Woe is my infocentre

[Captain Slow]

So, halfway through a 300odd mile journey last week my infocentre went blank after working fine up till then. The back light for it was still on, all other guages were working.

Fuses are all fine, everything else is working.
I've tried two spare instrument clusters-infocentre dead on all
I've tried the earth on the alternator-I think-its circled here right:




There are two spade type connectors there, only the top one is connected-theres nothing obvious to connect to the bottom one.

Ive also tried fiddling with the wires behind the radio as i read some old threads suggesting that may help.


The infocentre remains dead-its not even been scrambled
What have I missed? what else is there to try?

[Captain Slow]

Where are the other earth connections?

[Captain Slow]

Tried changing a (supposedly) known working infocentre display unit into my dashboard and still no joy.

Incidentally the infocentre backlight doesnt always seem to illuminate straight away as the key is turned in the ignition...

[glasgowjim]

Hi Capt busy just now but will check my 95 celeb for you and compare connections.

[Captain Slow]

Thanks Jim!


Is anyone familiar with a wire behind the radio affecting the infocentre? Its mentioned in a few really old posts but details are sketchy...

[Captain Slow]

Jim, did you get a chance to look at the alternator earth connetcions?


From an old post I found this:

earth points on engine are negative battery starp
thin wire from distributor cap screw to ignition coil mounting
one attached to right hand lifting lug at top of engine.
rear offside earthing point in corner at back below the rear cluster in a semi boxed section.
Couple ? of earths under dash at drivers side up in corner.

have fun

Have tried cleaning all of them except the ones undre the dash-didnt know they were there when I had the dash out yesterday but will have a look soon as I plan to try changing the smaller of the instrument cluster PCB's to see if that helps.


Note-In case anyone looks at this in the future with similar problems, here's a few links:
http://www.volvo-480-europe.org/forum/v ... rth#p21351
http://www.volvo-480-europe.org/forum/v ... th#p165866
http://www.volvo-480-europe.org/forum/v ... 24&t=13724

[Captain Slow]

Spotted a apparently burnt through wire:



as seen from drivers footwell, connected to one of the relays on the triangular relay box accesible from the engine bay. I think its the relay at the 'pointy end' of the triangle...

Thing is, everthing's working apart from the infocentre and from the relay box diagram I cannot see how any of the relays could affect only the infocentre
The only possible one is ''Fusebox relay contact 75 '' but stil....


Also tried leaving the positive battery terminal off for half an hour, and renewing all the fuses, just on the off chance as I'm running out of ideas..

[glasgowjim]

Esta's diary thread mentions a fried relay and wires.

your thread title reminds me of a carry on quote....

infamy , infamy they have all got it infamy

[Captain Slow]

Sorted the infocentre-I was a bit of a fool and missed one of the earths-the one on the alternator with the brown/blue wire was broken. Its here:



Also, I'm pretty sure i know what that burnt through wire is-I think it is for the dash indication that drl's/sidelights are on which has never worked for me!

[Ulrika480]

I have a different problem which has probably been covered before if someone can help?:-

1. Mine was working ok but a bit dim.
2. Replaced a load of dash bulbs in one go - the halogen one looked to have burnt out.
3. Put it back together and got the bulb a few weeks later
4. Fitted the new bulb.
5. Now can hardly see anything - can just about see the fuel bar graph if I stop and squint in the right sun-light!

Don't want to take the dash apart again unless I can solve it in one go. Is there Anything obvious I can do apart from finding another dash module - its just the illumination that is the problem?

Thanks

Rob

[Captain Slow]

Did you replace the 'backlight' bulbs? these are the ones which you can twist into position on the back of the cluster.