Car question -- Instrument Lights don't turn on

[Tessian]

I'm about as car literate as the average person is computer literate...

My girlfriend recently bought a '93 Nissan Sentra from a friend of my Uncle's (actually he works at my office too)...it's not pretty but it was cheap and will get her to work.

I was driving it a bit tonight and, besides it needing an alignment which she'll look into tomorrow, I noticed that when I turn on the headlights the instrument panel does not light. There is a dial for brightness of the panel but I've flipped it either way and nothing.

I thought maybe a dead fuse? But the best I could find was a 10w fuse marked "Electronics (IG)" which I assume was Instrument Gauge. I tried to replace it with an extra fuse there in the panel but nothing...then again this car is old and that fuse may be dead too...

Am I off track, try something else?

[Anarky]

I would say fuse...

otherwise try to find an automotive forum specializing in Nissans

[Imakeholesinu]

I'm about as car literate as the average person is computer literate...

My girlfriend recently bought a '93 Nissan Sentra from a friend of my Uncle's (actually he works at my office too)...it's not pretty but it was cheap and will get her to work.

I was driving it a bit tonight and, besides it needing an alignment which she'll look into tomorrow, I noticed that when I turn on the headlights the instrument panel does not light. There is a dial for brightness of the panel but I've flipped it either way and nothing.

I thought maybe a dead fuse? But the best I could find was a 10w fuse marked "Electronics (IG)" which I assume was Instrument Gauge. I tried to replace it with an extra fuse there in the panel but nothing...then again this car is old and that fuse may be dead too...

Am I off track, try something else?

My guess is the light that backlights the display panel is dead. My ex had a sentra close to the model year your g/f's is. I wouldn't doubt that the backlight finally died. It is 14 years old.

[Tessian]

So fuse and/or backlight...

The fuses I assume are easy and cheap to purchase, I bet the Pep Boys across from her work has a bag of 20 for like $5...but what about the backlight? That doesn't sound like something you can replace yourself, is it?

[Zeus]

likely fuse or light itself might need to be changed (that's a bitch as they have to take the console apart), but if you're really unlucky, it would be a fault in the entire panel itself, which is really not good. Those things ain't cheap.

That's about all I know from the discussions with my bud who's a service manager at a dealership

[SineSwiper]

IANACE, but I would also recommend a specific forum for those brand of cars. Most unusual problems with cars like that are something common to that model of car. Or if it's a generic car problem, you can get an easy answer from a car expert.

[Nev]

I own a Nissan Sentra, 1996, which has been a perfect car in all other respects for some time but has had intermittent failure on the panel lights pretty much since I got it. I haven't done anything about it, and can't help you fix it, but it might be a common problem on older Sentras...

[SineSwiper]

I own a Nissan Sentra, 1996, which has been a perfect car in all other respects for some time but has had intermittent failure on the panel lights pretty much since I got it. I haven't done anything about it, and can't help you fix it, but it might be a common problem on older Sentras...

Three different cases; yeah, that sounds like a common problem among Sentras.

[Tessian]

I checked every possible fuse it could be-- all are intact.

Has to be the light...a friend is checking on how much it'd cost to fix.