Rep Power: 0

Hi All,

I recently had an issue in my 2002 Civic. The illumination for the gauges was starting to go (speedometer, tachometer); it looked like a few bulbs were burning out. I bought some replacement LED bulbs, which I'm now seriously regretting, because they seem to have caused a short or something. After installing 10 replacement LED bulbs, I turned on the car and immediately noticed an electrical burning smell, plus, none of the new lights came on except the odometer, which is now blue so I guess this one bulb/location did work.

After that I took the gauge cluster off again and looked for any visible issues and did some browsing. I found this guy who seems to have had a similar problem with the burning smell and lights -

https://www.civicforums.com/forums/3...t-working.html

However, I took off the plastic covering on the back of the gauge cluster and can't see any sign of a short. In the thread above there are pictures where it looks burned - I don't have any visible damage like this.

So I'm having trouble diagnosing the problem here.

After the LED's failed to work, I put back in the old bulbs to see if those would still function, since only a few were originally burned out. They didn't come on. On the cluster, I still have working lights that indicate the gear I've selected; the check engine, maintenance required light, etc still come on when I start the car but I did notice the lights that indicate when a blinker or the hazards are on do not work.

To make matters worse though, the lights that do work (odometer and gear light during normal driving) will flicker when I am changing gears or when I've turned on the heat/AC. Finally, and this is where it gets super fun, the lights which illuminate the heat/AC, fan speed **** flicker in the exact same way.

I took this into a Honda dealer, and they said they believe that the gauge cluster should be replaced. They quoted me at about $900.

Has anyone had a similar issue/any thoughts? If that's really the repair I need, I'm wondering if I can find the part elsewhere for cheaper, either new or used, and just plug it in myself. The mechanic mentioned that if you were to find a used part it may not be the exact right one and you would start having problems with O2 sensors and other crap. Not sure what to make of this.

Thanks in advance for any help!

 
Rep Power: 309

I would say look the cluster traces over very close......and hope you can find an open trace, large or small.

 
Rep Power: 0

I am having the exact same problem after putting in new LED lights. I find if I turn down the brightness on the cluster that the flickering stops, the lights on the cluster itself still don't turn on though. Makes it a little tough for seeing your speed at night... Thank god for a GPS!

Did you find out what the problem was?

 
Rep Power: 146

My guess is that you put in 5V LEDs, rather than the required 12v (nominal), over-drew the amount of current that can go through the traces on the boards and fried the circuitry.

I never found any good LEDs that could light up the clusters as well as the original incandescent bulbs. Just buy the original bulbs, they are #74 bulbs. Google it or search on eBay, you can get them for very very cheap. I've been using them, no problems with my cluster.

Don't pay $900 for a new cluster, that would be silly when there are thousands and thousands of clusters in junkyards.... go pull one... make sure you get the correct model.

 
Rep Power: 309

^^^ #74 are too large, and will crack the plastic sockets.