 12V. But when I hooked up a little bulb, it wouldn't do anything. But this bulb worked perfectly fine when I hooked it up to a different circuit. What could be causing this?

I was also thinking the whole problem with the gauges not lighting could be due to a problem with the dimmer switch. There are three wires coming out of it. One is black, one is red/black, and one is red. Today, I was checking the continuity of the red/black wire and found out it's somehow connected to the black one, which I assume is ground. I'm not an expert with electronics, but for some reason, I feel like that doesn't seem right. Unless that is something that has to do with the dimmer switch. Can someone tell me if that's normal?

Jean

 

Those two wires may only be supply a switching signal (low-current) rather than the actual power... if that's the case, they probably do't have the power to light a bulb.

Do not quote me on this, and I take no responsibility if you blow a fuse (or something worse), but the black is most likely ground, red is power, and red/black is a switching signal.