hfsdude007

That picture is a perfect example. Should I replace the entire cluster or the board?

TaninAuto

Board or fix the component.

MikeDuffy

Respect to O.L.T. -- the Sylvania #24 bulbs are what you want for the backlight replacement. I edited my prior post to reflect this.

An important bit of information: do NOT remove the plastic cover on the steering column when removing the instrument cluster. You will be tempted to do so for additional maneuvering room, but it uncovers sharp bits which will inevitably scratch the clear plastic of the cluster face, which will make you say bad words...

Question for O.L.T. -- what is correct replacement bulb size for the indicator lights (all 26 of them)? The 2723s are much dimmer that whatever the originals are. Thanks in advance.

And yes, it is *really* easy to drop things into the dash while the cluster is removed, and nearly impossible to retrieve them without disassembling the lower dash.

O. L. T.

iTrader: (17)

I've never looked. I'll voltage test them soon and find something comparable with Sylvania or Eiko. Since they are on for no amount of time you can use variations with heat not being an issue for bulbs within 25% tolerance. Best thing to do is to remove them and put them on a variable power supply and come up on the voltage from nothing until they are clearly brighter than they should be and getting hot. Once you know where they are comfortable running you can match a bulb to size and spec. If you do it that way it doesn't matter who made them or what their specs are, you'll know what they like to run at and can just mimmic them. It's why Sylvania #24 work so well. They have one of the only bases that taper off so they fit in the stock bulb socket, but they are literally a perfect match for stock backlight on the same voltage supply. Those are the only two things you have to match.

O. L. T.

iTrader: (17)

You don't have to replace the MOBO. It's just one surface mount resistor that controls that side.

http://lextech.org/gallery/displayim..._display_media

I've done this repair for others quite a few times. There is the pic of the row of them that control the backlight on that side. If you're feeling lucky, get at it.

Some people just repair electronics, I redesigned and reengineered the motherboard ten years ago in an effort to eliminate any chance of SC owners not having a reliable source for their clusters. Somebody has to be the gatekeeper and I've got ten years under the belt and counting of not repairing, but redesigning..... and making it better. I've done some mods to that area of the cluster to beef it up and stop those spots from burning out, but the tracers cannot handle much more so you are best to just replace it with a stock component of equal spec. Good luck.

hfsdude007

do those chips pull out or are the soldered?