[lanky]

ok, so i am a mechanic, so dont let this reflect on my work skills, but just recently druing thius hotter weather, my '01 ce lancer 1.8 5sp man (with factory speedo, tacho, water temp and fuel guage) have stopped working int, when it's cold (i.e am) they work, but as soon as the interior temp gets up, they drop out, ive talked to guys at mitsi, they say change the spark plugs cos the internal resistors break up with heat and that causes it, done that, no change. have pulled down the cluster totaly, checked for continuity from the single 10amp fuse next to the r/h kick pannel, across all the circurt board on the cluster, all ok, the indicators, back lights, warning light (exept fuel level warning) all still work, so the circurt board is getting a power supply and signal. im thinking that maybe the coils on the actual guages have burnt out.... if anyone has any idea's, please let me know, cos all ive got at the moment is speed matching on the road and my gps, but with all of melb's speed camera's, im not keen on trusting this for too long...

[deegz]

lanky, on 07 November 2009 - 07:05 PM, said:

ok, so i am a mechanic, so dont let this reflect on my work skills, but just recently druing thius hotter weather, my '01 ce lancer 1.8 5sp man (with factory speedo, tacho, water temp and fuel guage) have stopped working int, when it's cold (i.e am) they work, but as soon as the interior temp gets up, they drop out, ive talked to guys at mitsi, they say change the spark plugs cos the internal resistors break up with heat and that causes it, done that, no change. have pulled down the cluster totaly, checked for continuity from the single 10amp fuse next to the r/h kick pannel, across all the circurt board on the cluster, all ok, the indicators, back lights, warning light (exept fuel level warning) all still work, so the circurt board is getting a power supply and signal. im thinking that maybe the coils on the actual guages have burnt out.... if anyone has any idea's, please let me know, cos all ive got at the moment is speed matching on the road and my gps, but with all of melb's speed camera's, im not keen on trusting this for too long...

Sounds like the printed circuit board on the back of the instrument cluster. There is a well known fault with them. The copper tracks develop small cracks and expand with the heat resulting in a broken circuit. You need to get a multimeter and test all of the circuit tracks on the back of the cluster. you can visually see the cracks but they are very fine. They can be repaired but it is extremely fiddly and you can end up burning a hole straight through the plastic sheet which the circuit is printed on. scractch off the protective plastic film that is placed over the copper track where the crack is. This will expose the copper track (will be a copper colour ) then you can choose to repair by either: using a rear window demister repair kit, some conductive paint or if you are an ace solderer try soldering over the crack to re-complete the circuit. Ive tried the rear window demister and it worked for ages then failed again. conductive paint is probably the method of choice I recon. good luck. This problem really sucks.

[deegz]

lanky, on 07 November 2009 - 07:05 PM, said:

ok, so i am a mechanic, so dont let this reflect on my work skills, but just recently druing thius hotter weather, my '01 ce lancer 1.8 5sp man (with factory speedo, tacho, water temp and fuel guage) have stopped working int, when it's cold (i.e am) they work, but as soon as the interior temp gets up, they drop out, ive talked to guys at mitsi, they say change the spark plugs cos the internal resistors break up with heat and that causes it, done that, no change. have pulled down the cluster totaly, checked for continuity from the single 10amp fuse next to the r/h kick pannel, across all the circurt board on the cluster, all ok, the indicators, back lights, warning light (exept fuel level warning) all still work, so the circurt board is getting a power supply and signal. im thinking that maybe the coils on the actual guages have burnt out.... if anyone has any idea's, please let me know, cos all ive got at the moment is speed matching on the road and my gps, but with all of melb's speed camera's, im not keen on trusting this for too long...

Another thing you can try is to "jump" the crack. see if you can bypass it with a small piece of wire, either solder it or if the crack is between 2 of the warning lights along the bottom of the circuit board, simply attach the wire under the bulb holders linking one warning bulb to another, completing the circuit.