Hi I own a 2002 Jeep Cherokee (Liberty) KJ. Earlier today I was trying to replace one of the small lights bulbs that sits behind the air con dials. I am a new to all this and made an error as I did not disconnect the battery and I thought if I left the power socket still attached I could check it was working easily. Any way whilst trying to get the bulb out my screwdriver touched the metal that surrounds the bulb and with that there was a small puff of smoke.Result being the lights do not work at all on it now.
To rectify this I have today ordered a pre used Control knob piece that looks like it just screws in to the centre console as I assumed I must have fried the circuit, which I was hoping would fix it.
However I have just been out tonight and realised that I also have no dashbord lights, I have all the warning lights OK, its the bulbs that light up the speedo and dials are no longer working.
I know nothing about these things so my question is when I replace the console knob unit will it bring my dash back to life, or have I killed something else. As you can tell I am new to any kind of maintenance so any useful advice you can give will be appreciated. I have now learnt that I will disconnect the battery in the future BTW.

Please help
Many thanks

It is more likely that you blew a fuse in the dash panel (open the door and look on the SIDE of the dash). They are on the driver (left) side here in the U.S. Your manual will tell you which fuse controls the lights that are not working for you currently. Pull that/those one(s) one at a time and see if they are burned out, replace as necessary.

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2006 Limited CRD: Frankenlift II, Fumoto Drain Plug, DIY Stage 1 Tune, In-Tank Lift Pump

Thanks for your reply, I will check that in the morning. If it is a fuse I will breath a sigh of relief, as my intial thought was it is something more serious. I will update you when I have checked tomorrow.

Where are you located....ie. LHD or RHD.

RHD has the internal fuse panel on the RHS ie. drivers side.
The Owners manual is not always that accurate regarding fuses....rather download the 2002 KJ Service Manual in the link below....includes the wiring diagrams. While you are in that link download the "2.5_2.8 Export Diesel" manual which covers the early Export KJ CRDS engines....lots of differences to the newer CRDS such as the 2005/6 USA models. This is just for future reference in case you have some engine issues as our early Export CRDS have a fixed-vane turbo, different EGR system, different Fuel Filter Head and some other changes.

KJ manuals: http://www.colorado4wheel.com/manuals/Jeep/KJ

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2002 Export CRD

Thank you for all your reply’s. To confirm it was indeed as simple as a blown fuse, I have a UK species Cherokee KJ and for info the fuse was in cavity 9.