my car is an electrical clown show

[Gibby]

Being a new member, I don't expect people to trust me right away, but I work for micron technology, a leading computer chip manufacturer.  I have access to all the tools and parts to fix these clusters and what not.
That being said, my car has a ton of electrical issues, seats don't adjust, cluster is wonky, radio doesn't work, several exposed and cut wires hanging out of dash...ect.

Im gonna take pictures of this stuff before and after fixes, If everything goes ok and I am successful I wouldnt mind helping the community.  Say by fixing clusters for cost of shipping???

Anyways, we will see how it goes.

[GPChief]

Looking for the "like" button.  Check PM

[Gibby]

No PM recieved

[Gibby]

So...

When a smart guy installed a CD player in this thing the buttons on the steering wheel became useless to him.  So he pulled them all off and threw them away...  :icon_cry:

I found a full set on Ebay and ordered them the day I bought the car...  I planned on just transferring the buttons but the first one I tried to do broke... so after repairing it I came up with a new solution, I would just transfer the whole button module.  However the guy that sent me the module was nice enough to just cut the wires off instead of using the easy connector to unplug it... so I am gonna take it to work and transfer the harnesses.  Below are some photos incase any of you have not seen behind the buttons or wondered how to pull the button array off...  There is a TON of parts to that little module, I mean a TON

Stock button module


New one before fixing button I broke


Back of module (have to remove this to transfer harnesses, I found it kinda cool that these two modules were manufactured on same date and SN# was less than 50 from eachother


All the little pieces and hinges that do the magical button pushing!!!

[Prospeeder]

one of these days i really would like my HUD unit to stop flickering, parts of the image going away. ect...

[Gibby]

That shouldnt be too bad of a fix, probably solder degradation.  Getting the circuit board out of the HUD will be the hardest part.

[Gibby]

Well....

one of my issues has been no dash illumination at night, and the DIC will work when it wants to (only when lights are on) and will be very dull.
So I pulled the headlight multi-switch, the connector was pretty corroded, so I took a brass brush and brushed all of the leads clean and put it back in.  Nope didnt fix it. 
I then pulled the thing apart, inside I found all kinds of copper runs, three of the weirdest rocker switches I have ever seen, and the dim switch along with a fet, couple resistors.

To get to the dimmer(the part I thought was bad) You have to do some soldering, pulling some of the copper joints apart, removing one screw and some plastic tabs.  Separating the this unit is tricky, inside contains the rocker switches that consist of ball bearings and springs with sliding contacts.  When you pull it apart you have to be careful not to lose anyting.  I then tore apart the dimmer, inside here was two little sliding contacts that move with a ball bearing.  The little contacts in there (IMO) were not built very well, I secured them better with epoxy as they were a little loose. 
Reassembly is a bit tricky because the ball bearings rest on the springs so its very tedious.
After putting everything back together it completey fixed my entire problem with the dimming of my DIC and gauges. AWESOME!

I will put some pictures up later, I didnt take too many unfourtunately, but hopefully they can help.

[Gibby]

Tore the dash apart today, I will have to get a wiring diagram to figure out where the wires go that were cut...  Look like they may all go to the stock stereo.  Got all six speakers working again, rewired the engine bay fuse box.  And figured out where the cause is for my lumbar buttons not working, but its getting hot... so I am done today

[Gibby]

Fixed cluster today, and diagnosed a short under the driver seat, which is why my lumbar buttons dont work.

If anyone needs their clusters fixed for check gauges lights, or brightness let me know.  Like I said I will do it for cost of shipping.

[GPChief]

Dude  - where were you 5 years ago?!?!  J/K rebuilt my cluster from a donor regular GP
N/A one.

[Gibby]

Lol, I know these cars are a little old.  I would have bought one sooner, but this is the first one I found in idaho! Supposedly there was another one here but it got totaled, its not in the yards though, I spent all day looking

[GPChief]

Its next to the Yeddi!

[Gibby]

Fixed my lumbar/center console seat control issue!

Ended up being cold solder joints, there is a black box under the seat, it contains three relays, four diodes, some contacts and a vacuum sensor.  I pulled it out and resoldered the whole board, problem fixed here is a few pics of the circuit board.

[White93z34]

Did this fix the intermittent seats not doing any of the pneumatic functions problem? If so it sounds like I need to do that!

[Gibby]

Yes sir it did.  The hardest part is getting to that guy.  He is towards the back of the drivers seat in a little black box