Rep Power: 0

Hey guys,

So......my girlfriend's 2002 civic was having what I thought was a cluster malfunction. She could start her car and the odometer would read all 8888888's and none of the guages would work. If you smacked the dash hard it'd go normal again (as far as the odometer goes) but the gas guage would read funny. Sometimes this will happen while she's driving and such. She has learned to just hit the dash but I thought maybe I could fix it.

So I took apart the bezel's and such, pulled it out and re-seated the connectors. No change. While it was apart though I noticed if you moved it so far one way while it was plugged in it would change the 888888's to the regular miles, and I thought maybe it was a loose connection in the harness. It wasn't, The bad connection is in the connector (the green one on the cluster) at the cluster level.

I had also bought a used one off ebay just to see if it made a difference and that one never malfunctioned at all (so I isolated it to the cluster).

So my question is.........how much is a new cluster from Honda? I know that if she was to keep this car for ever it wouldn't be a big deal but I have no idea how long she plans on keeping it. Everything is taken apart so it's just the 3 screws and out pops the cluster. I know Honda probably won't sell me just a cluster and let me put it in myself, even if I did it infront of a tech or what not to verify the correct miles and such. I know a new cluster will read 0 miles and I'd have to put a sticker on the door jam or in the glove box for it (which is no biggy).

Just wondering what Honda would charge for this?

 
Rep Power: 452

http://www.hondaautomotiveparts.com/...NENTS+%28NS%29

 
Rep Power: 307

www.car-part.com the mileage on the cluster you get may be higher or lower than the original.

 
Rep Power: 301

Pay shipping both ways, and I can re-solder the connections for you. Or you can buy a small soldering iron or solder "kit" from rat shack and a magnifier. You'll be able to see the cracked connections. Just re-heat them and add a little solder and that's it. Simple fix.

 
Rep Power: 811

ya do that or just buy a used one off ebay. most of them on there are low mileage like below 50k. and they only go for $100. i would never pay the price for a new one.

 
Rep Power: 0

Well.........atleast at $217 or whatever it is from one of those sites isn't too bad. But I doubt it comes with the sticker you need to replace for the correction of miles right?

Here's where I got stuck. I took everything off that snapped off. Once I got down to the needles I didn't want to pry them off wrong and mess the cluster up (as I've read in some of these posts on the boards). Is there a tool I could buy to pry the needles off without harming anything? I'm assuming once the needles are off that I can get right down to the circuit board? The back piece that pop's off didn't seem like it would come all the way off without having the needles off. But then again I might have just been retarded at the time

So how do I get it down to the board? I've never really soldered before but both my parents work in the defense industry building things that are for the military and I'm 110% sure both of them know how to solder excellent (LOL mom's been doing it for 20+ years) so I could always coax her into doing it. I just need to know how far I have to take apart the cluster.

Thank you guys SO much for the help! I have no idea why Honda stores the miles in the cluster so when you replace it it just doesn't read what it was before. I know it's good for odometer fraud and such but jesus it sucks when something goes wrong.

 
Rep Power: 811

take your thumb and first two fingers and put them around the needle base so your fingers touch the cluster surface. then squeeze and pull up using the board for leverage. it takes some force but they will pop off eventually. i've done this 20x times when i was taking apart everything experimenting with leds and lighting stuff. just pull them off in the resting position and push them on the same way. do not push them too far or they will scrape the cluster surface and not work properly. just make sure there is clearance when put back.

 
Rep Power: 301

The back of the cluster usually comes off without having to take the needles out. It's just a bunch of clips you have to push in and work around the back till it pops off. The solder side is on the back.