1988 300TE No Dashlights. Fuse good, directionial and idiot lights work.....any ideas???

 

You may have lost the ground. If you can pull the instrument cluster out you will see a bunch of brown wires all coming together that are screwed into the body of the car. Those are the ground wires. You can also find a gang of ground wires like this in the trunk, normally on the left hand side of the car under the trunk trim up by the antenna.

Remove the screw holding the wires to the body and clean them by filing them a bit on both sides. Many of the positive connections on a Mercedes are silver or gold plated, but the grounds are just plain copper and will build up resistance over time.

Also look at your tail lights. On some cars they are tied in with the dash lights. You may have a grounding problem with them. If your tail lights are also out you do have a large electrical problem but one with a common fix.

Before you do any of this replace the fuse even if it does check good. They can also break down internally. Also clean the contacts in the fuse block where the fulse snaps in.

The worse case is your headlight switch. They are available for about $70 and are easy to put in after you remove the trim from under the steering wheel. If your switch even feels loose it is time to replace it.

Hopefully this will help.

Sam