Is it safe to say that the odometer's failure is not a result of bad capacitors?

I'd like to figure out if something external fried the odometer before i drop a $600 cluster in to replace it.

Any input is greatly appreciated.

Typical symptoms:
1. Speedo starts reading 20mph high.
2. Few days later odometer stops displaying numbers.
3. Speedo intermittently reads accurately; cruise control sporadic.
4. Odometer looks like dried seaweed.

I have more pictures than just the attached ones, but file size was too big.

Other considerations:
1. I installed a Protege wheel with FD cruise control a month before.
2. The speedo didnt start acting up until summer heat started.
3. My airbag light came on after the odometer fried. Blinks 5 times.

 

Or was it the capacitors?

 

well, seems as though there's something seriously wrong with the cluster.

I had a really bad battery drain. The battery wouldn't be able to start the car after one hour.

Removed the cluster to tinker with it and the battery no longer drains!

 

The big brown one in the middle has an ugly leg on it. Might be a culprit.

The cruise control does not work if the odometer does not work. When my odometer was out my cruise was inop. Bad caps on the speedo cause all kinds of funky issues. I would try replacing some caps which cost about $0.76 on mouser before dropping $600 on a new speedo.

The ground on the rats nest under the UIM is the ground for the cluster. You can either attach an additional ground from the back of the cluster to a proper ground or try and clean up the ground under the UIM.

Matt

 

Thanks. Is the ground a typical problem? was moving the ground a fix for something?

 

Grounding on these cars is a GENERAL issue :P. That's why people make bigger grounds and always clean them. I added an additional ground to my last rx7 because it had blown the cap for the odometer. I did it as more of an assurance. I've got a thread on here somewhere about it.