Ok, so I was driving down the road and I heard this sound that sounded like a horn going off in the distance. I came to a stop at my destination, and the sound continued, so I rolled down my window, but could not hear anything. I noticed that everything on my cluster except for the speedometer and the trip guage stopped working, and the soudn was coming from the cluster. (very faint whining)

When i stopped the car and took the key out, then turned to KOEO, the buzzer would not stop ringing, and the only lights that came on were the battery light, ABS, and Check engine. With the engine on, the buzzer would stay on unless the door was shut, and like i said, nothing worked (except the speedo, but i was idling).

I changed the dash bulbs a couple weeks ago, but I have done it before and was pretty careful.

Can anyone think of a reason for this to happen? I checked most of the connections in the back and they all seemed to be fine. But I can no longer see how much gas I have or the engine temp, and I am going to drive 200 miles out of town on Friday, so this could be a problem.

Any help would be appreciated, thanks!

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I love my cars to death but my wallet sure doesn't.

first I'd check the various fuses in the fusebox. there are 2-3 for instruments. You may also have a ground problem. I had that happen a while back (oil pressure and tach stopped working) and I got them to work again by running a wire from a screw behind the tach to a ground point behind the cluster. But is real easy to make short circuits trying to find where to attach the McGyver ground wire (ask me how I know this).

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2005 Mercedes C230k sport sedan, 6 speed
1987 Porsche 924S - 968-engined track car

Wow I feel stupid.

At first I didn't think it was a fuse, because because i took a quick glance through the box, and the CD's said that the fuse that had the instrument cluster on it, also had the front dome light and stop lights on it. For some reason these both still worked, but the instrument cluster didnt.

Turns out the fuse had a hairline crack on it, not visible unless your within 6 inches. Maybe some current was jumping the gap to power the dome light/stop light.

Oh well,

Thanks for the quick response.

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I love my cars to death but my wallet sure doesn't.

I had the same exact thing happen. An obnoxious noise, almost as bad as the key in ignition or headlight on noise that occurs when you open the doors.

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headrivenoise... listen.