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Thread: CE Lancer Cluster Intermittent Fault

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    Question CE Lancer Cluster Intermittent Fault

    Hi all.
    We were wondering if anybody can help us with a cluster fault in our youngest daughters MR Lancer(1999). I've just spent most of the last weekend stuffing around with the multimeter and a Gregory's manual (helpful, but not really).
    The gauges in the cluster just stopped working all of a sudden. All the idiot lights are working, the car runs fine etc, but no gauges.
    Spent 3 or 4 hours Saturday buggerising around with no real gain. Now these gauges have been in and out more times than Peter North's old fella, so we gave up.
    Put cluster back in Sunday morning, everything worked fine, much to my annoyance. Left it alone, daughter picked car up Sunday arvo, gauges not working again. She went to work Monday morning, all fine again. Went to come home Monday arvo, no f***in' working gauges again.
    Now we've googled and dogpiled and anything else we can think of, but no satisfactory answers so far. Seems to a temperature thing, but why all of a sudden???
    Any info HUGELEY appreciated.



Look Here ->
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    Post up a copy of the wiring diagrams.

    Loose connector

    Bad earth will kill all too.

    Bad track (split/cracked) on the back of the cluster off the top of my head. Use a magnifying glass and a circuit tester to check for breaks also inspect all solder joints for breaks too.

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    might pay to pull the cluster apart and check for corrosion too.
    dont know how it happened (previous owner probably spilt his maccas coke or some shite in it) but i had a similar thing in my ef. screwed the digital odometer right up and tacho refused to work the speedo did weird things too then the whole lot started intermittently cutting out... similar to what you're describing.

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    Thanks ppl.
    I've tried to upload the scan. I've followed "sanity"s "How to post photos and files" how to to the letter, and f**ked if I can get it to work. Tried uploading the scan for 15 minutes, and the B thing still did nothing.
    Is it because we use Firefox and/or Opera????????? It can't be that hard, surely. Unless I'm a total dickhead. That's probably more likely.

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    Can you email it to me?

    Ill pm you my email addy and i could try posting it for you.

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    Got it. Don't follow the tute to the letter.

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    it can only be a connector problem or and earth, the connector may have a pin that is not making contact ??

    Tagg
    Last edited by tagg; 04-11-09 at 10:21 PM.

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    Did the ABS also stop?

    Im looking at the line for fuse #29.

    A voltage tester along that line and tracks on the cluster should show something.

    If all ok, go for the 3 earth lines that the gauges run down to.
    Last edited by Godzilla; 04-11-09 at 11:08 PM.

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    Thanks guys.
    I've given all the connectors a bit of a "tweak", because that was one of my first thoughts. I've also checked for bad earths (Holden problem) and all earth and positive supplies at the body connectors to the cluster.
    Got home at 6.30pm today after leaving for work at 5.20am, and guess what.
    Youngest daughters car in drive, wife's car gone!?.
    I guess the message goes something like, "Thanks Dad, but can you fix it "Properly" this time".
    I'm guessing a bad track (hairline crack) on the plastic "pcb" (?) is the problem.
    Tomorrow, I'll try again.

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    The best way is while its playing up to pull the cluster out slowly and start fiddling around with your hand in the back while the ignition is on.

    If you could get it out far enough to get a voltage tester to the back of it you would be laughing.

    Otherwise get it out and start with continuance testing of the pcb and follow fuse line 29 all the way back to ground.

    It could most likely be a hairline crack in the tracks, a dry solder joint or bad connection.

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    Maybe if you know someone at the wreaker you can borrow a dash and test it then return or just pay for it if it works ???

    Tagg

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    My gfs car (similar model like 2002 ce lancer i think) had the same problem. Toom it to Mitsubishi who said that the problem was there was a crack in the pcb. When it was hot the crack expanded making the gauges not work (speedo odometer etc) but dummy lights still worked. Sometimes everything works. strangeeeee. so my solution was to find the crack and re-solder across the cluster pcb to account for expansion of the crack... better than the 450$ quoted to fix it.

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    Thanks to Ratty, Godzilla, tagg, and kcsoft for your input.
    All fixed, and it turned out to be a hairline crack in one the tracks on the flexible pcb's that they put on the back of the clusters. Amazing what you can see when somethings magnified ten times.
    Also, as you guys already know, it's much more productive to remove ALL globes when checking for continuity.

    Thanks

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    Default I fixed my Lancer Instrument panel.

    The fault was easy to find.
    Same symptoms as above posts.
    When hot - after the car sat in the sun for a few hours I would lose:

    the speedometer, the odometer, the tachometer & the temperature gauge.

    I removed the instrument panel.
    Easy job - 6 screws - 2 minutes work.

    I am an electronics technician who repairs such devices for a living
    but have had almost nothing to do with cars except car radios.

    I found the +12V power input pin of one connector & the earth -
    which I traced out as well.
    I placed power onto these points via a current limited 12V supply set to 100mA limit via some lengths of wire wrap wire -using tiny solder joints
    at the top of the connecting areas.
    ( it's safer to do this in case you make a mistake - you won't sizzle the PCB.)

    The current drawn was 44mA.
    The only indication of being on was that the odometer read my completed kms.

    I then traced out all the earth tracks & power tracks using a volt meter
    & marked them with a spirit marker.
    All was o.k.
    I then put a hair dryer on the board & heated it up.
    Behold - the current on my meter went to 0 mA. !!!!!!

    I then traced out the power track to see where the voltage no longer read.
    I soon found an open circuit track.

    I looked at it under a microscope & found a hairline fracture
    which was on the side of the module & between 2 layers of the plastic PCB.

    I soldered a small section of wire wrap onto the PCB to bypass that piece of track.
    I glued it on for the entire length with 5 minute araldite.

    I tried the hair dryer again & the fault did not come back.
    I re-installed the panel & it now works perfectly.

    Conclusion.
    The Mitsubishi module is of poor quality.
    The plastic PCB doesn't even sit flat - it's all buckled & rippled.
    There is no proper mating connector.
    It may rely on the tension of a flexible PCB to make contact?
    It's no wonder that it causes trouble.


    I hope this helps others to fix their own.
    cheers
    Alpal

    P.S.
    I did have the use of a full electronics workshop & it would be hard
    to do this without that, & good fault finding skills.
    Last edited by alpal; 10-11-10 at 10:14 PM.

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    I had that once with lancer dash lights not working, lucky it was a large crack i saw easily , right next to the connector.

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    Quote Originally Posted by Tradesman View Post
    I had that once with lancer dash lights not working, lucky it was a large crack i saw easily , right next to the connector.
    You were lucky - the first time I took the panel out I didn't see the crack
    as it could only be seen with a binocular microscope.

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    Default CE Lancer dash cluster intermittent fault

    All lights working within the cluster, but no guages working (intermittently) particulaly when it gets warmer. I am also an electronics tech. Removal of the cluster was very easy (compared to many vehicles), and it seemed logical that it would be a cracked track on the flexitrack board, but to no avail. Batt + disappears into the speedo via the bottom right screw, and should exit somehow by the bottom left screw to all the other guages.

    To cut a long story short, I ended up supplying the left hand screw on the speedo (actually down the PCB track to a solder joint) with a switched positive ignition line. This solved the problem completely. I used the red wire supplying the stereo as this is the swithched ignition wire.

    I agree entirely with Alpal in his fault finding methods, but my fault was different again. I wish it was a cracked track !!!

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    Sorry to hijack, but I have a similar problem with my gf's CE lancer.
    It's just her speedo though, when stationary it's at 0, when moving it jumps up to 85km/hr and stays there, everything else works fine (temp, fuel, tacho)...i've checked every track on the back of the cluster for continuity and thats all good.
    I used a multi-meter on the plug that goes into the back of the cluster...put the positive on the "pulse" wire, and earthed on the chassis with the other. When stationary I was getting either 0.008V or 4.14V and when driving I was getting a constant 2.24V or similar. This would make sense in that 2.24V might equal 85km/hr...and that a lower voltage would read a lower km/hr speed...but I'm not 100% certain on this.

    If anyone near Ringwood (Victoria) has an OBD II scanner I could plug that in and read live speed diagnostics off the ECU...which would tell me if its the ECU-> Speed Sensor playing up, or the ECU->Cluster. We have already replaced the original speed sensor with one from the wreckers, but that hasn't done anything, so it could be a) another faulty speed sensor, or b) ECU problems? I should also mention we put another cluster in...and all the speedo did was stay at 0, didn't move at all no matter what speed we were going.

    Any other ideas/suggestions?

    Thanks!

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    Id say the speedo or speed sensor, dont think its a broken track or connection.

    Speedo could be sticking, speed sensor could be faulty and sending the wrong info.

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    Ok, so I've replaced the speed sensor twice now (thinking the first replacement might have been dodgy) but its still does the same thing. Also checked the spark plugs, apparently if they aren't the type with resistors it can cause problems with the speedo, but they are the correct type....I honestly have no idea what else it could be! Does anyone have any other ideas I could try?

    Thanks for the help so far.

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