Hello, all. Great forum! I was wondering what would cause my instrument panel to quit working on my civic hatchback. I got this car with a horridly broken dashboard and swapped it with a good one out of a 91 CRX, but unfortunately NOTHING on my instrument panel works now: turn signals, some gauges peg out, no lights when headlights are on, no hazards, no indicator lights/bulb tests, nothing. My cousin believes it's a bad ground issue, which I am inclined to believe, but I don't know where that ground is. I know there is a ground by the steering column, but I made sure that one was good. I also tried swapping instrument wiring harnesses, using a different instrument unit, no-go (I do have a 91 CRX parts car at my disposal). My headlights, license plate lights, and tail lights work fine.

 

sometimes its as simple as cleaning the contact with a pencil eraser. but if its completely dead, then try swapping out another cluster. kind of hard to suggest any other troubleshooting that you havent already tried.

 

on the instrument cluster, I tested the number 10 pin on the 12 pin connector and pin 7 on the 8 pin connector with a multimeter, and I'm not getting power to either of them unlike what I thought & The number 1 and 14 fuses are good. Is there supposed to be switched power to both of those pins when the key is on? I got the info as per these pics:

 

Yes, you're reading the description properly.

Now check power at the ignition switch.

You said the fuses are good. Did you check voltage?

 

I checked voltage at fuses 1 & 14 and it was at 12.5v (with engine off). I was getting full battery voltage at the ignition as well. I measured the voltage at the yellow wire and I got around 8-9 volts this time. I still am not getting voltage at the black/yellow wire.

I forgot to mention I have all lights outside the car (headlights, tail lights, license plate lamp, etc) working except hazards and turn signal.

Car still runs great.

 

Well, now you follow the harness from the no voltage connector end and see where the break is.

Maybe a cut harness somewhere.

 

I did swap out my instrument panel harness with the 91 CRX parts car's harness to help diagnose this issue.

I had to wire the original 18 pin plug for my civic on the fusebox end to the new harness to make it fit, as the plug was physically wider (had extra unused pins), but had the same amount and color of wires as my civic (the CRX I got it from was an automatic and mine's a 5-speed, if that matters).

Maybe the new harness is bad, too, or there's a break somewhere else? Got me stumped...