hooked up gauge faces, gauges now light only when headlights on

[boostmaster123]

Like the title states, i just hooked up some indiglo gauge faces to my dimmer switch and now my defi Bf's only light upwhen i have the headlights on. The gauges work and everything because i can see the needle moving but they arent lit up. My defi's are hooked into a fuse and like is said the gauges are hooked to the green/white line from the dimmer. what is causing the problem with my gauges now? also why is it that when i turn on my headlights i get a flicker from the gauges and then they turn on? is there a relation between the two? any comments are much appreciated.

 

[96TSi_Chris]

If you hooked them to the dimmer, when else would you want them to light? The dimmer works when the interior lights are on, so obviously they wont work until you use your lights. If you want them lighting full time, your going to need to rewire them to a constant 12v such as your turbo timer or cig lighter.

 

[boostmaster123]

maybe i was unclear with what i said. what i mean is that i have wired my gauge faces to the dimmer in which case they would come on when i turn on my lights which is what i want my gauge faces to do. The problem is that i never even touched the wire for my defis ( which used to stay on when i had the car on reguardless of my headlights) and now all of a sudden after i hooked my gauge faces to the dimmer my defi's dont come on unless i use my headlights..let me stress that i never even touched the power wire to my defi's. what would cause this?

 

[JiveMasterT]

i would go and check your ground wires and double check all of your wiring. its probably something stupid like wires crossed or something. make sure nothing is touching and everything is grounded properly.

 

[boostmaster123]

yea i agree...im gonna go and double check that nothings crossed...all of my grounds are pretty solid but ill double check them too.
thanks

 

[frigginlazer]

I had the same problem on my Laser. Gauges wouldnt light up with my lights. had to splice a wire into my Parking light for a trigger adn run that to a relay. now I turn on my lights, the tigger turns on the added relay which pumps 12V into my gauges.

Mike