Gauge Cluster Board Fix? Capacitors? Resistors? Solder? Oh My!

[dicespice]

Hey All,

I recently bought a 93 Lexus ES300 that was involved in a frontal accident with only 99,000 miles. I got a great deal on the car and started fixing the front end and other issues. Since it has been sitting at my buddies shop for a year the tachometer and odometer has stopped working.

The tachometer needle moves just a little bit, and the odometer is now completely black.

This is not the typical, "My Needles are OUT!", I don't really care about that right now.

I have the cluster out and have taken it apart and pulled the circuit board out and have seen other forums with different models explaining what capacitors to replace and give certain numbers of the locations of the capacitors and resistors and what controls what.

I have also gotten a factory service manual which is no real help on how to maybe fix the board. Unless someone has a better manual with some schematics in it.

It did give me a test to plug into the harness and check for voltages at the tach to check the harness connection to the cluster, which I haven't done yet.

All of my other gauges work, just the tach won't move more than a 1/4 inch and my odometer is blank.

I'm about ready to sell the car at a loss, cause the value of the low mileage is now gone.

I have watched many clusters on ebay with high mileage, which is backwards thinking of adding 50,000 miles on my car. 500.00 for a working one with 0 miles is not cool either.

If Lexucan can come up with a cheap DIY needle fix, why can't I fix my cluster on the cheap as well??? Anyone?? Bueller??

I have searched the forums and found nothing for the ES, and the pros out their who fix these things for a living don't want to budge on any pointers which I understand, but maybe there is a manual on how to fix it better than factory I could purchase.

I love DIY and love the feeling of learning and fixing new things, I'm not out to steal any trade secrets or start my own cluster building business, I just want to fix my ride and get the value of having a low mileage car back.

You can even PM me and give me the down low on how to fix it rather than post it.

Any help would be awesome.

thanks in advance.

[Lexucan]

Bump for the plug! :P

Anyone know where he might find a schematic for the cluster board/s...preferably cheap...or better yet...free?

Maybe the first thing I'd do is check the board over carefully for cold solder joints, which are usually identifiable as looking dull grey (not shiny) in appearance when compared to the rest. Any that look questionable, touch them up with new solder.