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lights staying on
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jpbmx
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Location: Fort Collins, Colorado
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PostPosted: Thu Jul 22, 2021 10:45 pm    Post subject: lights staying on Reply with quote

im having a strange issue. put my bug back together and the speedo/gas gauge lights and the tail lights are always on regardless of whether or not the light switch is engaged or not. The headlights turn on and off as they should, but not the dash and tail lights. any ideas what would be causing this? i checked the wiring at the fuse panel and didnt notice anything being mixed up or wrong. any ideas?
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bomberbob
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PostPosted: Fri Jul 23, 2021 4:19 am    Post subject: Re: lights staying on Reply with quote

Do they turn off when you turn the key off, or do they stay on?
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jpbmx
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PostPosted: Fri Jul 23, 2021 8:54 am    Post subject: Re: lights staying on Reply with quote

bomberbob wrote:
Do they turn off when you turn the key off, or do they stay on?

even with the key off they are on - sorry i forgot to include that
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bugbyte
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PostPosted: Fri Jul 23, 2021 2:08 pm    Post subject: Re: lights staying on Reply with quote

This happened to me a few months back. Turned out the brake light switch had gone bad. In fact it was leaking fluid there. I replaced both of them and the problem is now fixed.
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Paul Windisch
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PostPosted: Fri Jul 23, 2021 7:01 pm    Post subject: Re: lights staying on Reply with quote

What about the front parking lights? Do they stay on, too?

Bugbyte, were your instrument lights staying on as well? I'm trying to figure out how your brake switches kept the instrument lights on (unless you just missed that part).
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ashman40
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PostPosted: Fri Jul 23, 2021 8:46 pm    Post subject: Re: lights staying on Reply with quote

jpbmx wrote:
im having a strange issue. put my bug back together and the speedo/gas gauge lights and the tail lights are always on regardless of whether or not the light switch is engaged or not. The headlights turn on and off as they should, but not the dash and tail lights.

As Paul queried above... do your front parking lights have the same issue as the rear parking lights? They are powered by the same source, the headlight switch.
What model year is your Beetle? The headlight switch and fuse box changed in the '71 model year. The headlight switch and wiring was different before '71.

Have you tried firmly turning the headlight switch OFF? Maybe the knob is not being pressed in far enough to actually turn the parking light switch OFF. This could happen if the switch was not mounted properly and seated too deep into the dash.

At the fuse box, find the single grey wire coming from the headlight switch. This one wire should power two parking light fuses. With the ignition switch OFF and the headlight switch OFF, disconnect this wire from the fuse box and test the wire as well as the fuses it was powering. Neither should show power. If you find power you will need to trace the source.
You may need to remove the headlight switch and test it out of the dash. Double check that the wires are connected to the correct terminal# on the switch. Again, since you didn't post the model year of your Beetle can't tell you which fuse to check. VW moved the parking light fuses around on the fuse box depending on the model year and the number of fuses in the fuse box.
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