linnadawg

iTrader: (14)

My car was apart for some time and I finally got it all put back together. My gauge cluster and hvac illumination are not working. All of the gauges work and the odometer can be dimmed with the dimmer switch. All of the red/black wires for the cluster have 12V with the headlight switch on and all of the red/green wires have continuity to ground. I bypassed the dimmer and it doesnt work. Then realized the dimmer was controlling the odometer still.

My tail lights, side markers, headlights all work. All of the fuses are good. Tns is obviously good because the cluster is receiving battery voltage. I was thinking maybe my cluster went bad but why wouldnt the Hvac lights work? The wiring is spliced over to the hvac it doesnt run through the cluster. Nothing looks wrong with the back of the cluster.

Only thing I can think of is the front harness was replaced with a 94 harness and the car is a 93. I still dont understand why the light bulbs have power and ground and wont come on. Somebody help me.

linnadawg

iTrader: (14)

I started the car tonight with the cluster out and the ac panel and center console illuminated! I was like what in all hell is going on!! Before the first testing took place I switched the retrac and the tns relay. Right before I started it tonight I switched them back and voila it works. I plugged in the cluster 1 by 1 until the whole thing was illuminated. I suppose even though it showed 12v on the r/b wiring the retrac relay I had used was probably shorted slightly causing 12v to appear but not enough current once the load (lights) was applied. Lesson learned my friends, always do a voltage drop test.

jonnyrx7

iTrader: (9)

retrac relay? Im in a similar situation and picking up a new TNS relay

linnadawg

iTrader: (14)

On my car the retrac relay and the tns relay are identical. I swapped at first and nothing happened. I pulled the gauges and soldered some messed up ground wire. Still did not work. Then I switched the tns and retrac relay back again and it worked. They are identical relays and they both looked clean inside but I was too lazy to actually test the relay since power was going to the gauges. So my problem was the tns relay along with a messed up r/g ground wire that somebody thought was a power wire.