My dashboard lights have suddenly quit working. What is the most common causes for that

Failure can be caused by electrical contacts in the column. A 2004 is quite old (18 years) so this is not surprising.

I had a car (not a pontiac) where the entire dashboard suddenly went out one day. There was what was called a "clockspring" that fits between the steering wheel and column, it broke and along with it the entire control panel.

There are a host of wires and electrical parts inside most steering wheels. Here is the bad news, you probably can't fix it yourself, if the steering wheel needs removed because of the airbag. Another alternative is you may have blown a fuse. Find your owners manual, and locate the fuse that goes to these components and see if it's still good. Many radios also have in-line fuses (especially after market) which means pulling the radio out and checking that fuse, but if they both went out at the same time, there is probably a common problem.

The amber MiL light, lights on a number of problems. You need to get it sorted, you could miss a serious fault, and cause More damage. Needs to go on a code reader. From past experience with Punto's, the stutter could be a ignition coil fault (quite common) or a spark plug, both will cause the light to come on. Good Luck.

The most common causes for loss of headlights are headlight multifuntion switch onsteering column

you blew a fuse which is not a big deal just change it out, this is common when loosing both dash and tail lights at same time good luck

check the fuse, the tail and dask lights are tied together but you may have a short in the system that caused the problem.

there is a recall on them i had the same issue it is caused by the wires being crushed when the trunk colses(im an ex ford mechanic, and ex owner of a focus)

possible, check all the fuses, also the wiring going into the rear hatch, ive repaired a couple, the wiring breaks causing the defogger and wiper and release to stop working the wiring runs next to the latch,but start with the fuses first.good luck.

most likely the dash lights dimmer rheostat is defective, very common.

get your ignition switch checked out , lots of problems , does your key feel weird when turning to cranck , and is it hard to return and remove , does it stay stuck in lock at times

check fuses or could be condensation or bad ground common sense first check fuses under dash drivers side