ok , driving home last night, stopped for food... almost home, suddenly...
- strange buzzing sound coming from the dash
- all guages in the instrument cluster cease to function except for speedo, economy, and clock

additionally, a mysterious, but maddening presence of ants in the engine bay and along the door sills

my dad suspects a dead rodent somewhere, but wouldn't i have smelled that?

i'm sure it's not food that's attracting the ants, as i am obsessive about keeping my baby fresh and clean as a whistle.

mostly, i'm concerned about the instrument cluster.

any help or advice would be greatly appreciated.
thx,
camille

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1987 300E - champagne
http://img.photobucket.com/albums/v4...-tiny-w124.gif

Ck the fuse for the cluster, its blown or most likely cracked.

thank you so much, benzpud

originally, i'd checked the fuse box for clues and didn't notice anything. i checked it again just now, upon your advice... turns out i didn't look very hard the first time. sure enough fuse #5 was totally blown.
man i feel dumb.

now i just need to figure out the ant situation.

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1987 300E - champagne
http://img.photobucket.com/albums/v4...-tiny-w124.gif

Those ants are drawn to decaying fuses?!?!

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Steve
'87 300TD - 132K - Soon 4-Sale
'84 300D Turbo - 122K - Driving
'77 VW Type II - 77K - Restored
'08 250EX Ninja
English Bulldog (Brier) - My best friend. Passed away 12/02/04 while in my arms.

not sure...

in the past couple days, however, i've seen that most of them are hangin out in the engine bay near the radiator. could they possibly be attracted to the radiator fluid? i don't believe there's a radiator leak though...

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1987 300E - champagne
http://img.photobucket.com/albums/v4...-tiny-w124.gif

I could imagine they like glycol (I believe a major component of antifreeze) – it tastes sweet.
Bruno

BTW: Could be a very sensitive method to check for radiator leaks, why not start breeding and selling them?

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1992 300TE 160 kmiles