A couple of weeks ago my overhead console died. I did some searching and found the 'Fix' here on the forums. Yesterday I took everything apart and found 3 of the 7 resistors had broken loose. A quick trip to Radio Shack and I had the parts I needed. Man, it was HARD to fix that little printed circuit board. You have very little room to work and with my old tired eyes I needed a pair of 2x reading glasses in order to see CLEARLY what I was soldering. When you solder you had best better know what you are doing or you will goof up. But, I decided I had nothing to loose as my display didn't work anyway so I fired up the soldering iron and got to work. After a VERY frustrating hour or so I had the new resistors soldered in the proper place and was ready to test my handy work. I pluged everything up and turned on the key..........the display lit up and works just GREAT!!!

A BIG Thank You to everyone who shares what they know here in the forums!!

 

Feels good to fix stuff like that doesn't it?

Good job!

 

How do you get the cover of the overhead console off? Mine is a 2002

 

PK, just pull down on the console and it snaps right off.
Like the new avitar Scott.

 

Thanks. Going to go and see them this Friday night in Kansas City.

 

Great work Red Monk - Congrats - Did you use a reg. soldering gun or one of those new type guns that dont heat until you touch them to something ?

 

To get the console cover off: 1. Pull down on the windsheld side, it will pop loose then, 2. Use a screw driver to push 'IN' on the two locking tabs located in the storage compartment on the left and right side, then pull down. It should be free. The consol guage packet pulls down from the windsheld side, then unplug it and it swings toward the rear to release the tab holding it up.

I used a 15 watt soldering iron from Radio Shack. I read here that a regular soldering 'gun' gets too HOT and will cook the circuit board. One of the new 'push to heat' types may have worked better but I'm an old fart and like to use proven technology. Plus the iron was cheap as was the fix, less than $25 bucks for everything and I have resistors left over.

 

There is also a good write up with pics just search for it if you need pictorials.

 

Thanks for the info - I'm an old fart too but I love to buy new tools when theyre not too expensive.

 

Thanks for the help. I got the cover off and I had 3 loose resistors. I soldered them back in and it works great. It is great to have found a place to get help. Thanks again

 

Mine still works but the lights are really dim. Can only see them at night. Would this fix help or is it something else?

 

There is a wire that you must remove from the harness at the console. This will disconnect the console from the adjustable dash lights and make the console bright all the time. I did this when I had my console apart to fix the resistor and wish I would of done it earlier.

I dont remember which wire, someone else will have to chime in and tell us.

 

Thats what mine was doing before it died, then occasonally you could give it a wack and it would work again. That probally didn't help the resistors though.

 

Here is the link to what I did to solve your problem....

Brighten Display

 

MSF350:

Mine, too, was dim during the daytime, and could only be seen at night. I already have the mod to go full-bright at night with a switch (see my gallery), and I had to leave it in "daytime" mode to see it at all.

The problem was the same: The surface-mount resistors on the circuit board were coming unsoldered. It wasn't completely dead yet, but most of the way there.

By the way, to remove the circuit board from the small black plastic cover (once you take it down), remove one additional torx sheet metal screw that's on the back side. You may have to dig a bit of the black foam sheet away to get to it, but there's a hole as a guide. The resistors (I think there are seven of them) are all on the board on the top side (above) the display. Be careful not to bend the display leads very far at all!

If you are not familiar with surface-mount devices, I HIGHLY recommend you take the board to either a TV repair shop (are there any of these any more?) or find your town's favorite "ham operator". They'll be much more equipped to handle this kind of teeny-tiny solder job.

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