Dash warning lights on, no speedomoter- no heat or air

CHINACAT90

MEMBER
2004 DODGE DAKOTA
4.7L
6 CYL
4WD
AUTOMATIC
82,000 MILES

One day after moving the steering wheel, the ABS, & air bag lights came on, speedometer stopped working and I had no air or heat. Blower working. Just no air or heat.
Did some research, thought it was the ABS sensor- changed it- no help.
Took the steering column apart and found a cluster of wires in a harness that plug into the ignition switch, that if you just touched it, all the lights went out everything worked again. So in trying to pinpoint it, I took the ignition switch apart to check if all the wires were connected. Put it all back together. And now touching the wires doesn't help anymore. Everything still is on and not working right. Obviously, I touched on something. And I'm right there.I just can't figure it out and it's driving me nuts. Getting cold, and I need heat!
thanks!

1 Reply

CARADIODOC

MECHANIC
33,873 POSTS

Sounds to me like you accidentally found the problem but you need to know what to look for. There is almost certainly going to be two blackened terminals in the connector for the ignition switch. The high current caused them or the contacts in that part of the switch to overheat. The overheating creates more resistance to current flow which leads to more heat. The heat from the part that overheated will migrate to the other part and damage it too, so the fix is to replace the switch and the overheated terminals.

The two overheated terminals can be cut out of the melted plastic connector body. Also cut off 4" of wire because it will be hard from the heat and solder won't adhere to it. Splice in 4" of new wire of the same gauge, then solder them and seal those splices with heat-shrink tubing. Never use electrical tape because it will unravel in a gooey mess on a hot day. Crimp two new terminals on, but solder them too for a really tight connection Plug those two terminals in individually after the connector is plugged in.