Simon928

I installed one of those LED wedge kits in my instrument cluster today. I believe my kit is functionally the same as the ones Jager makes, but I got my kit on ebay from Thailand. Anyhoo, I got all of the LED wedges attached, plugged the instrument cluster in, rested it on my steering column, turned on the car, and I have no illumination of the cluster and no lights on the gear selector either. I know that both of those things are on the same circuit, but the fuse appears to be fine. I even unplugged the LEDs and put the old bulbs back in just for giggles, but that doesn't change anything. Does anyone have any ideas as to what could be causing the problem? I fully admit that I am useless with electrical stuff, so if I'm missing something obvious please be gentle.

Thanks in advance!

Dadddio

Did you reconnect your battery?

Tom. M

I think you need to plug in the light switch (turn to park lights) and also connect the dimmer (on pod)..or connect dimmer wires together ..

Simon928

The battery is on and I plugged all of the switches back in and the lights are turned on, but I didn't try connecting the dimmer wires together. I'll give that a try. Thanks!

The_Remora

I had the same issue after led install, turned out to be dimmer connection, bypassed dimmer, wnd of problem.

Simon928

Connecting together all of the wires on the dimmer worked! Thanks guys.

But as always happens when I tackle something with my 928, I'm experiencing another problem...on my initial "ignition on" test, two of the wedges worked and one of them didn't. I figured that maybe it had something to do with the "bulb caps" that twist into the back of the cluster, so I swapped one of one of the ones that was connected to a working LED wedge with the one that wasn't. Now neither of them are working. I've switched the way the LEDs are plugged into the bases, and I've even swapped them back into their original positions (where two of the wedges were working), but all to no avail. Only the one wedge is working now.

Thinking that maybe the problem was the actual bulb caps, I went and got a spare cluster and tried screwing those caps in, but it yielded the same result--one working wedge, two doing nothing. I brought the cluster inside and tried cleaning the relevant bulb connections on the circuit board thingy with a pencil eraser, but I won't have the opportunity to test the results until tomorrow. Are there any other things that you can think of that could be causing this problem?

finally!

FYI.. LED's are polarity sensitive, if dont work remove and twist 180 degrees and reinsert

Simon928

Yeah, I tried that a few times, with different bulb bases as well, but with no effect. Do you know of another contact point for the bulbs aside from the circuit board-paper thing that might need attention?

joehelendetroit

Sounds like the cluster is not installed yet. I would check to see if all of the LED's were good to begin with? You can use a 9v battery to test individually.

If all individually good, follow the trace on the printed circuit board and apply the 9v to the point where the connectors clip onto the printed circuit and see if they all light up.

catamount

+1

Simon928

Got it working! Just in case anyone else ever has a similar issue, I ended up isolating the problem to the connection where the LED wires slide into the bulb bases. For some reason the connection inside the bulb bases wasn't being made. I soldered the ends of the wires so that they were a little more robust and that seemed to allow enough contact to be made. Now I'll be able to actually see my instrument cluster in the dark. Thanks for your help everyone!

Tony

its a wonderful upgrade but i tellya ...it can be an exercise in patience! Its more than just swapping bulbs!


polarity...

bulbs that just dont quite fit right

broken connectors...

pulling stubborn tach needles

broken "tabs"

polishing the clear face...

pulling a pod..findng other stuff to fix while your in there...


Well worth it though...LOVE IT!

Im going to do my door handles next...i love the way Ford did it on our '13 Explorer

Simon928

Tell me about it...once I pulled the pod I replaced all of the warning lights, upgraded the instrument cluster illumination to LED, swapped my original MPH speedo with one that shows km/h, replaced the odometer gear, swapped my turn signal/wiper switch cluster, got a nice Rob Budd horn pad cover, and if I have time over the weekend I'm going to start soldering resistors on my **** switches in prep for LED installation (they should be arriving in the mail any day now). It all started with me wanting to swap the speedo with a spare one I already had, and I figured "this won't even cost me anything". But needless to say, the WYAIT bug bit me hard and my bank account is now a little lighter.

You're right though, it is well worth it! I love puttering away on my car, especially while it's friggin' cold outside. This is a way for me to get my 928 fix during the winter when I can't take it out for a spin. It also has the added benefit of allowing me to take my time and get things all sorted out over the winter so that I can (hopefully) just enjoy driving it in a couple of months when the weather is nice. I hate having the car garaged and on stands when the weather is awesome outside!

Next winter is going to be my first TB/WP job, so that's going to be nuts. I'm looking forward to it in a morbid sort of way though.