I purchased my first XK8 today. It's a 1997 model with low miles.

When I got it home I started to clean and inspect it. I noticed that the dash lights stay on all the time. Even with the headlights on. And if I play with the dimmer switch it does nothing.

What really got me worried is that when I turned on the headlights none of the other lights came on. Just the headlights. And when I put on the park lights still nothing.

The brake lights work, and so do the turn signals. I'm stumped. I checked the fuse boxes and didn't see any blown fuses. I did a quick search on the forum here and didn't see anything that pertained to this issue. Can anybody help? I would be very grateful. Thanks.

 

From your description I would say you may have a problem with the light stalk. As always, make sure your battery is in tip top condition but you may be looking at buying a new stalk if you can't repair the one you have.

 

I'm pretty sure the following is true :

With ignition in position 2, the dash lights are always on even when the exterior lights are off - BUT they are not dimmer controlled.
It is only when you switch on the exterior lights that the dimmer knob has any effect.
The dimmer knob has an "override" position which is fully anti-clockwise.
All on page 3-14 of driver's handbook.

 

Thanks for the responses guys.

Jim I think you might be right. I popped off the steering column trim to get a better look at the switch but didn't see anything that stood out right away. I will do some more checking and testing tonight. I also put the charger on the battery and it was a bit low on juice.

And David I had a suspicion that the interior lights might be on all the time. Thank you for confirming that.

 

I looked briefly at the headlight/turn signal stalk and didn't see anything that caught my eye so I put the column cover back on. Both mounting screws snapped. That was fun.

I have been busy this weekend so not much time to do anymore testing. But what I did notice is that if I turn the park lights on and indicate to the right the lights will work! And the dimmer too. So I'm guessing that it is a switch problem.