Today I replaced 2 1.5 v bulbs in my 1997 instrument cluster but now I have no illumination lights in the cluster at all. All the gauges and clock work, the strip lights work normally on start up and nothing seems out of line. I am going to stop by the dealer tomorrow and get a couple of genuine MB bulbs vs the ebay ones I installed today and give them a try. If that doesn't fix it I wonder if I have lost a ground but why would all the gauges and strip lights work ..I think there is only 1 way to put in the bulbs..ie 1/3 twist counter clockwise which is how the old ones came out ...anyway I may be looking for some advice, sheesz I was pretty happy with how easy it was..
Did you turn the instrument lighting knob on the instrument face.You should have 2 of them one is for the trip meter or odometer and for changing brightness of the dash lighting. And the other one is for the time clock So the one for trip,this zeroes the distance you have traveled also adjusts the brightness .You may have catched it so its in the off possition or its worn out and it wont bring the instrument lights back on you can remove it and it can be repaired ,i have operated on a few of them .They fall to bits inside ,and an easy fix ,but a bit funny to get back together ,but you can do it.The adjustment switch is called a pentiometer .See picture.
Dale you do have the two adjustable knobs on the speedo , but your car is newer than mine .But one is for moveing the brightness up or down this is the one to play with , turn it clockwise or viseversa.Let us know how things go .
Dale go to Google Search and in the search box put in just this --- MB SL500 NO DASH LIGHTS. You will see the first one own ,read it .He had the same problem as you do. But try the switch on the speedo first ,it might just be you have catched it doing the bulbs..
Hey thanks, tried the pentiometer( great tip as I forgot that is how it worked) and it dims the odometer and radio control lights and climate bulbs so it seems to be ok. Looking for that video you suggested, haven't found it yet, in case I can't what did he find ? Later this am I going over to the dealer and get a couple new bulbs to replace the ones I did earlier and check the seating, just retracing steps right now..must be something simple, interestingly I have 2 single wires with red led's running into the cluster on the same line as the warning light strip( in addition to the regular 2 harness clips) , the MB videos on cluster removal only refer to the 2 main harness clips, I am suspicious I may have disturbed one of these 2 wires , anyone know what they are ?
You may have to uninstall and reinstall the 2 electrical connectors to your gauges a few times before they go back on right again. I upgraded all of my bulbs to LEDs a while back and then for the life of me couldnt get those damn gauges to work right or light properly again for what seemed like an eternity. Finally, one of the times I reattached the connectors again, everything just started all working just right again for no apparent reason. Irritated the hell out of me for 24 hours.
You're right it is a pain in the ass, the dealer ordered the new bulbs, here Thursday, I am getting paranoid about touching the damn thing til I get the new bulbs, this is going to be one of those I have no idea what happened when it decides to work moments..cheers
Just an update, got new bulbs from the dealer and now it works. The part that stumped me was that the left side of the cluster was obviously burnt out but after I changed that bulb and plugged it in the whole cluster was dark however the instruments worked fine. In the end I replaced all 4 -2v bulbs and it works fine, I can only guess that I arced something somewhere to kill what were the good bulbs. Glad to be away from this thing with its biodegradeable plastic and swivel clip system on the connectors, I kept waiting for a complete break of something when hooking it up and going into cluster hell..
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