MamaBear2015

The LED for the right turn signal stops flashing when it's hot inside the car. When the AC cools it down, it works.

Also when it's hot inside, before AC cools it down, the speedometer may either jump all over the place, or go to 0. The tach does the same thing if it gets even hotter in the car, sometimes.

Now I've asked about this before and seen mixed answers about it. Some people say they were unable to locate what was wrong.

But I'm a former electronics R&D lab technician and was NASA certified for soldering, and I'm wondering if it may be caused by bad solder joints in the instrument panel. So here's what I'm wondering:

Can the panel be easily and totally removed and put on my electronics bench, so I can inspect all the solder joints on it, and fix any cracked ones I might find? ( I'm a senior and wouldn't be able to do this in the car. ) Is it just a matter of removing screws around the dash, over the panel, and tilting it out and disconnecting connectors, then I could take it in to my bench?

xRiCeBoYx

iTrader: (22)

Pretty much. one or 2 screws holding on the bezel. 4 bolts holding the instrument cluster in place. 2 electrical connectors. Make sure your steering wheel is tilted downward otherwise you won't be getting the cluster out.

If you want access to the circuit board, just a bunch of clips holding it on

MamaBear2015

Thanks!

ezone

Following.
I would like to know if you find anything fixable, and see pics if possible.

Also want to see your equipment/work area, for curiositys sake. I tend to either work on a towel covered table or on an item still connected to the car....

Butane soldering iron is my go-to....
large illuminated magnifier, standard large and small magnifying glasses, even a jewelers loupe

I used to do tons of touch-up solder work on electronics in several brands of cars, 80s, 90s, and early 2000s, but don't see nearly as many problems as I used to, and components have gotten so small and tightly packed it's a lot tougher than it used to be to find problems.

xRiCeBoYx

iTrader: (22)

I had a problem with my odometer reset button. Sourced a replacement tactile switch from an old DLP TV I took apart a long time ago (I never throw away good tech. lol). Decided to disassemble the old switch and it turns out it was some sort of conductive carbon pad thing completing the circuit. The one I replaced it with was a tactile switch.

Used nothing more than a $15 soldering iron from radio shack, a desoldering vacuum pump, some desoldering braid to clean it up, and a roll of thin gauge rosin core solder, also from radio shack. It did require butt-calibrating my speedometer and fuel gauge, but I've done that before with no issues when I did my EL gauge face overlay

MamaBear2015

It might be awhile. I'm super busy with work now. But I'll post back here. The right turn signal LED wasn't working tonight either, and it was cool & rainy here, so I should probably change LED's too. Hopefully they're socketed.

By the way, I use an old Weller 60w electronics soldering iron, 60/40 resin core ( NEVER use acid core on electronic boards! Corrosive! ) and solder wick with resin in it, to remove old solder.