reilinjw

Hi - New member here - been searching the internet and different forums but unable to find anything around this one. Maybe I am the lucky only person with this issue...

2008 Tahoe, 188k miles, original owner - only aftermarket items on the car are HID bulbs and an iSimple IPhone integration kit. I've tried disconnecting the Iphone integration kit for testing and seemed to make no difference (just an FYI).

Cliff notes at bottom... It all started last summer - jumped in the Tahoe one evening and the dash board lights were out - the radio/nav, door sill and hvac lights appear to work fine, it's just the dash board instrument and oddly enough the aux button panel below the Hvac that were out. Poked around the fuse box and found my IS LPS fuse blown out. I replaced it and it immediately blew again.

I drove around this way for a while - the odd thing here is that during the day the dash light's up just fine (even with the blown fuse) - its ONLY during the evening when the light sensor triggers the dusk/night lighting. I actually worked around the issue all together by just unplugging the dash light sensor which kept the entire dash in 'day light' light setup - which is quite bright at night... I did buy a new headlight switch as google/internets seemed to point at this as a possible culprit.

I eventually had to take the truck to the dealer to diagnose a bad airbag sensor and while they had it I asked them to check out the IS LPS fuse issue. I'll note here that I had disconnected the battery to try my attempt at replacing the airbag sensors myself but that is another story - point was I had disconnected the battery prior to taking it in to be looked at and re-attached the light sensor just before I took it in. When the dealer looked at it, they simply swapped the fuse and it did not blow and said 'Yup, bad fuse bud'... Gee thanks!

Fast forward a few months, everything was fine until the car did it again - the lights all went out and anytime I tried to change the fuse it would just blow. I put 2 + 2 together and disconnected the battery, replaced the fuse, and all is fine again for a little while.

So I'm looking for any direction/suggestions of what else I could/should be looking at - as this is driving me a bit insane and I'm trying to not just throw money at it.

At this specific moment in time I pulled the instrument cluster out of the car to test if the fuse would blow.... it did not blow - but I wish I replaced the fuse first to confirm it was blowing before I pulled the cable out of the cluster, as I think that action may have replicated a 'battery disconnect' situation although unsure what else is on the IS LPS circuit to further troubleshoot..

Cliff notes: IS LPS fuse keeps blowing, dash lights (gauges and lower console lights) do not work in the evening. Unplugging the battery and back on appears to buy me some time with a fresh fuse, then it will eventually blow again. Headlight switch has been replaced - any ideas?

At this point I'm unable to disconnect the light sensor as I've since installed a dash skin to cover the wonderful cracked dash board...

Thanks,

John