Hey everyone. So I came across a new issue. I've tried searching the forum for solutions but maybe I'm not structuring my query right.

I've got my dashboard apart. I just replaced a friend board in my instrument panel and installed a HUD projector. I noticed today that the back light on some of the instruments seems inconsistent. 2 of the 6 DIC buttons don't light up. Several lights on both HVAC controls and stereo also don't have back lighting. For example the stereo presets 2 and 5 light up but 1,3,4 and 6 do not.

Does anyone have any suggestions. Or if this is already covered in another forum post, could you point me to that post so I can check it out?

Thanks in advance

Missing backlights. Notice that there 2 dic buttons are dark, all buttons on the HVAC and some radio lights are also out

 

the leds are most likely burned out !!!

 

What Pounder said.....bulbs are burnt out. I have had the pleasure of taking apart the HVAC and DIC to replace bulbs.

 

A couple of questions first. By saying this is a new issue - do you mean that all of this occurred after you pulled you're dash apart and performed the other repair? Or is this car new to you and you just discovered that all of those lights were already out?

If the answer is YES to my second question, I may be able to help, as I have replaced all of these lights (some - more than once). For the interior of the C5 you can replace the DIC, Traction Control, Fog/Hatch, and both door switch lights with the T4/T4.2 Neo Wedge LEDs. I'm pretty sure that the HUD takes T3 Neo Wedge LEDs, but not positive - all I know is that they are definitely smaller than the T4/T4.2. If you don't want to go with LEDs, then order the OEM lights from a parts vendor.

When it comes to the stock radio and Dual Climate Control HVAC, you can also use T4/T4.2 Neo Wedge LEDs. All you have to do is straighten out the wires and remove the LED (w/built in resistor on the bottom) from the plastic housing it comes in and then insert the wires into the appropriate holes on the circuit board, solder and trim off the excess. Or you can buy 12 volt 3mm thru-hole LEDs with built in resistors and use those.

Regardless of which lights you go with, you don't want to skimp here. If you buy cheap ones, chances are you will be repeating this entire proceedure soon - ask me how I know. If you go with any of the LEDs, do yourself a favor get high quality lights with good reviews.










To use Neo Wedge LEDs just remove them from their plastic housing -











When you are all done, your C5 can look like this -




Good luck -

 

Seems odd that all of the HVAC backlights would go out at the same time... I would suspect a separate issue.

 

I just did the LED swap on my DIC this past winter. Either your middle bulb got loose or burned out (one bulb lights up both that are not lit up)(3 bulbs lights up the 6 buttons on the right side).
I cannot speak for the other lights that do not light up except what others have said, they probably just burnt out. If I was in you shoes, I would do a total replacement with LEDs because either way, your going to have to take everything apart again, might as well as do it right with longer lasting LEDs. Besides, you can put color LEDs in, I did mine in blue.
Unfortunately, I need to take mine all apart again too

 

As some others have said, the light bulbs have burned out.

I think you aee the guy I bought the ipc from on sunday. If you want to, bring the hvac and ipc over to me and I can replace all of the lamps verified that they work when done.
PM or email me, g_kopko@yahoo.com.

Gary

 

Hey everyone. Thanks for all your answers. This is definitely going to be helpful.

Yes, this problem did start after I had taken the dash apart. I believe it might have started when I plugged in a OBD I Bluetooth scantool. After I had plugged that in I had noticed surges in the electronics. The instruments were power cycling. I'm wondering if these burned out the bulbs that you guys have been saying are burned out. I want to try to isolate what's going on with those surges. The car had been completely fine after doing my repairs on the IPC. I had pulled and installed the cluster several times with no issues. So I'm guessing it has something to do with the wiring going back to the obd port which does seem wobnly which doesn't seem right.

I'll have to do one of those led kits. Thank you to everyone who provided feedback so far

 

Dude, I'm totally digging the red LEDs you got going on. Where did you get yours?

I did confirm the bulbs are burned with a continuity test on the bulbs for the DIC unit.

I was looking at the diagram from the repair manual and it seems the IPC and HVAC are part of the same circuit. I believe the stereo ties in somewhere as well. So now I guess I need to figure out what's going on in the circuit that keeps sending surges through it frying components.

 

Ttt

bc

 

Well, like I said in my initial post in this thread - if you go cheap you may end up replacing bulbs again. Believe me, it's no fun pulling your gauge cluster apart to replace 2 bulbs after putting brand new ones in 5 months earlier. I won't post the link to the original LEDs I bought. But for the DIC/HUD lights I did find a much better quality with these:

http://www.ebay.com/itm/corvette-97-...72.m2748.l2649

Then I found the T4/T4.2 Neo Wedge LEDs that looked nearly identical to the ones I just got from the specialty vendor posted above. They were much cheaper without the "Corvette Tax" attached and I have swapped out my other original LEDs with these and am happy so far:

http://www.ebay.com/itm/20x-Red-T4-T...72.m2749.l2649

However, if I were to do it all over again (and I probably will) on the HVAC and OEM Stereo Head Unit I will most likely try these:

http://www.ebay.com/itm/12-Volt-3mm-...19.m1438.l2649

The thru-hole lights are a lot more $, but they have good reviews and I believe the light disbursement will be better behind the buttons.

 

So today I fixed my multimeter and decided to try to see if there was any parasitic draw on the battery. After sitting a while the current went down to 30 miliamps. But now my IPC isn't working properly.

If I insert the key into the car I get the chime. But nothing on display. If I turn it to on where the cluster goes through it's test and all the needles go to Max and back to min etc, none of that was happening. The HUD doesn't work in any position. I have to turn on drl lights and move the key back to acc just to get odometer to pop up. None of the DIC buttons will do anything

I'm going to go check some of the fuses right now and hope it's a fuse. But has anyone had this happen? I'm hoping I didn't just fry my IPC (again)

 

The interior lights aren't working when I use the dimmer switch

 

Check the IPC Fuses. Measure each one to chassis grounds. There are two test slots ob top of each fuse. If the fuse that is supplied power by the IGNITION SWITCH is not reading FULL Battery voltage, your IGNITION SWITCH is causing the issue..

See if that pans out..

Bill

 

ALL C5 IPCs have 2 fuses. Look carefully at the one listed Hot in ON and START. You have to turn the ignition switch to ON/START to read the votage and it should be FULL battery voltage in each position!!!

 

Hey Gary, didn't notice your reply. Yup it's me.

I'm starting to believe the source of my problems is somewhere between the wiring from obd ii port and body control module

 

Thanks Bill,

After a couple hours of diagnosing and then seeing your post I discovered that fuse #9 in the I/p fuse box wasn't properly inserted somehow. I must not have gotten it put back in right after pulling it during my parasitic draw test
​​​​

 

So I finally buttoned up the car (mostly) and made a trip out to Vegas. Normally when I take the Z06 out to Vegas my 280 mile trip leaves me less than a quarter tank of gas. Can you imagine my shock when I got to Vegas and still had close to half a tank?
280 miles
Still got half a tank
Claim of 200 more miles in the tank

 

So today I was driving back from Vegas and the electrical gremlins popped back up. After I got home I picked up a buddy of mine to give him a ride to the store. When I got to his place I noticed the clock had reset. When we got in I got the alert on the DIC to service car soon. Then later I got the alerts to service traction control and service active handling. After dropping my buddy off and getting ready to head home I had witnessed my stereo reboot. These were the issues I originally took it into the Corvette Shop to address last year. They had said they couldn't get a good connection to the computer and that my grounds were dirty. They charged me $300 to clean my grounds. The next day driving out to Santa Fe Springs, the IPC board fried which killed my DIC display. The Corvette Shop wouldn't take any responsibility for the issue. So now a year later after fixing the IPC myself, I am getting the very same messages that I had taken it into the shop to address. I'm feeling a bit ripped off which sucks because I had a few people recommend the shop to me. This is the shop here of anyone's been there, let me know how your experience was, maybe they're just not that great with electrical work. Corvette Shop Inc

7537 Topanga Canyon Blvd, Canoga Park, CA 91303
https://g.co/kgs/VVGHPa

Anyways, I had seen somewhere on this site that getting the active handling/traction control warnings may be a sign of something going wrong with the body control module. Considering the BCM controls the IPC, HVAC and Radio circuits, could this be me problem? Does anyone know how I can diagnose the issue to narrow it down and confirm?

All help is very much appreciated ahead of time. Hope everyone had a great weekend

 

When the clock and memory settings reset, you are LOSING MAIN BATTERY POWER.

Have you had the battery fully tested at a shop or autoparts store???? Please fully test the battery to make sure that it does not drop very low when placed under a heavy load.

If the battery test out, I would suspect the battery connecttons. If yo can move a battery cable on the battery terminal by hand, it is NOT propery attached/tightened. Clean and torque the battery cable to 11 ft/lbs.

Do all that and see where you are at.

Bill