Dark Region On My Speedo During Illumination: Troubleshoot

maxq · Post by **maxq** » Wed Feb 27, 2008 12:59 pm

Ok so around the area between 75k and 110k, there's a dark spot when illuminated... Also, when the speed needle goes into those areas (i.e I am driving between 70 and 110 kph) it goes darks as well, which means one of the illumination bulbs is not working.

I tried swapping out bulb and even the entire cluster as a test and the other cluster showed the same problem. Any potential problems with the dash wiring harness perhaps?? Anyone else had this problem?

As a note, I few days ago I did hear an odd pop kind of like a spark (although I only heard it and not see it so it could be something else, or meybe just my imagination)...

Danteneon · Post by **Danteneon** » Wed Feb 27, 2008 1:09 pm

Thats really strange. The lighting circuit is tied together, so if the wiring was bad, none of the bulbs would work. If you swapped the cluster and it still did it...it gets even more bizarre. Have you checked to see if you are getting current at that point (with a multi-meter)? If not, try to trace the circuit on the board itself to see if there is a fault there. Prob not, since you have the same problem with the replacement cluster.

maxq · Post by **maxq** » Wed Feb 27, 2008 1:23 pm

tied together?? now I'm stumped

Danteneon · Post by **Danteneon** » Wed Feb 27, 2008 1:26 pm

The power to the cluster for the lights comes in on 1 wire. That feed is split to all the different sockets via the cluster board.

maxq · Post by **maxq** » Wed Feb 27, 2008 1:30 pm

Danteneon wrote:The power to the cluster for the lights comes in on 1 wire. That feed is split to all the different sockets via the cluster board.

understood... so this isolates the problem on the clusters themselves. Wierd odds... will check with a third cluster that is without a tach.

2k1MotorSport · Post by **2k1MotorSport** » Wed Feb 27, 2008 2:15 pm

the same thing would happen w/ my old 01. It would die out just exactly as you described. I just figured it was a bulb dieing.

silverneontuner · Post by **silverneontuner** » Thu Feb 28, 2008 8:30 pm

are those chrome rings around the gauge faces aftermarket?

maxq · Post by **maxq** » Fri Feb 29, 2008 2:55 am

^ those are from an R/T cluster (the black face one) ... I swapped out the lens/cover part.

--

And here is the resolution: The bulbs in both clusters had burnt out in the same socket. And apparently I used a burnt out bulb for the swap.

Now, I swapped out bulbs within the same cluster and the dark region shifted. So I bought a new bulb from canadian tire (kind of like a super store) and woala! No more dark...

It is strange that the bulb in the same socket region had burnt out in both clusters. One guy on neoncanada and 2k1MotorSport here have had the same problem so it could be that the circuit in this area of the cluster is not providing power to the bulb per spec and causing this bulb to burn out.

Post by **occasional demons** » Thu Mar 06, 2008 9:23 pm

LED's FTW!