source of HUD and dash blackout found

[Jersey Devil]

Temperatures got into the 60's overnight this week in Jersey so my HUD and dash lights blacked out again until I turned my heater on for a couple of minutes. I've seen a lot of posts with this same problem of where the speedometer, HUD and entire instrument cluster lights go out until the interior of the car warms up. Last winter was rough because I had to turn my heater on full blast until the speedometer and dash lights came on and the time for it to come on was taking longer and longer. It now looks like my dash won't come on unless the car's interior temperature is at least in the high 70's. I can't go another winter without a working speedo because every cop I pass likes to check their shiny "instant-on" radar gun with my bright red 240. I swear this car is a radar magnet! Luckily my old Passport radar detector has served me well for 14 years now. But lest I digress.

This is the second time I've pulled the instrument cluster so finding this problem has become "personal" <img src="http://www.zilvia.net/f/iB_html/non-cgi/emoticons/sneaky.gif" border="0" valign="absmiddle" alt=':pissed:'> By the way, many thanks to Camppain for posting cluster schematics and with the key advice of loosening 4 screws to lower the steering column which finally gave enough clearance to pull the cluster out. Armed with a spray can of "Component Cooler" from Radio Shack I started cooling off capacitors one-by-one on the three circuit boards. After a few minutes, I finally hit the bad boy that has been knocking out our dash and HUD lights. I alternately hit it with a shot of cold spray and then heat (hair drier) to make sure I isolated the bad component. For you electronics techies, it looks like a small surface-mount PCB electrolytic capacitor. It has a 1 and then under the 1 a 50V on the cap which leads me to believe it is a 1 mfd 50Volt electrolytic capacitor. Right now, the chances of fixing this is not looking good. The game plan right now is to sleep on it and see what I can come up with tomorrow. I have some digital pictures of the board and the bad part but I can't figure out how to post them in a message so that's it for today.

[camppain]

good job jersey devil. glad you put the schematic to use and actually searched! yay!

i found it interesting in how you isolated the problem part good job <img src="http://www.zilvia.net/f/iB_html/non-cgi/emoticons/wink.gif" border="0" valign="absmiddle" alt=';)'> with my cluster it was a broken wire, but i do think when i was at nissan one of the fellow techs i worked with had replaced the hud (the car belonged to a customer prior to me owning it)

curious to see how you resolve it. I have heard that the solder points become weak and are crappy. if you have a desoldering gun take that peice off and trry to resolder it. or replace it if you can find one at radio shack.

[tkrolo]

I am VERY anxious to see your pics. &nbsp;My knowledge of electrical components and testing is limited so I have been afraid to use camppain's schematics in fear of screwing something else up. &nbsp;Hearing your explanation gives me some hope as to fixing the problem.

[Jersey Devil]

I finished working on the electronics Sunday and can report only partial success. After getting a decent magnifying glass, I further found that the suspect component was removable. It pushes down onto two pins on a black circular base on the circuit board. With a good bit of force, the component could be pulled straight up and off the board. I touched the two leads of a substitute capacitor to the two pins on the board and my speedo and HUD lit up. Now the challenge was getting the substitute capacitor attached. The pins were tiny and surface-mount soldered to the board. The problem of the speedo blacking out had now become "personal" so I did some things to the circuit board which basically committed me to doing some soldering. This is where it got VERY ugly. I tried to solder a new capacitor to the pins using low temperature silver solder (available at RatShack) but couldn't get a strong solder joint. In fact, I ended up knocking off one of the pins from its surface-mount pad. Well now I had to use real solder. Because there are other electrical traces running right next to the two solder pads I had to use a minimal amount of solder and do the job under a magnifying glass so I could scrape the excess solder off when it ran off and touched one of the other traces. I was able to get both leads of the new capacitor soldered in but I don't think the solder formed a strong joint with the solder pads on the board. I am sure that it is just a matter of time before some large Jersey pothole is going to jar one of the solder connections loose.

Here are some thoughts in hindsight. When I originally pried the bad component off the board I pushed it back on the two pins just to see if reinstalling it fixed a loose or dirty connection. No luck. I had to apply a LOT of pressure pushing the component down onto the board to make the speedo and HUD work again. This tells me it's either a bad surface mount solder connection or a bad connection between the component and the little pins it connects to. From my observation, I think it's the connection with the pins. If any of you know much about surface mount components and can come up with a direct replacement capacitor then that would have to be the easiest and sweetest $0.50 fix to this problem.

The last piece of advice I can give is that the soldering route is VERY difficult. I've been working on cars since I was 15 and on electronics long before that (and I'm a lot older now) and this has to be the nastiest soldering job I've ever attempted. Since it hasn't gotten consistently cold here yet I still can't be sure that I have solved the problem. As we head into winter I'll be able to tell you for sure though.

[mixedwell]

hey arent radar guns against the law in Jersey? or was that maryland... whatever. um... i dont know if this helps you any but i just replaced my US guage cluster wiht a JDM piece. i got it really cheap (55 bucks, shipped) but the only problem was that it was from an auto Silvia K. that cool 9k tach didnt work cuz its an auto. i just used the US tach (91+).

i also checked the difference between the JDM and the US clusters and theres little differences tah might effect the two. its mostly how they are wired together and how the digital speedometer has a bell on it. its really funny. maybe its just that great Japanese quality... werent the US clusters made in the USofA?
&nbsp; &nbsp; &nbsp; &nbsp; &nbsp; &nbsp; &nbsp; &nbsp; &nbsp; &nbsp; &nbsp; &nbsp; &nbsp; &nbsp; &nbsp; &nbsp; &nbsp;HOLLA!

Silvia... my love <img src="http://www.zilvia.net/f/iB_html/non-cgi/emoticons/inlove.gif" border="0" valign="absmiddle" alt=':love:'>

[turboex]

thats weird man, i have went out in 20 degree weather (thats below freexing) when my cars sat for a few days and when i start it all the stuff works fine, its gotten below 10 up here an i have never had a problem.