My instrument panel is and isn't working. Here's the deal: When I turn on the lights the clock dims. When I turn the key to ACC all the regular warning lights come on (MIL, Airbag, Seatbelt, etc), turn signal lights work, high beam works, but the gauge lights themselves do not work. Speedo works, so does tach, gas, and temp. I checked all of my fuses in the cabin, all are fine. What could be the problem?

 

the bulbs behind could be blown. simple to change. and nwo you can buy some LED's and replace them with a brighter white or a different color. direct replacement too. 2 screws on top of the black plastic piece and 3 screws to get the cluster out. tilt the steering wheel all of the way down and try to squeeze the stuff out. strange that they would all blow at the same time though.

 

Thanks. I'll tear it apart tomorrow and see if they're bad.

 

What are you talking about? You said that the gauge lights do not work. Then you said speedo, tach, gas, and temp work. What part is not working?

Replacing with LED's is actually not worth it unless you have 194 bulbs. 74 bulbs dont light up well I've been told. If you need to replace them then maybe look into doing an actual LED upgrade. What year do you have btw? If it's 95-96 you already have 194 so that would be good!

 

It's a 96 and the light bulbs don't work, I guess. I really don't know, that's why I'm asking. Basically, when I turn on the lights (headlights, fogs) my lights for the gauges don't work. So the speedo, tach, etc don't light up. Everything else works though.

 

Oh.....that makes more sense haha. Yeah it's possibly the bulbs but did they all go out at once? Could be a problem with something else if they did. Use a multimeter to check if you're getting power to the bulb housings. If you're not then you have another problem on your hands.

 

I'm pretty sure one was already gone, bottom half never really lit up too well. But I'll tear it up tomorrow and test everything. If it's not the bulbs what else could it be? Like I said, all the other lights in the cluster work and so do the actual gauges, just not the lights.

 

Could be bad wiring. But thats a worry that should come later. You should be ok with new bulbs. Cross your fingers haha.

 

No dice guys. All the old bulbs were burnt out but even after I replaced them still nothing. So I'm thinking something went wrong in the wiring. I looked through all the wiring schematics that I could find but as far as I could tell, nothing there either. I'm thinking it's the pink with blue stripe. Anyone have any ideas?

 

Did you test the housings with a multimeter? Fuse is fine for sure?

 

Yeah I tested the housings, those are fine. I triple checked the fuses.

 

did you check to see if current is coming from the plug? and you said you checked the wiring on the cluster? if both of those are fine, the only thing i can think of is wiping the plug contacts and cluster contacts down with rubbing alcohol to make sure you are getting good connection.

 

Found it. Red/yellow wire was shorting out behind the cd player and all that jazz. Don't ask me how it happened, I haven't been back there in a long time. Gonna go tape it up right now and hope for the best.

 

No, and now my CC doesn't work. I'm gonna go to the dealership tomorrow and see if I just can't buy a new electrical harness. This is getting ridiculous.

 

did you turn up the brightness button on the dash? sometimes when wipeing the dash i've hit mine by mistake.

 

Yeah, that's definitely not it.

 

well i have an extra cluster housing if you need it. let me know.