Instrument Panel Help - 99 LX 470

[Ayune]

Following route "B"... There is a piece of copper-strand sticking out of the circuit board (not the white coated wire). That piece used to be connected somewhere to the circuit board. Find out where that "somewhere" is, by tracing it. and then solder a wire between "somewhere" and the ground.

I"d try that before spending any money.

It's obviously a ground, but whatever is on the other "somewhere" end is probably not grounded and probably should be.

Whoa, I'm not sure that any of those wires/traces are obviously a ground.

The large copper area (light green) is, in all likelihood, the ground plane and neither of those lamp contacts look to be connected to that plane.

Path A will reconnect the two ends of the burnt up trace. Start there (and remove that stubby white wire thing) and see if you that fixes anything.

And remove the other white wire, god knows what that's for.

 

[flintknapper]

Try soldering a wire between the ground (where the white wire was soldered) and the original terminus of the broken/delaminated section. Use a smaller gauge wire for better results. If you don't have a soldering tool kit, you can probably find someone locally who can do it.

Yes, definitely a small gauge wire and use a fine 'stranded' wire for surface solder joints. That solid wire will just come loose again...guaranteed.

 

[CanadianRockyCruiser]

Whoa, I'm not sure that any of those wires/traces are obviously a ground.

The large copper area (light green) is, in all likelihood, the ground plane and neither of those lamp contacts look to be connected to that plane.

Path A will reconnect the two ends of the burnt up trace. Start there (and remove that stubby white wire thing) and see if you that fixes anything.

And remove the other white wire, god knows what that's for.

Is "EL2" a lamp socket? My mistake if I've misidentified it as a ground. Nonetheless, the trace wire from the circuit board seems to be disconnected. It would seem that reconnecting it to it's original home is prudent.

 

[SF1911A1]

EL2 did contain a bulb in that spot. I dropped the car off for some minor repairs today and probably won’t have it back for a couple days. When I do get it back I will pull the cluster again and take some much better pictures for y’all. As always, thanks for everything.

 

[kerrye]

Can anyone confirm if the bulb in question in this thread/photos and the matching bulb in a similar location on the other side of the cluster are the bulbs which light up the voltmeter/fuel gauge on one side and the oil pressure/temp gauge on the other? My 2002 LX oil pressure gauge and temp gauge are unlit at the moment and I'm trying to figure out if I can replace the right bulb which removing the circuit board from the cluster. It looks likely that I can from these pictures but I'm not sure.

 

[Pulgasari]

This thread is a trip... my current instrument cluster is acting a bit wonky (when and only when I go offroad, all gauges shut off except for the speedo/tach), so I did some Googling and ended up here. I say "current instrument cluster" because I actually bought @SF1911A1 's 470, now I know exactly what happened to the original one.

Since the speedo and tach always work fine, I'm hoping that it's just a matter of a loose wire or fuse that disconnects after some jostling in rough terrain.

 

[Wheeliee]

So I am in the same boat as OP with everything working but my backlight. I have the gauge out and took off the circuit board and all my stuff looks mint. That white wire that looks soldered on the op pics is not on my circuit board so that is somebody’s attempt at a repair. I can’t figuire out what controls the backlighting. So If I fix it today I’ll post my findings. Otherwise it’s out of my league.

 

[Wheeliee]

Here it is with the circuit board removed.

 

[Wheeliee]

I decided to be stubborn and figuire out what exactly is the backlighting component and it is this cathode tube. I had to disassemble the whole cluster which wasn’t too bad but very tedious. I ordered the cheapest working gauge cluster on eBay to try and swap out this cathode tube with another one. I am hoping I didn’t waste $200 but if so I have another plan of just putting an led strip in there. I should have the replacement part hopefully before end of the week. I will post if this repairs the backlighting. It does appear my cathode tube got hot and it seems like the ends melted a bit and look dark in nature sorta like a burnt out bulb. Looks like a flimsy part as it’s just basically a neon light with very thin wires coming out if it attached to a thin circuit board. I guess this was before LEDs became the norm.