dash lights going haywire!!

[free_money]

i have an 02' alero and my service vehicle soon light came on after i arrived to work on tuesday as soon as i parked my car but i didn't have a clue what the problem was because nothing was acting up....when i left work i noticed that my dash lights seemed to flicker but my svs light was not on anymore...when i made it home i cut my car off and cut it back on and my dash lights took about 10sec before they came on and then my svs light came back on so i restarted the car and it worked fine again....this morning when i got to work and parked the svs came BACK on and i cut the car off and turned it back on and the dash lights never came on and i had to restart the car a couple of times before i could get the dash lights to come on...i noticed my exterior lights still work but my interior lights are not functioning half the time...it seems as if i had a blown fuse the lights would stay out but it seems to work half the time so it's confusing...any suggestions??

[brim]

any other lights goin on or off? bad alternator seems to royally mess with interiors, what if anything was the last thing you did before this all happened

[free_money]

i haven't noticed any other lights going off but today the car did perfectly fine....also i haven't done anything to the car other than drive it...yesterday the dash lights wouldn't even come on half the time when i turned on the car so i'm not sure what the problem may be

[free_money]

well when i got home today i fooled around w/ the car and i noticed that when my car acts up w/ the dash lights not coming on nothing electrical works...my exterior lights do not come on nor my windows roll down or a/c work, the engine is the only thing that runs...it takes about 5-10sec for the electrical to start working but it doesn't do this all the time just every now and then...i can turn my lights on manually but they do not come on automatically when it is acting up....i don't know if this helps or not...

[cavaliers60]

hmmm never had that problem... I remember when I had my corolla, I had a problem with my dash lights doing that.... It was a short somewhere, but couldn't find it... so I got my alero. haha hope you find out what's wrong...

[free_money]

i read an earlier post about this problem and some said it could be possibly related to an ignition switch going out...i'd hate to fix this and cost me $60 and still have the same problem

[myowneq]

This is similar to what my car was doing. My dash would quit right after it rained or I washed it. Ended up my windshield was leaking due to a bad installation. Might want to check, but if you unscrew the fuse panel and it's wet or rusty back there, might want to reseal it.

[turtles_ride]

My car has been doing this for about a year now. The car starts fine but none of the dash lights up, power windows and interior fan don't work, have to turn on headlights manually. Only happens sometimes tho, and when it does it can take 10 or 15 seconds for the dash to light up, and everything to work fine, sometimes I have to drive for 3 or 4 minutes before everything lights up fine. Any have a solution to this probelem?

[lonnie]

My car has been doing this for about a year now. The car starts fine but none of the dash lights up, power windows and interior fan don't work, have to turn on headlights manually. Only happens sometimes tho, and when it does it can take 10 or 15 seconds for the dash to light up, and everything to work fine, sometimes I have to drive for 3 or 4 minutes before everything lights up fine. Any have a solution to this probelem?
Are you sure its not the battery because it sounds like that put a volt meter on the terminals and if it reads about 14v you know that the alternator is working. Check the fuse panels for driver\passenger,and underhood for water damage. I had something kind of similar but with the lights going crazy and I had my battery charged several times with it appearing to hold a charge properly only to find that it was bad. Just something to think about. Good Luck

[zoomie]

Any codes?

[AJules]

i have an 02' alero and my service vehicle soon light came on after i arrived to work on tuesday as soon as i parked my car but i didn't have a clue what the problem was because nothing was acting up....when i left work i noticed that my dash lights seemed to flicker but my svs light was not on anymore...when i made it home i cut my car off and cut it back on and my dash lights took about 10sec before they came on and then my svs light came back on so i restarted the car and it worked fine again....this morning when i got to work and parked the svs came BACK on and i cut the car off and turned it back on and the dash lights never came on and i had to restart the car a couple of times before i could get the dash lights to come on...i noticed my exterior lights still work but my interior lights are not functioning half the time...it seems as if i had a blown fuse the lights would stay out but it seems to work half the time so it's confusing...any suggestions??

doesn't seem to be the same problem, but when my alternator started going bad, my dash lights were the first to start acting up. random lights would occasionally come on and stay on for a couple minutes, and my techometer and speedometer would go on and off while I was driving, however, if your outside lights seem to be fine this probably isn't the case