no dash bord lights help plzs

[sommers461]

when i turn the lights on ihave no dashbord lights or any heater lights door look window button lighter dont work and for some reason the temp gage.but the spedo tack gas gage all woek can some one help me out
thank you
brian

[wiswind]

Is this a analog dash or digital?
Several members have worked with some dashboard problems.
First thing that I would do is to check the fuse(s) for this circuit(s).
Your owner's manual should list which fuses do what.
The other thing to check is the dimmer control on the dashboard......which you adjust to make the lights brighter and more dim (easy to roll to the max or minimum setting when cleaning....etc).

Looking at your profile....you indicate a 1995 windstar, so your wiring will be very similar to my '96.
For my '96, fuse #3 in the fuse panel above the driver's left foot.....5 amp fuse controls all the lights that you list.
The knob that you roll to adjust the brightness of these lights is part of a solid state unit...that uses the setting of the resistor that the knob connects to to pulse the lighting circuit to control the brightness of these lights.

[sommers461]

thaxs for your help it ended up being a bad fuse that was not blowin akk the way now what about the temp gague dont work do the sender units go bad offen and are thay all in one?

[wiswind]

The windstar uses separate temperature sensors for the gauge and the PCM....they are right next to each other.
I have them shown in the pictures that the link in my signature takes you to....HOWEVER a member has pointed out that they may be labeled backward in my picture.
I have not been back into that location to verify this......but the diagram that I used for the identification was a bit strange......is from Alldatadiy......and they are accurate by that diagram......but the Alldatadiy diagram has a few other things out of place.
A member indicated that the temperature gauge sensor has only 1 wire going to it.....and the PCM sensor has 2 wires.

The temperature sensor is a variable resistor......the resistance varies with temperature.

Rockauto has a temperature SENDING unit that seems to line up with the gauge....and a SENSOR that seems to line up with the sensor for the computer.

For 1995 on the 3.8L engine, Rockauto has pictures that indicate that the sender for the gauge is a single threaded stud connection unit.

I tried to find a resistance specification......but have not been able to locate this for the gauge sending unit.