430 Dashboard gauge lights not working

Everything else in the car works, and all interior lights… Only the gauge lights aren’t working. I’ll admit, I haven’t driven the car in the dark in over a year, so who knows how long it’s been broken.

I checked the two fuses in the frunk, they’re fine. I’m fearing it’s most likely the light panel itself in the dash. I found a replacement on eBay and ordered it just in case - it wasn’t expensive, and I figure these things are getting harder to find anyway…

So my two questions are:
1. Anyone else have an idea on what to check for?
2. Assuming it’s the light panel itself, anyone have good instructions on removing the dash cluster?

 

Awesome, cool tip about the ol’ reboot. I’ll be sure to try that first.

I didn’t see much obvious variation from the listing themselves for the different CL panels. I found one listing for a F430 panel that was $200, and then a listing for the 360 which was $120 with the exact same model number. So I suspect if there’s a different one for the 360CS, that hopefully that’s the exception and not what I bought… Although honestly, at this point, I’d just like to know what speed I’m doing at night… I really don’t care about the illumination besides the functional aspect of not getting myself into trouble. Lol

Do you buy any chance know how many screws I’m looking for? I see two for the pod, and then the clips. But for the cluster itself… I think there are two above once the pod is off, and I’m assuming I’ll find two on the bottom somewhere? Any others?

 

Update…

I replaced the panel with a new one, and still no light on the numbers. Could it be another bad panel? Sure. Likely? No. My guess is it’s more likely to be a bad connection somewhere else… and I’m in no mood to chase that down. I’m in florida, it’s beautiful this time of year, and this is not the time to be having “down time” in the car. So maybe I’ll tackle it in the summer months, or maybe I’ll send it out to someone then.

But seriously, a cautionary tale: our cars are getting OLD. Nothing plastic wants to play. The number of things I nearly broke is wild, and I’m verrrry careful.

Here were the steps:
1. Remove steering column cover. Mine only has 4 screws, but I think it should have 5. One of my slots has cracked off at some point. Again, old, brittle plastic.
2. Remove the two screws holding the dash pod. Mine were much more angled than you’d expect, not sure if that’s normal. But it made it finicky. Then once they’re out, the back of the pod just clips down, so pull up on the back “corners” and you’re good. The screws are 4MM
3. Once that pod is off, you can take off the four bolts holding on the cluster… Two on top, two tucked away underneath (this is the only reason you need to remove the column cover, otherwise it’s too hard to get to). The torque is dumb on them… you’d think use a longer Allen, but you can’t fit it… so I took tiny players on the end of the Allen for leverage, then did the rest by hand. Worked fine.
4. Then you can wiggle the dash cluster forward just enough to get to the harnesses in the back. There are 4. Two smaller black ones on the outside, two wider white ones on the inside. The black ones have tabs top and bottom that need to be pinched. Don’t worry, it took me 30 minutes of breaking my nails. And even though they’re super stuck in there, they’re somehow also crazy brittle! Yay! Fun!
5. Once unplugged, remove the cluster.
6. Place the cluster on a soft surface on a table. Now remember, the edge of your cluster is “sticky plastic” material, so if it’s not messy yet, it will be! Weee! Then with the back facing up, unscrew the dozen or so screws. Two requires an oddly long and small Philips head. What a pain it was to fashion something to get to them. But the rest were easy.
7. Next pull the actual cluster out. Here’s where it gets even dumber! You have to very careful pull the needles off the pins on the gauges. I saw videos doing this, but naturally, our cars are that much older now… So they did not want to play. Some came off fine, others felt like they’re going to break, and two the enter needle plastic came up, making it a game of “hope I put this back together right” later! Neat!
8. Next carefully remove the dial papers. If you’re lucky like me, they’re sticky as balls and glued to the light panel underneath… which requires finding a credit card or something thin to carefully peel the gauge labels apart from the light panel without ruining them. If you’re thinking of replacing or customizing those dial designs, now’s the time to do it… because it’s a miracle I didn’t mess mine up, so YOU might.
9. Peel up the light panel. Mine was sticky. Literally everything was sticky… clearly old + florida heat + spider = meltymelty.
10. Unplug the panel, plug the new one in.

Reverse all the steps.

So that all said. So many of these plastic bits are brittle and ready to crack and break at any time.

Luckily, I survived. But honestly, if I have to go back in and do it again, I’m expecting something breaking… seriously, that fragile.

I am adding this issue to the list of “it’s old, and I don’t care enough.” It’s not worth the potential damage, IMO.

If I need my gauges lit more at night, which I rarely drive at night, I have a small light I’ve added to my cluster just by the steering column. DONE. And I also keep a GPS speedometer under my dash. Why? Because I don’t trust old Italian dash gauges… That secondary speedo lights up fine at night, and really, that’s the only gauge I care about at night. I know my tach, I know my other dials. I just need to know speed.