Porsche Enthusiasts Club Forum

Here's a question: I have an oval dash 89 2.7, all the lights on the dash appear to be working fine, however on the centre console only the passenger lock button lights up, all the others(mirrors, sunroof, rear wiper) do not! Are they supposed to?

That is correct. Only the central locking button is illuminated.

Hi, I have followed the 944 wiring diagram from the dashboard illumination control and found that it feeds the following:

Instrument cluster
Cigar lighter - and this also goes to the clock
Hazard switch
Rear screen heater switch
Rear fog switch
Front fog switch
Heater control unit
Ashtray light
Central locking button

The headlight switch is also illuminated but by a different circuit.

And that is the lot..so unfortunately the other centre console switches do not light up

I see, thank you for the info guys. It's strange they didn't light those up? would make sense as even the small vent icon illuminates but oh well.

Too true..I wish they had.. I took the '44 out at night the other evening and re-discovered the joys of poor dashboard illumination and fumbling in the dark for switches!

Compared to my 07 VW Jetta that lights up like the bridge of the Enterprise, the '44 is terrible. Time for a redesign project this winter methinks...

I suspect if asked there would be some trite excuse about not wanting extraneous illumination in the cabin to detract from the purity of the night-time driving experience.

Whilst I don't fully buy it, I do find some cars a little over-lit internally.

Itd be rubbish though. Porsche dashboards are notoriously poor and it was simply half-arsed (although less half-arsed than the 924 derived predecessor).

911s were worse.

This has always been a bug bear of mine too, fumbling for the rear wipe & end up opening the sunroof ???!!, also another poor illumination point are the door handles & window switches on the door. Interesting point in the post up there though ^ by Rhett is that the light switch is illuminated, mine is not illuminated & I also have a 2.7 1989 were the illuminated headlight light switches only on early cars or late 944 too ? if they are on late cars how on earth do you change the bulb & is it the centre that lights up ? would love to know, cheers, Jinxy

The circuit I traced was for a late car, sorry if that caused any confusion. Anyway, the bulb is in the centre of the rotary switch and can easily be changed by simply pulling off the switch knob (note - this can be tight). Then you will see the bulb in the centre. Extract this and replace. Then, when you turn on your lights the little icon on the knob lights up - magic!

Extracting the bulb can be a faff as you can only grip the glass envelope. Using a bit of sticky tape sometimes works, or masking tape on the jaws of snipe-nosed pliers and gentle pressure!

woohoo awesome !! well that's another job for today then !!, superb ! cheers Rhett