Thought I'd see if one of the many here may have had anything like what this car is doing.

I've got an S500 here, model year 2000, in which the instrument cluster lights and displays are acting oddly. The backlight for the speedometer is just plain gone, it never lights up. The time, temp and center multi-display blink on and off seemingly of their own will. It doesn't seem related to any outside influence, nor does it always affect all three displays at the same time. The backlights for the other gauges also blink on and off of their own accord, though not normally in conjunction with the others. They will also vary in brightness. The backlights for the instruments act in unison with one another. At times the entire cluster will go dark, though the instruments themselves keep functioning.

I know that some of the wiring behind the cluster has been molested in order to install an aftermarket stereo/DVD player that itself is a bit odd... The only way the screen will pop out and open is if the car is shifted into drive to allow the screen to clear the shifter... Poor choice of installation locations, but I'm not sure what, if any, affect this has on the cluster.

Any thoughts? Anyone have anything similar? Thanks.

MV

needs a new cluster

Gotta be honest, that's kinda what I figured. I was hoping to hear from someone who had experienced this and could say with somewhat more certainty than I. I was skeptical since the center display is somewhat of a seperate component, seperate that is once you've begun disassembling the cluster. I was also suspect that perhaps the interior lighting signal coming to the various components was "bad", not the nice modulated square wave it should be, but if that were the case, I think that all the lights would flicker or go out in unison.

Thanks for the input, if anyone else has any thoughts I'd love to hear them.

MV

BAVBMW,

Did you ever fix the problem? I have a 00 CL500 with the exact same issue except as of yesterday the guages and almost all interior lights (except dome lights) fail to function at all. I checked the fuses and f22/5a is bad. I replaced the fuse and it blew again. I am not sure if the two problems i am having are related... Also, I dont have any stereo mods and i am sure the cluster has not been removed...

Any ideas anyone? Should I just give and take it to the dealer?

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05 E55
03 E500

I bet one of those clusters are cheap (sarcasm). Would be interesting to know just how much these things are.

This was also a common problem on the early Lexus LS400s (1990 up to about 1994 (so far). They typically last about 10-15 years before they go. There have even been some reports on this happening on the 1995-96 models, which are a newer design, but not yet on the 97-00's - basically the same. Some of them also had "needle" light problems, as well as faulty gages.

The LS400 had this "state of the art" instrument cluster since its introduction in late 1989 (USA). I remember it was one of the raves back then.
My 85' Mercedes instrument cluster looks archaic compared to my old 90' LS400s instrument panel. But not as prone to trouble though- so that is a plus.

Its about a $1000. replacement on those cars, but I think they are actually repairable on those. Not sure of the 00' Mercedes unit is repairable or not.

Good luck.

Hi,

I am very new to this forum and this is my first post. I am reading this forum for several months and learning a lot of information which save me tons of money.
When I read this thread, I would like to save your guys hard earned money too.
Yes, These clusters can be repaired. There are a few guys repairing these with different range of prices from 200 to 350. Some of them even advertise in Ebay with 3-6 days turn around.
These cluster are using small fluorescent lights (one large at the center and two at the sides to light up display). There is a common ballast which serve all fluorescent. Due to overload to this ballast (design) the power supply transistors (MOSFET) failed and sometimes overheated. When overheated they came off from the soldering points which melted at the soldering points and shorted to printed board and caused to blow fuses. If the soldering points are not melted yet and all other functions will work.

Hello and welcome to the forums! I am sure that the owners of these cars will be very appreciative and glad to hear they are repairable. I was unsure.

It sounds like these are extremely similar to the Lexus clusters and it sounds like they go bad for the same reason. I have not yet heard of them going bad on a 1997 or newer LS400 yet, but I think I have heard one issue on a 96' LS400, but mostly on the generation 1 LS400 (90-94). They are repairable too as mentioned and around the same price and like you said- they advertise on E-bay for repairing these.

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2004 Toyota Sequoia Limited 4wd
1991 Lincoln Town Car Executive
1991 Cadillac Sedan DeVille
1988 Mercedes 300SEL
1972 Chevrolet Caprice Kingswood Estate 9-passenger wagon
1973 Pontiac Grand Ville
(Prior MB's: 1974 240D, 1985 380SE, 1984 190D, 1993 400SEL)

Update:

This electrical prob. has now escalated to the car not being able to shift out of park, also brake lights are not functioning. WTF! Instead of horsing around with trying to troubleshoot this myself (especially removing the instrument cluster) i elected to simply have it towed to the dealer. It seems very simple for the dealer to diagnose these problems so the idea of sending the cluster to some unknown to save maybe 50% not including my time seems kind of ridiculous. I am definitely going to throw a fit about some sort of "cost sharing plan" as the car is beyond warranty but i also believe that you have to "pay to play". I will write an update as soon as MBSF calls me back. Thanks!

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05 E55
03 E500

Yes, I agree.

By the way, these cars are too complictaed and the instrument clusters are running on two Controller Area Networks ( they called it CAN-A & B).
When pulling out the cluster, it must be very careful. You must use the special tools to pull. The most important thing to be careful is the plug behind. It is installed with spring lock. Shine with bright light to release lock. If pull hard it will break and become shorted the CAN BUS system and anything can be happened from there onwards.

So i just picked up the car a few hours ago. They completed the entire job in less than 24 hours plus they gave me a 06' E500 4matic (which was fun to spin around in the rain here in SF) as a loaner overnight. All in all they gave me a 15% break which put the bill at $1500. My car was freshly washed and vaccumed and it was definitely worth it. On another note i may just go back to my 124... ha!

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05 E55
03 E500