Hey all,
I am working on a 98 Civic EX coupe. It had an SI cluster in it when I bought it, and it had miniature 'spotlights' mounted to the bezel (No, I am not kidding!) to illuminate the instrument cluster, along with several other weird 'cobblings' that one of the previous owners had done. Although it's not my DD, I had to drive it to work one morning at 5 am, and decided to try and resolve the dash-light issue.
Since I have a 99 Civic LX, I thought that I would use it to help troubleshoot the cluster. I couldn't get any of the lights to work, on the gauges in the 98 EX, so I transplanted the cluster into my LX. It wouldn't light there, either, indicating that the SI cluster had an issue...
I was pretty bummed, until I saw that there was a small flat wire attached to the far right bulb socket, and it was bent in a manner that obviously was designed to put it under the RH blue plug, when it was attached to the cluster-harness.
I could see that the copper(?) ribbon had a burned spot in it, where the power from the plug initially came down the Printed Circuit. So, I bent the wire more precisely and inserted the plug, turned on the lights, and had lights-- for a second! Then I lost lights, and smelled something hot...
Now my 99 LX doesn't have dash-lights, either!
So, my question is this: since the fuse looks OK, and since BOTH cars have the same problem, can anyone tell me what it might be, before I have to drive to work with either a flashlight or the three miniature spotlights to illuminate my gauges?
Also, any ideas what can be done, if anything, to repair my PC on the SI cluster? Or WHY it would burn-up like that? I REALLY wanted to keep the SI gauges.
Thanks in advance!
John

 

What fuses did you check? Can you provide images of what you are refering to?

 

Actually, I checked ALL of the fuses, using my DMM. None are blown, especially the one for the gauge lights (fourth down on left), which I checked and even replaced.
I uploaded a pic of the printed circuit to my photos, here: Honda Civic Picture by z-28john | 2332165 | Honda-Tech.com
It's no easy to see the burned part, so I circled it in paint...
I am trying replacing the pc with Picknpull ones.
Any other ideas?

 

Is only the cluster not lighting up? how about your a/c controls?

 

The Heater and AC lights are working, but won't dim/brighten with dimmer-switch. Going to change it with a used one too.

 

Check your dimmer switch.

 

Ok!
The verdict is: I replaced the dimmer switch in the LX and the dash lights started working!
THEN, I replaced the pc on the SI cluster, used a jumper wire across the dimmer plug in the EX to verify that the lights worked in the SI cluster without blowing the fuse (and without risking the 'new' dimmer switch), then put in the used dimmer switch and it did NOT burn-up the dimmer or the fuse!
So, BOTH cars have dash lights, AND the SI cluster doesn't have a short-circuit any more!
Thanks guys!