Gauges don't work at all

[camarobrian]

My wife has a 96 neon, great car we haven't had any problems until recently. She called and said her gauges were not working at all, no temp, fuel, speed, or rpm. Well I looked on this site and found an article about re soldering the connections on the back. After trying this nothing changed. The car runs fine, but she never knows how fast she is going. Any ideas on what else it could be? Thanks for the help

[Turbodog97]

A fuse could have blown somewhere or there is a short in the wiring.

[1thunder]

circuit board is probably faulty common on this model year

[das2123]

Try adding some solder to it. Reflowing the connections doens't always work, so you may need to add some to it. If that doens't work for you, hit up the boneyard and get one. They are plug and play.

[camarobrian]

I just added some solder to the joints, cleaned the connections, and checked the fuses. I am about to go plug it back in, cross your fingers. Any idea about cost on a new board? I have a good connection at all 20 pins on the board, so if it isn't that or the fuse, any other ideas????
Other than the fuse under the dash is there another fuse for the gauges? I checked under the hood, and didn't see one.

[99 Neon R/T]

There should be another fuse in the power distribution block.It is behind the battery in the plastic box.I think it is fuse 13.If that dosent work then try the junkyards.Usually they are cheaper than buying a new circut board and you may find one with lower miles.Like Das said they are just plug and play.I have one sitting in my garage with an 8k tach but the miles dont roll over other than that it works perfect if you are interested.I dont know what it is worth like that but it has to be better than nothing at all.

[camarobrian]

The plot thickens!!!!!!!!!! First I looked under the hood, and there is no fuse for the gauges, just some relays, and such, but nothing related to the gauges other than interior lights, and they all work just fine. So now she tells me that the speedometer had stopped working before, so she hit the top of the dash right above the gauges and like magic they started working again. She didn't think it was related to the current problem so she didn't bother to tell me. I love my wife!!!! Anyway now she says the rado sometimes just goes off. I kinda thought it might be a bad ground going to the gauges and the radio, but if the gauges never work, and the radio almost always works I don't think that's the case. Am I right there? I would really love to get my hands on a schematic of the circuit board. Any ideas where I could get one?? I just dusted off the old DVOM, and I am about to go check voltage at the fuse, five amps under the dash, but without a schematic I can't do much else. We are going to buy a new car over presiden't day in febuary, a friend told me that is when you get the best deal, so I really don't want to dump money into the thing, because with 175,000 we aren't going to sell it, it is going straight to the junkyard. Could there be a short in the wiring loom running from the right hand side of the connector? Are there radio wires in that bundle, because it looks like it runs down the side of the instrument cluster in the direction of the radio. If you have any ideas, and I mean any ideas please let me know. And how much do you want for that custer?? Thanks for all your help. It is appreciated!!!!!!!!!!

[99 Neon R/T]

And how much do you want for that custer?? Yeah about that cluster.Apparently someone "borrowed it" while I was deployed and now I dont have a clue where it is.You can get one used for around 40 bucks at a junk yard though.Most yards will do exchanges if you get a bad one.As far as having to smack the dash I had to do for a while then it quit working all together so I just replaced the cluster and problem solved.

[camarobrian]

OK I guess I will go to a junkyard and get a new cluster. I am out of ideas. Welcome home 99 neon, thanks for serving our country. I appreciate all of your help. I guess after xmas I will gop get a new cluster!!!!!!!!!!!!!

[99 Neon R/T]

Hope it works out and thanks for your appreciation.Happy holidays.