Integra4lyfe069

So Everything works except the cluster doesnt light up.

signals work
high beams
low beams
4 ways
srs lights show up on cluster.
fuel low light works, all lights work.

but the lights dont show, i cant see how fast in going or rpms lol

gf says it works sometimes, others it doesnt like in mornings and certain times at night and latly just not at all.

but everything else is 100% it just dioesnt light up.

any ideas?

Former User

Is fuse 30 under the dash blown? If not, then the dimmer switch may be bad. Pop it out of the dash and unplug the connector. Jump the red to the black wire in the connector. Do the lights now work?

Integra4lyfe069

took out every fuse in the dash and switched them with working ones and the lights do not work.
took out the switch in the dash cut all three wires and touched each red to the black and seperate times and still nothing.

so both fuses and switch seem good.

all headlights/turn signals and tail lights work.

interior dome light works
small lights such as SRS check engine, highbeam seatbelt oil fuel indicator lights on cluster WORK.

everything elsei n terms of fuel guage lights rpm guage lights odo guage lights, dont work..

i cant figure out wtf is wrong ??? this only happened recently


questions: cutting the 3 wires at the switch and touching them together is this considered jumped together or is this totaly wrong :p

also some of the fuses thats suposed to be in different places i think the previous owner has switched in new ones of diff amperages etc.

some of the fuses r different when i goto take them out. theres maybe a 7.1 in a spot where a ten or 15a shuld be.

Moto-mac

the dimmer switch in mine went bad. replaced it and problem fixed

Former User

You connected the Red and Black wires together and left the Red/Blk wire free, right? You then turned the light switch ON to test the cluster lights, right? If all this was done correctly, then use a multimeter to test the black wire for continuity to ground.

Integra4lyfe069

i tried touchiong the red/black wire, nothing. All this while the key was in the on position and lights were turned on,

nothing in the cluster light up other then the SRS lights and all those small lights in the little circles.

also puled every fuse individually and replaced them with a working one and no lights appeared. (i did this to every single fuse underthedash)

checked the fuses under the hood too, nothing.

i dont get it ??

Heres pictures of the switch wires and a pic of the fuse panel. i noticed #15 and 30 fuses r 7.5a's should they be 15 and 10s like ive seen mentioned in here? also notice my fuses alot of them dont seem right, could u help me put them back stock, previous owner must have been retarded and i dont have the cover plate so i dunno which fuses r whitch



wires

fuses

factory specs


cluster (keep in mind the brightness lights r the ones not working, but all the rest work).


Instruments (only lights that wokr here r the little bulbs on the push buttons. and ofc my cd player.


i have a volt meter or multimeter or an ohmmeter i aint sure which one and i dunno how to use these LOL.

dunno how to check for continuity or even what it uis.

Former User

Edit: Look at your wires. One of the two Red wires is actually Red with a Black stripe (Red/Blk). Push this Red/Blk wire aside for now, and connect the Red and Blk wires together. To test, there's no need to turn the key to ON(II). Just turn the light switch to parking lights.

Testing for continuity with your Ohmmeter:
Remove a small length of insulation from the tip of the Black (ground) wire. Touch one probe of the Ohmmeter to the tip of this exposed wire and the other probe somewhere to the metal frame under the dash. The resistance reading should be very low (1 Ohm or less) if the Black wire has proper continuity to ground.

*If the Black wire has proper continuity, then turn the parking lights ON and use your multimeter to check whether the Red/Blk wire has battery voltage when using the Black wire as ground.

Former User

The diagram below shows the proper amperage of fuses for each slot. I also noticed a wire inserted into fuse 20. This is a fire hazard if the wire shorts.

You are working on the correct circuit -- fuse 30, the dimmer switch, and the three wires in your picture.

Integra4lyfe069

sorry i edited and updated as u posted and reviewed my old comments i took out hehe.

i get happy when i see u post, u know what ur talking about and i've seen u around in many posts.

i thank you for taking the time to help me sir.

i wired the led lights there cause im using a switch to turn the leds on/off, thel eds r never usualy on unless its night. the other ends r wired straight to the negative battery terminal.

if this is a fire hazard i will change it, but where can i put it to have my leds still work via switch?

im gonna try later today to change the fuses in slot 30 and anything else that says anything to do with lights, i circled them in the upper diagram, also im gonna try and retouch the wires tonight as well, in my pcis above it shows the red/black one and black one exposed, i am gonna untape the red one and tape up the red/black one, and retouch those.

gotta wait till tonight though cause i cant see if the lights turn on in the daytime hehehe.


what if nothing works with the wires touched and fuses changed?

whats my options then?

also ill take a picture of my multimeter or whatever the hell it is i have maybe ucan verify and tell me what settings to use for the continuity test on the black wire.



which is this multimeter? volt meter? ohm meter?

which setting for testing fuses? and which settings for testing continuity??

i need help understanding this and how it works and what the settings // symbols mean ;p

Former User

I am glad to help out.

Don't worry. This is likely a simple electrical problem that you will solve in short order. Do the tests I suggested in my earlier post (#7) and then go from there.

You just need to wire the LED properly downstream of the fuse to that a short would blow the fuse rather than start a fire.

Integra4lyfe069

see everything worked until recently, my gf started noticing the cluster lights not working from time to time meaning it would work sometimes n wouldnt others, now it just doesn't LOL

i jus hope this dont escalate into some major electrical problems.

everything in terms of maintnence work and tools i can do, but electrical = im a ****ing retard when it comes to that **** lol.

Former User

Start again by properly connecting the Red wire to the Blk wire. If the dash lights now turn on, then the dimmer switch was bad. Replace it.

If the dash light still don't work after connecting the wires, then do the tests I suggested earlier.

You have a multimeter (measures resistance [Omega], voltage [V], and amperage [A]).

Plug the wire probes into the indicated holes of the multimeter and then use the indicated resistance (continuity of wire and fuses) scale or voltage (test voltage of Red/Blk wire) scale.

Integra4lyfe069

so continuity scale is the weird looking O or Q shape?(green) and the volt is the orange

what is the 750 and 200 circled for? r those the ones iuse when testing? which one isb etter? or do i need to use two of them.

i cant see the switch being bad either cause ive never used the switch and it always worked hmm.

im going out now to pick up fuses to replace the three 7.5a 's ive circled then ill try touching the wires, if both those dont work, we'll do more checks with this volt meter, since the first two seem easiest to do / understand and seem to be the most logik thing to do first.


last night i had the cluster out and changed all the bulbs so i know it isnt the bulbs.

Former User

One circled setting is for measuring voltage and the other is for measuring resistance/continuity.

Focus on only fuse 30. It's the only relevant fuse here. Don't go out and buy a new fuse unless it tests bad with the multimeter. The switch could go bad even without use. Do the tests we talked about.

Integra4lyfe069

okay well my buddy has an account at some auto parts store, hes hedded over there now to pick me up 3 of each fuse 10a 7.5a 15a and 20a so i have them as backups, he says he aint chargin me **** lol. so ima just replace them anyway.

while hes out doing that i needa get a 9 volt battery for the damn multimeter LOL.

So from there ill do the wire connection and if nothing works still then ill do our tests and report back, shouldnt be more then an hour or so and ill have a reply up.

On the other note tho.
also i noticed in slot 6 theres suposed to be no fuse cause it isn't used, but the previous owner has a 20a stuck in there, what could this be? anyway of finding out? will the 20 a drain from somewhere else? or hurt anything being in there?

also he has a 7.5a in the rear window motor (doesnt this only apply to a 4door?) and nothing has to be here for the 2door like i have? also culd he have something in use to have a fuse in it ? theres nothing for 7 which is the rear left window motor(the exact opposite)

Former User

Theoretically, you can remove those two fuses. If something stops working after removing, then the PO used those fuse slots to power some aftermarket device. These extra fuses are unrelated to your current problem.

Integra4lyfe069

Okay its weird but i fixed it. Heres what happened.

-Before i bought new fuses and switched them out i touched the wires together n got nothing.

-changed the fuses with wires untouched and still nothing.

-Retouched the red/black wires after new fuses is in and it works.

Now since i cut the three wires i have to solder them back together to the switch wires now lol and tape them up and order and new switch to plug the connector into right?

Do i still need to go test the wires for propper voltage?

i tested the red wire with the black probe grounded and it jumped to 3.7 then to 1 then back to 0, tried it again it went to 1 then 0

does this mean the wires r fine?

right now the red/black wire is still twisted together cause im not gonna solder them back together to the original wires until i buy a new switch but what im wondering is, r they okay as of now? can they stay twisted like that till i get a switch, the red/blk wire is taped up n out of the way so they dont touch other wires n blow fuses :p

Former User

If with the red wire and black wire tightly twisted together, the lights now shine at full intensity, you are good to go for now. Just carefully tape all exposed metal wire so as to avoid a short. When you get a new dimmer switch, solder all three wires to the connector and you'll be good to go. If you always want the lights to shine at full brightness, then solder the black and red wires together, insulate with tape, and just plug the bad switch back into the dash to cover the hole.

Integra4lyfe069

so i dont need to get a switch? I always have the lights on full brightness and always have them on even in the day. I never use the damn switch anyway.

as for full brightness intensity iam unaware because I have only seen the light come on in the sun with my coat over it trying to make it dark so i can see if it worked lol.

what if it isnt full brightness, im pretty sure it was when the switch stopped working though

Former User

Reserve judgment for when it is dark. The lights should be fine. I think your fluctuating low voltage readings were probably caused by poor contact of the probes with the wire and ground.

Integra4lyfe069

prolly cause i only touched them slighly, i have another problem though, why r the bulb sizes in the cluster dirrent sizes, i know in my integra the three r the same size, in the civiic only one is that size the rest are small ?

also the only other thing that doesnt work in my cluster is the fuel guage, i been workin on this for a while but never knew how to work the voltmeter to test the wires at the fuel sender unit.

in the 96 civic is the sender unit under the seats ?

problem im having is its stuck on full heh

Former User

Former User

Here's the gas tank diagram you needed:

Integra4lyfe069

thanks.

Also to let you know i fixedall the lighting problem in the guage cluster.

soldered the wires together and insulated them, also tucked away the otherred/blk wire insulated also of course.
put everything back, its all good now.

Now in terms of the fuel sender unit and the fuel guage. I did some test today and heres how things went.

First i turned my car on ON(II) to check if i got lucky and it accualy worked randomly! but it didint , its still stuck on FULL.

- then i turned my car off and pulled my seats.

- took off the access plate and unplugged the fuel pump and the grey connector on the fuel sender unit and the three pin connecter on thefuel sender unit.(why does the fuel sender unit have two? and what is the big grey one)

- inside the three pin connector theres a massive amount of white grease like sludge/slim sorta deal its soo messy i dont even see how the wires r getting contact. (same with the 2 pin connector on the fuel pump. should these be cleaned and or replaced?)

-anyway i tried to stick the multi meter pins in the right slots and get areading but i didint get no read at all i musta tried like 10 times.

anyway i turned the car on with everything unpluged to see if the guage would goto empty but it didint.

- i turned the car off and checked fuse number 25, it was blown so i replaced it. so with the fuel sendor unit still unplugged i turned the car back on and the gas guage went to empty. Wit hthe car still on i plugged the fuel sende r unit back in and it started going to full again. Now its stuck on fuel again and i tried for more readings but got nothing, it was dark out so i didint check the fuse again it might blown again? or is the sender unit bad? also i didnt jump any wires or anything.

now going a little offtopic here maybe but a while ago there was a little black cord inside the cluster area not hooked to anything and it ran under the dash twords the firewall not hooked to anything on that end either. was always bugging me what it was for, but nothing is missing anything and nothing stops and or doesnt work, but the fuel guage.

Former User

Can you post a picture of the fuel sending unit and the two plugs?

The connectors are covered in dielectric grease. This is normal. Don't wipe off.

If fuse 25 had been blown all all this time, the speedo and tach also would not work. If they have been working while the gas gauge has been stuck on full, then you probably blew the fuse while attempting to measure voltages.

Did you happen to notice whether the float in the gas tank was stuck in the full position? Otherwise, my guess is that the fuel sending unit is bad.