Here’s my question, yesterday I was driving my vibe and noticed that the dash and radio lights were not working. The car was being used by my father all of the week before hand, so I thought maybe something had happened on his trip. The first thing I tried was messing with the dimmer, but it had no effect on the lights. I then checked the fuse, it looked fine, but I switched it with the radio just in case. The radio still worked, but no lights. I then gave up and borrowed the family CRV for the a while. When I dropped off the CRV, I played with the vibe again, and noticed that the lights worked in the accessory position, but not when the car was on. This morning, I turned the car on, and the lights worked just fine, but I realized the dimmer had been left on it’s lowest level. I then remembered that the dimmer switch never seemed to work, and the lights always seemed to be stuck at max. So what I think happened was the dimmer was set to low on the trip inadvertently, and forgot about, but then something caused the car to actually recognize the change, and the lights went off, so I’m hoping that by leaving the switch at high, the problem won’t reappear. Is this possible, or is there some other problem that I have failed to see?
Why panic?
It sounds like there is a problem with the ignition switch. Power to the lighting should be going to the circuit when the key is in the ON position. Use a test light probe to check the power at the fuse if the trouble occurs again. If there isn’t any power at the fuse then the ignition switch needs to be checked. There may be a faulty section in the switch.