I'm new to this forum and have electrical Gremlins!!
I've had my Vanagon for approx 5 years but a couple of years ago I was driving home from work in the early hours and lost all my dash lights, rev counter and speedo hit zero, suddenly my main beam was full beam and my oil light remained on as a permanent fixture. In panic I stopped and called RAC who found no fault and followed me home to give me peace of mind!! (Probably thought I was a overeacting silly girl!!) It didn't happen again for ages and to be honest I forgot about it. It started happening again and I found the earth which needed a clean up, the clean up seemed to work but low and behold it started again. I thought I had narrowed the problem down to the light switch and the rotary switch to control the level of light in dash panel as when I turned the rotary switch the needles on the rev counter and speedo went up, temp light flashed, main beam light came on. It took some doing finding a new switch with the right amount of pins but one was found and fitted with no difference atall. A couple of people I've spoken to are now positive the only solution would be to replace the Printed Circuit. I understand these are hard to come by and even more so for a LHD, is there any of you fellow T25 owners out there that can point me in the direction of sourcing a new one or have another solution to this very annoying problem.
Welcome, I am also quite new here but I have been taking my 1990 van dash apart and I am really puzzled that you say the speedo before went up and down as you turned the dimmer switch.
The speedo needle is operated by a cable to the front wheel and has no electrical components so should not be effected by the voltage in the dash. I thought that the headlight flasher was controlled direct from the headlight switch (not to much electronics!) So maybe you have a short circuit that confuses things and sends a 12V signal to the headlight dip relay somehow.
Perhaps you could tell us the year and model of your van to help more knowledgeable people chip in.
Good luck! Neil
1991 model T25 with a 2.1 litre MV and basic camping interior in it
Sorry bugmonkey.... Right the issue with the speedo is that I can't see it at night!! But the rev counter is a definite no no. Like I said I switch the headlights on and I loose dash lights, rev counter, and lights like oil and full beam all seem to remain a permanent fixture unless I turn the dimmer switch and everything seems to have a party!!!
I would guess that the ground connection to your gauge panel is not working very well/or at all.
You need to locate that ground wire and ensure it is connected to a good ground.
