Flickering Speedometer backlight
Thread Starter
Pro
Joined: Aug 2015
Posts: 656
Likes: 79
From: Jackson Wisconsin
Flickering Speedometer backlight
The backlight on my speedometer, 1995 coupe, flickers, dies, goes out completely and comes back on. Its not the dimmer. That has works fine. The digits are always visible. I can read them without a light. The backlight works with the headlights off. Driving home last night the speedometer backlight flickered and went out, came back on, then went out. Today all is fine. The ambient light sensor works fine. I'm thinking I'll have to pull the dash and clean up the contacts. What are your thoughts?
Le Mans Master
Joined: Oct 2004
Posts: 6,314
Likes: 508
From: South-central Missouri
The backlight on my speedometer, 1995 coupe, flickers, dies, goes out completely and comes back on. Its not the dimmer. That has works fine. The digits are always visible. I can read them without a light. The backlight works with the headlights off. Driving home last night the speedometer backlight flickered and went out, came back on, then went out. Today all is fine. The ambient light sensor works fine. I'm thinking I'll have to pull the dash and clean up the contacts. What are your thoughts?
There are a couple of 'em: the main one is on the lower left side and the other is a pig tail the connects the LCD display.
IIRC, the bulb illuminating the backlight is in parallel with several other dash bulbs. So, if that one light is the only one affected, chances are it is the bulb socket or the bulb itself.
In any case, when I had some intermittent dash light (and other stuff) issues, cleaning the contact pins and coating them with dielectric grease (to minimize the oxidation - "frost" - that formed over time).
And, if your tach readout is off, then would be an excellent time to address that (a simple chip change is usually all it takes).
Safety Car
Joined: Aug 2013
Posts: 4,431
Likes: 609
From: Minneapolis Mn
Sounds like the grounding between the 2 boards to me (what I had with mine). I sent mine to Bryan at Batee.com and he replaced the burn connectors, swapped out the bulbs for xenon ones and it's been working great.
Check his website as there's a wealth of info there too.
Check his website as there's a wealth of info there too.
