boost/oil/volts unit not lighting up

From CEM to VEM, from LED to lightbulb and more. If you have an electrical problem, like a broken info-centre, search for answers in this category. This is also the place to be when you expect the problem to be of an electrical nature...

Moderators: jifflemon, coyote1980, Rachel

Post Reply
sevenpiglets
480 Newbie
Posts: 2
Joined: Mon Feb 23, 2015 2:50 pm

boost/oil/volts unit not lighting up

Post by sevenpiglets » Sat Mar 14, 2015 9:47 pm

Hi,

I was wondering if anyone could help me with the following problem... one of the original bulbs in my boost/oil/volts panel went, so I replaced it with an LED and was very happy with the result. I decided to replace the other two. Now I can't get any of the bulbs to light up. I had noticed that sometimes the LEDs needed tweaking to make sure that there was a connection with the PCB, but just to be safe I went back to all the original bulbs (i.e. no LEDs) and still nothing. I thought maybe I should pull out the unit and open up the back to see what state the electrics are in, but haven't been able to source a small enough spanner yet. Is it just a case of loosening the nut at the back of the unit that's holding the black wire in? And where does that wire go, for that matter...? Don't want to loosen the nut and find I've made things worse...

Many thanks in advance,

Stevie

sevenpiglets
480 Newbie
Posts: 2
Joined: Mon Feb 23, 2015 2:50 pm

Re: boost/oil/volts unit not lighting up

Post by sevenpiglets » Sat Mar 14, 2015 11:04 pm

Slight update: I realised that I could dismantle the unit in situ, so no need to remove the turbo cable. All looked fine inside, if a little gunky round some of the solder. With the front off, I connected a 9V battery to the nearest gauge, and sure enough all the bulbs lit up, so the problem isn't the connection of the bulbs - I'm assuming it must be that something's come loose in the connector (incidentally, I had to wiggle the unit around to get the middle bulb to stay on, back when things were 'working'). Wiggling the connector makes no difference now though. If it's of any relevance, my connector only has four wires going into it, but it has six holes and plugs into six pins. However, all three lights were working fine until recently, so assuming this probably doesn't have anything to do with it. Thinking that as a last resort, I could always run power to one of the bulbs from something that comes on with the engine (like the radio), but this is a bit of a messy fix and would rather work out what's actually gone wrong in the first place.

Post Reply