I am having some problems with my instrument cluster lights and was curious to see if anyone else has run into the same problem.

The lights that illuminate the temperature and fuel gauges seemingly burned out. I replaced the bulbs though and it didn't solve the problem.

I did some diagnostic tests last night and found that when a good ground is given to the bulb when it is secured in the cluster it illuminates? I am thinking the grounding circuit for the bulbs in that area went bad for some reason.

I cleaned the contact areas a little but, will be cleaning it more thoroughly tonight to see if that solves the problem.

I was just curious to see if anyone has run into this problem and what worked to remedy the problem.

 

i have the same problem. can you post a link to the type of bulb you replaced them with?

 

No problem. I purchased (2) new bulbs from a local Mitsubishi dealer. I'll post the part number for them tonight.

Any thoughts on the problem?

The strange thing is that when I give the bulbs a good ground with a test light (I used the gold bolt visible once the cluster is removed as a ground) the bulbs illuminate. That lose their capability to be dimmed because, at least I think, the dimmer switch interupts the ground of the bulb, therefore, I was overriding the dimmer ground by giving the bulbs a different ground.

I am a little worried though because if the ground for the bulb is bad then what else will be effected and why would it go bad and only effect those 2 bulbs?

Like I said, I am going to try and clean the contact areas of the cluster circuit board and see if that fixes the problem. If that doesn't I'm not sure what to go to next. It obviously is not a fuse because all the dash lights use a single fuse, so if the fuse was bad they all would be out.

 

evo8dad lol thats my e-mail address

 

^ just happened to me literallly last night on the way home, let us know how it goes.

Scorke

 

How about that. My son got my a license plate that reads EVO8DAD for father's day so I figured thats cool, so I switched all my user names to that.

I'll post some results hopefully tonight. At least I'm not the only one this has happened to.

 

Okay, well I fixed my dash light problem. At first I thought that one of the solders near the blue connector on the back of the cluster had come loose and was causing the bulb to become ungrounded leading to problem.

Last night I illumintated all the lights manually and found that I was checking the wrong bulbs It lookd as though I was checking the correct bulbs when in fact I was not. The bulb that illuminates the fuel and temperature gauge is the middle gray bulb. When it is taken out it has a white sleeve on it (for what reason I do not know). I replaced the bulb with a normal non-sleeved bulb (Mitsu part #MR444536), however, I am going to buy the correct bulb with the sleeve next week.

There must be some reason for that sleeve so I mind as well replace it with the same one.

Hope this helps you guys.

 

I have lost the lights a while ago, I dont look there much anyhow. If I got a ticket at night (never had one yet) I could use that as an excuse. "I have no way of knowing how fast I was going"

 

Yup I am having the same problem with the fuel and oil temp guage....even bought the same two replacement lights but that didn't solve the problem when I put them in. Tonight I am going to try to put one into the gray colored bulb to see if they work then!

 

If that doesn't work check the ground on the circuit board. Give the bulb a known good ground to see if it lights. If it does you need to follow the grounding path of the circuit board, which will lead to a bunch of solder/nipple looking things near the connectors.

Check the ground at the tip of the solder and then at the base of the solder joint, that way you can tell if the solder joint broke or not, which would lead to no ground at to the bulb.

 

Would changing the colors of these bulbs change the color of my instrument cluster, or do i have to change the gauge face for that? I want them blue to match the rest of the interior, and although changing the other lights to red is easier i dont like red and silver, but blue and silver is hawt.

 

Unfortunately because the lettering of the EVO cluster is red, you can't change the color of the cluster gauges by simply changing the backlighting. The only recourse you have it to change the gauge faces themselves.

 

Thanks for this info. The same problem here, no light on temp and fuel gauges for many years. I changed the wrong bulb years ago and thought the cluster had some grounding problems. I even got another speedo cluster today and it had the same problem, so I thought the problem was somewhere else. But it was the grey bulb.