Chrysler Repair: 1997 Concorde LX dashboard lights are out, 1997 chrysler concorde, amp fuse

Question
I just bought a 1997 Chrysler Concorde LX with a 3.5 l engine. My problem is my dashboard lights died and now I can't see my gages at night. Is this a fuse issue or something more involved? Thanks for your help.

Answer
Hi Betsy,
The first thing to be aware of iis that there is thumb wheel on the headlamp switch which adjusts the brightness of the dash lamps so try turning that to see if the instrument panel will illuminate when you have headlamp on.
Other than that the only fuse that is involved in the lights for the instruments is a 15 amp fuse in position #9 of the fuse box under the dash, so check that one, though it also powers the parking lamps so if those are working so should be the dash lamps. There is also a 20 amp fuse in the power distribution center box under the hood and behind the battery that feeds fuse #9 so that fuse "F" should be checked, but that one is o.k. if the horn works.
If the fuses check out, then the problem is either with the internal contacts of the thumbwheel in the headlamp switch or the body computer module which translates the thumbwheel setting into actual variable voltages that should change the intensity of the dash light, or the wires that connect the headlamp switch to the computer to the instrument panel. And that will require some testing of the wires and the head lamp switch which I can tell you about if necessary.
Please let me know what you learn or need more information.
Roland