Idiot lights

[rangertom]

So today i removed my old dash and replaced it with a freshly painted no crack dash and while i was in there i decided to clean up and fix a few issues and discovered that although the template for the idiot lights has a hole for a temp light and another for the lo fuel light my cutlass and the junkyard 83 i got the dash and gauges from doesn't have bulbs in either slot? Is this common, why wouldn't any car have a temp light or low fuel light? i don't have any gauges except for the spedo, and fuel guage so i had assumed i had both of the others. If i simply put a bulb in those holes will they work or did 84 cutlass brougham with the 3.8L V6 (buick) not have the sensors to make them work?

 

[onyxxtreme]

i would imagine a previous owner removed the lights
my last cutlass was a base model, NO OPTIONS whatsoever, and it had the idiot lights
the temp light saved my engine when the intake gasket went out

 

[Intragration]

On my Cutlass, when I replaced the bulbs, I saw there were a number of slots that didn't have bulbs. Specifically, there were a number of spaces for diesel cars, which my car wasn't, and there were no bulbs in those locations. It seems to me they used a generic backplane with all the various idiot light locations, and it would have been wired for the proper options on the car, and bulbs installed accordingly. If your temp sensor and wiring are intact, a bulb in this location should enable it to function as intended. There is a bulb test position for the ignition key, between run and start, you should see all of your working bulbs when you hit this.

On the low fuel light, I don't know if this is tripped when there is a certain resistance in the fuel level circuit, or if there was a separate switch on the sending unit, I couldn't find the answer in the wiring diagrams. You could try putting a bulb in there, but your car may not be equipped for this to work.

 

[rangertom]

That is kind of what I was thinking

 

[SilverShadow87]

has anyone ever seen a cutlass with a low fuel light that actually came on or had a bulb? of 4 ive owned none of them hav ever even had a bulb...