What needs repaired when the dash lights don't come on until about 20 minutes of driving?

 

Alternator going out maybe?? (Just a thought). How long has this been happening & does your radio signal still strong? Does your clock work?

 

This is not the alternator problem I am quite sure. It does not affect any of my dash lights other than the area infont of the steering wheel. eg. readout for mph/tac, fule etc. like I mentioned the engine light also comes on. All the blinder lights work and also the seat belt indicator. Soooo any help out there would be appreciated. Just love my rig and hope to keep it up and running for another 100,000 plus miles. Right now I am about to turn 20020. It has been good to me and me to it. Catherine

 

Does yours have the Digital dash? I remember some of the 89s had them..
If that's the case, there's not much you can do about it other than switch to an analog gauge cluster- which wouldn't be easy I don't think.
the problem is that the display is filled with liquid crystal.. when it gets cold, the liquid gets very thick and doesn't work very well, thus the dash doesn't light up until the car warms up..

If you've got the regular dash gauges, then I dunno how to help you without been able to work on the car myself.
hope that helps.

 

Thanks for the thoughts. Yes the dash is digital. Oh joy. Guess I will just have to move to a warmer climate.

 

That's pretty much it. Come spring, your problems should go away. you might want to talk to a nissan dealer or junkyard and see if it's possible to switch to regular gauges, but it may not be worth the effort.
good luck in any situation! here's to another 100k miles on both of our cars!

 

Had one if these digital dashes in a 2nd gen. It is an electroluminesent display, not an LCD. The diplay uses a voltage higher than 12 vdc, and so it needs a DC-DC step up converter. Almost certainly part of the circuit is an electrolytic capacitor, and these begin to go bad over time. Right now one of these caps is marginal, and only OK above a particular temperature.
To fix this, you need someone(s) who can take the instrument cluster out and knows something about electronics.

 

I had the same problem where the digital dash would not light up for 30 minutes. Eventually the digital dash didn't light up at all.
After running out of gas a few times I got fed up. I read on the other gen3 board that the dealers want $1700 for a new digital cluster. I found out for myslef that the junk yards in nyc want ~$500.
I wasn't about to spend over $150 for a replacement so I got a SE white cluster for $125. You will need the nissan FSM to get the wiring schematic. Overall it wasn't too hard, but it did take some time. However the fuel pump guage is off (you need a SE fuel level indiacting unit) and some indicating lights might not work.

 

reminds me of our oh so great dimming clock.