1997 c230 cluster malfunction

[Avarec]

hey guys, my cluster cuts out and wont work, and once in blue moon it works

i checked all the fuses

any help

[RichardM98]

You'll need 'cluster hooks' to pull the cluster which are available from the parts dept of this site. About $35 for the MB ones. Pull off each connector and spray the inside of both the male and female portions with electronic contact cleaner and reseat them. Only problem might be if you don't have a tilting/telescopic steering wheel. Then you may need to remove the steering wheel, air bag, etc. which is potentially a lot more work.

[Avarec]

allready got it out

spray it with the electric cleaner, let it dry and how would i reset it, remove the battery for a while?

[RichardM98]

FYI - Whatever you do don't turn the key while the cluster is out and the battery is disconnected.

Glad to see you got it out easily. Perhaps you are confusing 'reseat' with reset? By reseat I mean putting the connector back in place. Actually I usually do it twice for good measure.

As a general rule it is a good idea to disconnect the battery when working on anything electrical on the car. Everyone knows you can get away with it sometimes but it only takes one slip of a tool to fry something. Of course, if you disconnect the battery on some years/models you'll usually have to reset some of the features and input the radio code.

[Avarec]

ugh, too late, i been driving the thing w the cluster out

[RichardM98]

Generally, that means that the ECU has lost the cluster coding. It may be necessary to go to a dealer or someone with an SDS to recode it.