cluster illumination

[izzydjinn]

Hello people..... anyways, for the longest time, the cluster on my 2000 firebird lights half way.... and I mean the tachometer, speedometer,half on the batt. Gauge and half of the gas gauge. Can I fix this myself, are the fuses burnt out, if so which ones... help, I'm lost on this one.

[toddman67]

I'm not familar with this peticular vehicle, however many older clusters had 1/4 turn light sockets with #73 bulbs in them. Today many of the clusters have diodes for illumination which run in series. When 1 fails several will go out. I've seen posts where guys have repaired these but it seems to be quite a meticulous task. In a case of the diode set up you may have to replace the cluster. You will have to pull the instrument cluster/panel to find out which style you have, or perhaps someone else with experience on this model could weigh in on this.

[toddman67]

www.instrumentclusterstore.com may be of help.

[izzydjinn]

Thanks todd. One other thing, when it started doing this, I would simply tap (sometimes a little bit harder) underneath the panel itself( by the trunk release button to be exact) and the whole thing would lit up, then one day it stopped working.

[toddman67]

It is possible that you have a bad connection, but my suspicions are that the cluster solder joints are bad. When you have time pull the unit and see if indeed it is one or the other. You still need to determine whether they are diodes or incandecent bulbs for the illumination.

[izzydjinn]

I tried to take it off cuz that's what I thought might be the prob you know bad connection or something. But I only got as far as the two screws one each next to steering column.