I was recently involved in a rear accident leaving me with this odd problem:

My gauge cluster functions and works properly, and the DIC displays correctly, however it doesn't illuminate at night. Also my brake lights function properly, all three light up when the brake is applied, however they don't illuminate under normal driving conditions with no brakes applied. This happened at the time of the accident.

The trunk was displaced causing it to not be able to close properly, At first i thought this might have been causing the problem, however i tried to trick the computer by just manually adjusting the latch inside the trunk so the car would think its closed, however it had no effect on the lights.

Any ideas how else these lights are correlated or what else could cause this? My car is going in for repair but that's not till a couple weeks away, and in the meantime i would like to be able to drive at night..... Thanks guys....

 

Step 1. Check your fuses.

 

Check the parking light fuse in the fuse box under the hood.

 

wow. Can't believe i didn't think of that. Sometimes I over look the simplest things and overcomplicate stuff i guess haha.

That was it thank you guys!

 

The gauge cluster lights are fed from the same fuse to indicate your fuse for the rear running lights is blown when they dont work.
Ppssible shorted wire from the accident for the tail lights.

 

^^^^ Yep. Don't forget the license plate light, it's on the same circuit as the park lights.

Had the whole interior out of the trunk trying to trace a short, tried 1 more fuse to see if one light was dimmer - they would take 10 seconds or so to blow - run around to the back and there was smoke pouring out of the lp light

Glad I found that when I did because I was about to start tearing out seats and interior panels

 

Happens to the best of us.