So, about a year ago my steering tilt went out. It never made any grinding noises, so i assume it was more electrical than anything. Over the past few months the backlit lights that light the instrument clusters when the headlights are on have been acting up. Usually they will not cut on until I have been driving for a while, but this week they have not been working at all. Also when they did work the dimmer switch did not respond properly (would only come on when in the normal off position, and off in the adjustable lighting on position. So I am driving around at night checking my speed with the map light. I took the covers off and tinkered with everything, but couldn't figure anything out. I am guessing from the wiring that the mirrors (which do not work either) and the steering tilt are related (they share a cpu mounted under the column). But, I have no clue about the backlight dimmer switch. I have checked the fuse boxes and they are all good. Any advice?

 

I have the exact same problem, I have a 97 XJ6 the reach motor works just fine. I had a mechanic check it, they said the relays were fine and and the motor was getting power but not responding. My mirrors work fine, so I am not sure about the relation. The interesting thing is it worked briefly once and while I was playing with it got stuck low, now it is very uncomfortable driving. I'll keep you posted when I find out more.

 

For the instrument lights, I'm betting the clock spring in the steering column is the culprit or the stalk switch, both of which have a history of failures. The tilt is a separate problem and this tilt motor has a pretty high failure rate. They continue to fail on MYs all the way up to most recent. Both tilt and reach units have poor service records.

 

There were some old TSBs for lighting faults. They have good info on diagnostics and location of components.

bob gauff

 

So can i tinker with the clock spring and stalk switch or are they something you can only replace. The clock spring looks pretty expensive. ??