Car electrics. Anyone here any good?!

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Cozzer said:
Anybody tell me what the letters/numbers represent, please?
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Don't worry about them, it tells you where it comes from and that is the Red/Black comes from the tail light relay. You won't fix the problem unless you approach it logically and work through the system so as you can narrow the fault down. If you have power on B7 then the tail light relay is functioning so you can discard it as being a problem otherwise you work back towards the battery and the control. Your dash lights are Red/Black but the tail lights and side lights etc are all Red / Yellow but still supplied from the tail light relay, so if you turn the side lights on and the side lights come on then this tells you that tail light relay is working and that B7 on the cluster connector should be live, check it to verify. If it is dead then you have a wiring issue other wise the power is reaching the cluster so check it is getting to the bulb, this can narrow the fault down so that you find the exact point. That wire to the MUX unit is live until the side light switch is operated at which point it falls close to zero to signal that the side lights are on to the unit.
 
Spectric said:
This is the actual cluster and the five bulbs, Red/Black on B7 is from the tail light relay, the actual function is provided by a mosfet to ground. The brightness control works via the gauge assembly cpu to switch this mosfet. On mine when it reaches max or min brightness levels it beeps.


View attachment 141943
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Rather ominously, the brightness control is effected via the cpu.
 
@Cozzer you say you have no dash dimmer, are you sure? On mine it is the trip button next to the fuel/ temp gauge, push and hold for trip, push changes from total milage to trip and rotate gives dash dimming.
 
Spectric said:
@Cozzer you say you have no dash dimmer, are you sure? On mine it is the trip button next to the fuel/ temp gauge, push and hold for trip, push changes from total milage to trip and rotate gives dash dimming.
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Positive.
Gives overall mileage, then choice of two separate journey distances.
Different to your posh 2006 beast!
Incidentally, your post #17 - showing the blue/green plug pin-outs - mine are different. Methinks 40 pin.
Just off out to buy a new test lamp - current (!) one boasts a screwdriver tip, not a spike.
 
The mark 2 CRV's upto 2006 were the better models, 2007 to 2016 were not as good and now you can have a 1.5 turbo which will not do 200,000 before recycling itself.

As for your dash lights at least they are just simple supply and ground, no electronic dimmer or bar graph display to complicate things.

Now because it is more basic, trace the wires from the bulb holders to the connector and then check the mating pins for live and continuity to ground, Red/Black should not change and grounds are Black. You should be able to follow the circuit through all five bulbs.
 
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Spectric said:
The mark 2 CRV's upto 2006 were the better models, 2007 to 2016 were not as good and now you can have a 1.5 turbo which will not do 200,000 before recycling itself.

As for your dash lights at least they are just simple supply and ground, no electronic dimmer or bar graph display to complicate things.

Now because it is more basic, trace the wires from the bulb holders to the connector and then check the mating pins for live and continuity to ground, Red/Black should not change and grounds are Black. You should be able to follow the circuit through all five bulbs.
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Tell you what.....I'm getting a dab hand at getting the panels and steering wheel cowl off!
 
Spectric said:
@Cozzer you say you have no dash dimmer, are you sure? On mine it is the trip button next to the fuel/ temp gauge, push and hold for trip, push changes from total milage to trip and rotate gives dash dimming.
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,


about 50 seconds in..... gives a good view of my dash design.
Single push button, next to fuel on right.
(The only difference is laddo's steering wheel centre is red, whereas mine's black. Wonder why?)
Quite refreshing to find a right-hand-drive, same year, non-automatic, non-Yank video!
I found this gent a few weeks ago, as he had the same problem as me - the rear door actuator had failed, closed. His video on how to replace/solve was spot on, bless 'im!

I just wish that my lightbulb change had gone as smooth as his!
 
Gerry said:
Does any of the other interior lights work when the sidelights are on? Glove box, radio, ignition key illumination etc.

Gerry
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Don't think there is one in the glove box, Gerry! It's not that up-market!
 
Re my "40-pin" connector.
Absolute rubbish! Ignore me! It's actually like this -

blue_connect.JPG


Didn't have any joy with my new (ahem!) circuit tester thingy...and got disturbed again, having to replace everything to drive my beloved to her doc's appointment.
Back now, but losing heart and will to live!
 
Have you traced the wires(tracks) from the bulb holders to the connector, once you establish these connections you can just apply 12 volts with the dash on the bench and see if they light up. Electrical trouble shooting is just a process of systematic eliminationuntil the fault is pin pointed.
 
Spectric said:
Have you traced the wires(tracks) from the bulb holders to the connector, once you establish these connections you can just apply 12 volts with the dash on the bench and see if they light up. Electrical trouble shooting is just a process of systematic eliminationuntil the fault is pin pointed.
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OK... a bit of progress.
Cluster on kitchen table.
The 4 dials in question have had the bulbs and holders removed, revealing the "top" and "bottom" solder points.
Multimeter at the ready, one lead touching the "top" and then seeing which pin it connects to. Then repeat process, moving the lead to the other side of the bulb holder socket, and again noting which pin shows continuity.
Pins B6, B15 and B16 are the three regulars across all 4 dials....

Not sure where to go now!
 
Cozzer said:
OK... a bit of progress.
Cluster on kitchen table.
The 4 dials in question have had the bulbs and holders removed, revealing the "top" and "bottom" solder points.
Multimeter at the ready, one lead touching the "top" and then seeing which pin it connects to. Then repeat process, moving the lead to the other side of the bulb holder socket, and again noting which pin shows continuity.
Pins B6, B15 and B16 are the three regulars across all 4 dials....

Not sure where to go now!
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If, from the cct diagram earlier, you know the + and - feeds, you should be able to trace (continuity on the bench, or 12v in the car) from feed to return to and from each bulb? I think you're nearly there, just apply that logic? Check to the 'solder blob' on the lamp holder, not just the track.
 
Just a thought, but if all else fails, have you considered trying to find the part at a breaker's yard, or auto dismantlers as they seem to be called these days?
 
Can you see the copper tracks on the back of the gauge cluster? If so could you post a decent photo of it so we can visually trace the circuit. After that we should be able to power the lights at the connection block with a 12v battery then if they light up then test the other side of the connector for 12v.

Gerry
 
John Brown said:
Just a thought, but if all else fails, have you considered trying to find the part at a breaker's yard, or auto dismantlers as they seem to be called these days?
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Swapping the cluster may mean a trip to the dealers to code it to the car, that's if they will do it (being a used part). And if the immobilizer is in the cluster - the car won't start until the cluster is paired to the ecu.
 
Dibs-h said:
Swapping the cluster may mean a trip to the dealers to code it to the car, that's if they will do it (being a used part). And if the immobilizer is in the cluster - the car won't start until the cluster is paired to the ecu.
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To old, this was when vehicle electronic's had not become all encompassing. The cluster is pretty basic, old school with multiple wires and not a CAN bus which would then be a nightmare and expensive to resolve. I purchased a 2006 mark 2 CRV even though I could have got a much newer one for the same price because it uses basic wiring and not multiple modules that control everything. Old school is you operate a switch and an item receives power and works, newer technology is you operate a switch then some module decides if it is ok for that item to receive power and then may turn it on for you. All ok until a module gets a blip in the software like my last Peugeot where the body interface module decided to do it's own thing, you would even lose hazzard lights and brake lights as well as indicators which is a real safety concern, then you could not turn the engine off or operate the electric windows. This was a new module, download the vehicle configuration file then recode the keys all an expense, well no more with my Honda:)
 
Spectric said:
To old, this was when vehicle electronic's had not become all encompassing. The cluster is pretty basic, old school with multiple wires and not a CAN bus which would then be a nightmare and expensive to resolve. I purchased a 2006 mark 2 CRV even though I could have got a much newer one for the same price because it uses basic wiring and not multiple modules that control everything. Old school is you operate a switch and an item receives power and works, newer technology is you operate a switch then some module decides if it is ok for that item to receive power and then may turn it on for you. All ok until a module gets a blip in the software like my last Peugeot where the body interface module decided to do it's own thing, you would even lose hazzard lights and brake lights as well as indicators which is a real safety concern, then you could not turn the engine off or operate the electric windows. This was a new module, download the vehicle configuration file then recode the keys all an expense, well no more with my Honda:)
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That was my thought. Could be wrong, though. My 2003 Merc had a lot of electronics.
 
So much of this added complication really does not benefit the customer, all they want is for the car to do what they ask of it and reliably. A lot of this has been to reduce the weight of copper used but over complexity can be detrimental to the economic repair of a vehicle, you only have to look in a local recycling centre and a lot of vehicles look very roadworthy but were deemed beyond economic repair. So what is more enviromentally freindly, a very clean car that last only ten years or one that is slightly more dirty but last for twenty years?
 

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