DaveCarrera4

Two part thread. 1) Took out cluster in my '02, put it back in, nothing lights up - no gauges - nothing. 2) Cluster appears to be for a Cabriolet, but I have a coupe!
So...as many of you know, I've designed electric rams for the 996 and 997 turbos. I never had the little red warning light at the right for a spoiler failure. So I thought I had a burnt lamp, and ordered one up from Pelican.
1) Pulled the cluster out. Did not need the new lamp (see 2 below). Put everything back together, turned the key, no lights, no gauges, no nothing. The instructions I pulled from the web said nothing about disconnecting the battery. So I didn't. Checked fuses - all ok. Pulled off all connections, reseated - nothing. Disconnected the battery for a minute, tried again - nothing. Any Suggestions???
2) We have installed a few electric ram kits, and one beta tester had a red light on after an error, would not go off until shutting off the car. I never had this light through all my testing and cluster errors. Thought the bulb must be burnt. When I removed the cluster, to my surprise the row of lights along the bottom have two cabriolet warning lights. No spoiler error lights as shown in the manual picture; item N. Could this cluster have been replaced by a prior owner? Could it be a Boxster cluster??? The vintage of the cluster matches the age of the car. But, there were no turbo Cabs in '02. If so, this is a huge disappointment. I believe I have all the records for the car - have to go back and see if there was ever a cluster issue. Could Porsche have run short on clusters the day my car was coming down the line, so Uwe ran over to the the Boxster parts bin for a cluster!!?? What a cluster today has been...

DaveCarrera4

Progress on #1 above. Got most of the cluster to power up by unhooking battery, waiting 30 min., then hooking up the cluster, then hooking up the battery. Now the gauges, turn indicators, bright light indicator not working. Central warning cycling through all fill levels with errors. Think I found that the blue connector may be the problem... found here: http://www.renntech.org/forums/topic...nt#entry262178

Atrox

Here's my cluster it's an 02

Maybe help for reference

DaveCarrera4

thanks Atrox, like the manual's diagram in my pic above. Your airbag light purposely out?

Atrox

It comes on then goes off about 2 seconds later.

Macster

Planning on removing my Boxster's instrument cluster soon to address a noise. I found some official looking cluster removal instructions online and printed them out.

First step:

1. Disconnect the battery and cover the terminal or battery.

I think you dodged a bullet. A very expensive bullet. A new replacement cluster for my Boxster runs over $2,000. God only knows what a new 996 Turbo cluster would cost.

coryf

Mine has the spots for the extra lights on the far right as well. They do not function but are in the cluster just like yours. You can see them if you shine a flashlight at them. You can see yours so clearly because it is removed. I have seen this before on other cars. I'm guessing it is original and you may just have a cluster connection problem or low battery voltage issue. Hope this helps.

DaveCarrera4

Thanks for the note Cory - why the heck would I have Cabrio warning lights and no spoiler warning light??? The car option list shows optional aluminum gauge faces - which is what I have. I will try monkeying with the connectors again this evening. First I'll unhook the battery Mac - was stupid not to do that! Hope it works.

rmc1148

Yes should have spoiler light
?

Carlo_Carrera

I have removed my gauge cluster without disconnecting the battery and have had no issues so you will probably be okay in the end. Just go through the correct removal process again.

As for not having a spoiler warning light that is probably an OEM thing. Porsche is long known for sticking whatever part is available on a car to finish off a build.

DaveCarrera4

After closer inspection tonight, the plug in connectors were not seated all the way down. Now they are and all is fine. Another lesson learned.

Now to figure out what's going on with the warning light cluster. Was it changed out? There was mention of instrument cluster work in some obscure code on a work order from a Porsche dealer near San Jose CA early in the car's life. I wrote them asking for the cars service records...so far no response.

Ridin Dirty

Sorry off-topic question but since we are talking about clusters I have recently sent my cluster out to get yellow face gauges installed, it will take 2 weeks turnaround time... is it conceivable that the car could be driven without the cluster installed at all?
I should've thought of this before I sent the cluster out today but since the car will be down for two weeks it would be a really good time to get some stuff done at my local indy but is it safe to drive it a few miles to the shop? It just seems wasteful to leave it sitting there for a couple of weeks

rmc1148

I would doubt it would run and also would believe there would be a lot of codes if it did.

Ridin Dirty

Actually It runs and drives. Indy said it won't hurt anything. This is surprising

rmc1148

Interesting what will stop these cars from running and what wont. If you have something unplugged it usually will cause a code and other problems. I'm sure/hope your shop knows what their doing.