Need help repairing Instrument cluster.

Community Chit Chat
1

Hi, I am new here and I hope I am posting this in the correct forum heading for best result.

Gauges and lights stopped working on my sisters instrument cluster. I pulled it and replaced the bulbs only to find that it would only work if I twisted Left corner top to me and Right corner top away.

I searched the board for broken joints, cracks, anything that would interrupt the circuit but was unable to see anything so I elevated it on a baking sheet and baked it in the oven @ 250 for 30 minutes. That worked for about a week :frowning:

My second attempt was not as easy. I use no-clean flux on all the solder and used my hot air rework station @ 370 to carefully reflow the solder. That lasted about 3 months. There has to be damage to the board it’s self.

Bought another cluster from eBay and pulled the board, now I need to get the odometer right.

2 things.

What more could I have done to the original board?

Which IC would you believe holds the odometer memory?

This link takes you to google photo but does not open a new window, could not figure out the correct code for this site for onclick=window.open. If you use it I Right click open new tab.

https://photos.app.goo.gl/jn4KG5XwSNjGSjP8A

Drag and drop photo, Personally think the IC I am looking for is #1. Thank you for your help.

Inked120285122_748156639093992_1107121463405114666_n_LI.jpg
Inked120285122_748156639093992_1107121463405114666_n_LI.jpg1536×2048 361 KB

2

Your OD reading is probably somewhere on a protected flash chip. The manufacturer isn’t gonna let you access it to write, but you probably could read it with a ODB-II scanner.

Failure wise, capacitors are notorious for failing first in electronics (though sometimes it is hard to tell if they blow, false negatives). Unfortunately, without a schematic… you’ll be spending more time reverse engineering that fixing the instrument cluster. Unless this is for a rare car; I wouldn’t crawl further down that rabbit hole. I think you gave more effort than I would have, but I have a common “pick and pull” vehicle model.

3

Thank you for the reply. This cluster was made for one year only for this car, years before and after could be swapped but this is and oddity. Anyway, I have another cluster that works fine, just that is has wrong odometer reading and it cannot be changed with an OBDII, have to send out. Cheaper to swap the chip if I can find it, if not guess it will be an early x-mas gift. Car is on the road going strong so I have the time needed to sort if out. If I have to send the “newer” board off it will put the car down however long it takes for them to reprogram the correct odometer reading.