Quirky instrument panel

Have a 96 Cirrus 2.5L with an intermittent instrument panel problem. Sometimes, the tach stops reading (sits at zero) and mileage/trans position indicators go blank at the same time. Last night, I bounced over some railroad tracks and both started working at the same time. Maybe a loose electrical connector? Anybody know where I should start with this one?

there are two connectors behind the instrument panel...

That might be your problem.

I can tell you I that I have had exactly the same problem. You have some degraded solder points on your instrument cluster. If you can find them you can resolder them with a fine tip soldering iron. Look for three baby blue parallel resistors on the printed circuit card, left of center toward the bottom of the card. Check out the solder points on these resistors under 10x magnification and you will see they are parted. Also the green board will be kind of blackened in the area of these components. To tell you the truth my board worked again after six months or so, but recently the problem recurred. I have replaced that printed circuit card with another without the problem that I purchased from Hunts Point Auto Salvage in Bronx, New York. My tach and odo are working again. Someone on this forum originally but me onto this fix.

Slant6er, you were right on. One of the resistors was loose. I'm dumbfounded at how someone would be able to pinpoint the problem, including the blackened circuit board! Got out my fine soldering iron and now the tach and odo work as advertised. You should have seen the look on my wife's face when I walked in with the instrument cluster. Hey, I reserve the right to repair or really break things before calling in the pros. Chalk up one for the shade tree mechanic. Thanks for the help.

If you dont mind taking advise from a female I can tell you what I did. Mine was acting up like yours, I called around some junk yards and found a used one for $50. Its easy to put in, I did it myself, as your taking apart the existing one you will see how it goes in. To take off the main part of the dash theres just one nut/screw to take out near the fuses then it pulls right out and when you go to put it back you need to have the steering wheel in a lower position (I found out). Anyway good luck:2cents:

din't see that this was a old post sorry

i fixed mine & i found find out how to fix it on this site heres the links

http://www.automotiveforums.com/vbulletin/showthread.php?t=133083

http://members.cox.net/dpeters30/97_sebring_dash.htm