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- เผยแพร่เมื่อ 6 ต.ค. 2024
- Solder repair for 95-99 neon clusters. This fixes the jumping needles, non working needles, warning lamps that come on and off, etc.
All technical info found on neons.org and 1gn.org.
Music by: Shuutobi
Attempt this repair at your own risk. I assume no responsibility for any damage to your cluster, vehicle, or any bodily injury that comes from performing this repair.
![CAMPปลิ้น | EP.82[2/2] เมาท์มอยกับ 3 สาวเพื่อนซี้ ที่พร้อมขยี้พ่อหมีได้ทุกเมื่อ](http://i.ytimg.com/vi/Wwn7WnylNtQ/mqdefault.jpg)
Perfect, worked!
Moms car was blowing a instrument cluster fuse, and the airbag light was melting, gauges working intermittently, I would have never went as far as pulling the circuit board off to check it. Googled instrument cluster, found your video, pulled it apart, check several solder joints, soldered several, and bam, working!
Thanks!
Glad this video helped!
I've been testing mine for over a year now and I haven't had a single problem!
I watched this video and I went to work on my 95 dodge neon and now it works perfectly. I not even a machanic so thank you for your explaination I know you saved me some money. Have a great day man and thanks again,
watched this while performing the fix. Learned to solder a little bit, and more importantly fixed my speedometer. Thank you!
You were bang on!!!! Fixed!!!! Was a pain to get in and out. Didn't get all of them the first time I resoldered. But got out the magnifying glass the second time, it was the pin on the plug connector that was the culprit. A very accurate video!!!! Was a bit painful to do as was -25C in Calgary Ab. Is done though and likely would have cost hundreds to have a mechanic fix!!! Thanks much!!!!
I'm glad it helped! Stay warm my northern friend.
I would have never of thought it would be something as simple as worn out pins on the board ... but sure enough after the fix it works like new now. Thanx for posting this. - I didn't know anything about how to solder but figured it out quick. If you're thinking about doing this practice first, I didn't know how to solder but I've spent years building models ... steady hands, good lighting, and patience, but it can be done.
Thank you so much! After 3 years of intermittent dash activity, my husband found your posting and fixed my car in an hour. Great work.
I just finished doing this, as my Neon was having the problems as mentioned. AWESOME!!!!! IT WORKED!!!! I have been trying to figure out how to fix this for years now. Thank you so very much for posting such an excellent video!!!
I just did this a few weeks ago on a 1999 Plymouth Neon.I found three solder joints cracked.I also did not have to remove the bulbs ? It now works like every thing is new, and I'm no mechanic I removed the dash with out any screws too .Was so easy to do.Total time was 1/2 hour...Thanks for the video.
Appreciate the video. We already did this once, but he only touched up the solder on a couple of them. Suggested doing them all, but silly me. Now it's doing messing up again. Think I'll try doing it myself. Learned to solder about 35 years ago. Doesn't look like it's changed much.
I actually did do it again. The system worked great after. I also touched up all the solder joints around anything that looked like it needed it. We sold the van about a year later. We got a 2006 Jeep with its own set of issues. Wish I’d kept the van. 😉
Awesome video! At first was concerned about knowing how to get to the cluster, but once I started it was easy to figure out and only took me about 15 minutes to get the cluster out. I price checked the cluster and if prices new at $300-$500 and that's without any labor!
Tack started hopping on the way home from work. By the time I got home it had died...
It's a replacement cluster. I pulled it out of a 1999 two years ago. The original cluster, The speedometer stopped working. So I thought I'd replace it with one with a cool tachometer. Worked great up until today.
Going to play with it and see if I can fix it. Thanks for the tutorial video. If it doesn't work I'll grab another cluster for $20. The first cluster... I had no luck in repairing.
hey just wanted to say thanks. I did this in my '98 dodge neon and i have never had a problem since- (my spedometer would work for about 1 min then show zero the rest of the time i would drive, but not anymore) i practiced soldering on some old computer chips before i got the guts to do it on this, but wasn't too hard at all. Saved me some money - thanks alot!
Wanted to thank you for such an informative video. I just bought a 97 neon with a intermittent speedometer. I was able to fix my cluster in under and hour. No more bouncing speedometer. Thanks again.
Thanks for the vid, you've just solved a 2 year problem for me! It was either this or buy a new circuitboard for $50 off ebay. This was my first time soldering, and it couldn't have been easier. a $17 soldering iron from Home Depot worked flawlessly. So glad to have my gauges back in working order!
I just finished up doing this, and it worked perfectly!!! Thank you so much, I knew it was a common problem but you just saved me somewhere around 500 bucks!!! Thanks again!!!!! I have a 98 Plymouth neon for those of you interested!
Thanks, That was a huge help. My daughter's 97 neon temp gauge was not working and did not find much info. Pulled the cluster and found four cracked solder joints. Re-solder and okay now.
Glad this video is still helping after all these years!
I'm glad you got it fixed! It's really annoying when it just stops working out of no where.
Thanks! I am going to try and fix mine today. Was hammering on the dash from time to time for the last couple years. But now have stopped working altogether. Hopefully does the trick. Thanks again. Will let you know how I made out.
Great video with the right info for this fix, for the last 4-5 weeks his description is perfect! Today...My 98 ply neon stopped working completely. but i can solder good enough Thanks you don
Thank you so much for the video, my granddaughters 98 Neons speedometer stopped working found your video, and repaired it... she is now treating me to breakfast :)
Just fixed my 98 after seeing your video, thanks for the great tutorial. I've had mine since 99 and it's in great shape other than the (now fixed) crazy gauges.
Glad this video helped. I wish I still had mine, but sold it a looooong time ago.
I did this on my 1997 Neon exactly like your video says, it worked perfectly! Thank you so much for this information. It helped me a lot! Now I can tell how fast I'm going!
Just did this repair following your video. I've had this 98 Neon since about 2010.. just now getting around to this fix haha. I'm awesome, I know. Works great, thank you
Glad this video helped.
Followed the instructions and did the soldering on those connectors. No difference in the behavior of the cluster. The tach still runs backwards so something else is wrong.
It was a good project though and the instructions are good. Lots of people here have had success which is very good.
I've read on the forums people saying to just get it really hot with a hair drier. It might work with a high end heat gun, but then you run the risk of melting the board it self. You only need to apply heat directly to the pins I showed you in the vid. If your speedometer just flat out doesn't work at any time, then you're going to have to further diagnose the vehicle starting at the speed sensors and work your way back through the system.
Thanks a lot for your video, I fixed my cluster and now works great, americans are the best on innovation, help and so on. Thanks again!!!
Thanks for this video! I've been suffering the problem for quite a long time, and after I pulled the cluster (surprisingly easy to do, actually) and performed the recommended fix, it worked like a champ again.
Thanks for making the effort to record this. I know how to solder, and probably would have guessed those would be the problem pins, BUT I HATE GUESSING. Always nice to have Columbus make the first trip.......
Thanks again. aka flakingpaint on neons.org
Outstanding repair. I have just finished this repair, WORKS GREAT now.
awesome. saved me a lot of time trying to find the problem on my own since the cracks are sometimes hard to see. So far it looks like it worked.
Soldering is so easy thanks for the video this has been a ongoing problem for me as well I had a back up cluster so I tried it on one and it turned out good
I have an 00 so I don't have this problem but my buddy has a 97 and his speedometer does that all the time im definitely gonna show him this, thanks in advance!
Used this video as a guide. Thanks to you my speedometer works again. And I have an idea of how to solder. ty ty ty.
That's really kind of you! I'm happy to hear you're all fixed up.
The gunk is flux build up. Will also decrease the heat to the tip of the gun making it harder to re-solder joints. This did work very well on my neon years ago think I drove it for 5 years with no speedo cause I did not want to pay Dodge a crazy price for the cluster nor did I want to interfere with the correct mileage on my cluster.
Just fixed my son's Neon. Excellent instructions.
@robinsacto lift up the top dash pad, remove bezel around the front of the cluster. remove the 4 screws that hold the cluster in the dash and pull it out. if you couldn't figure that out before asking this question you may want to reconsider performing the repair.
Also, you did buy the first production year of a vehicle. Those are always the worst and its not even OBD II. But when you look at it for what it is, a neon, they're pretty awesome.
when you pull off the board you'll notice four pins from each gauge, make sure where they go into the board that the spring loaded clips are pinched tight to in sure a good connection but it sounds like you may need to solder all 20 pins ! make sure you use a decent amount of solder and make sure it blends together with the original solder by kinda moving the tip of your iron around ! Hope this helps if not go to an auto wrecker and get another one (with lower mileage) ;) Cheers
Thanks veeery mach to you.. My ´96 neon have same symptons what you speek - random lightning airbag lamp, needls jumping, spidomeeter dont work some day, when i push a cluster, spidoneedl waiking or jumping for second and that all. So your vid fix a problem. You explain so clear, i understand perfect and thanks for warning for heating job. For me electric wire is normal things, but for other mayby not. Sorry my bad english, in scool i learn deutsch and i from Estonia in North europa. Thanks a lot and all the best for you. It was GOOOD HELP! I have meny cars, but i like my old neon and like to keep it running. Thanks one more time.. Jaanus
Neons have their quirks like every other car from the same era. I've had ups and downs with mine, but its something I use every day and I expect it to break eventually. All you can do is do your preventative maintenance and drive.
you are the man I seen the cracks re soldered all contacts works great thanks for posting this fix god bless for sharing
Thank you! I have been struggling with my gauge cluster for a few years now, and simply thought I was doomed and would have to live with it. NOW I can't fix it myself!
Awesome! Its not too difficult to do, even if you've never done soldering work before. I was pretty bad at it in this vid. I hope to re-do this video soon. I'd like to get another neon again. Great on gas, easy and cheap to fix.
I'm glad you say that about it not being too difficult. Say, did you remove the old solder before adding what you did in this video? The contacts looked fairly "clean" in the close-up.
Loni Carr When I did this, I just reheated some of them, and some I used a desoldering bulb to remove old solder and then added new solder. Didn't seem to make much difference, and as a old electronics tech once-upon-a-time, my experience suggests that just reheating ought to work just fine in this case. Epix182's advice about practicing soldering before doing this is good advice. Note that if you add new solder to the melt without removing old solder you might end up with too much in a particular spot, and it might flow onto another contact.
Ever since I had first seen this video, I removed and re-soldered my gauge cluster. Apparently what I did worked. I have not had it stop working since this fix. I also noted, I was so excited about having found this video, that I said, "can't" fix it. Well - to reiterate, I fixed it!
Mike Clark Thank you for your advice, Mike. Fortunately (mayhaps?) there was no excess solder to worry about in my case. I apparently did something RIGHT! :)
Man thanks GOD there are people like you i just did what said in the video and is fixed.
THANK YOU
Thank you for this video!!! It fixed my instrument cluster perfectly! Good word of warning too! You need a VERY steady hand for this, because you gotta do it perfect 20 times in a row, with other circuits TOO DARN CLOSE to each other! xD
I'm hoping my mechanic will be willing to try this. He's searched all over for a replacement; no luck. I love my little car, and it runs great, just no speedometer or odometer. Tach is ifffy.
l have this problem for a long period of time and I was very thankful and appreciated very much your very helpful video here. Now my odometer runs normal again and the credit doin the dirty work for me goes to "MAYNILA AUTO REPAIR SHOP OWNS BY JOE AND MJ CONSUL" , here in Everett Washington this auto shop is AWESOME they will help you as much as they could to solve your issues on your vehicle. But once again thanx for Epix the one who uploaded this video. Please upload more fixing stuff on your account.
Gracias, excelente video, logré reparar el odómetro de mi neón 1997
Thank you SO much dude. got this from the org. gonna try to do this when I get back to work on monday.
Thanks a lot this worked great, don't need to take out all the light bulbs though not a big deal just one step not required. Thanks again easy fix.
I'm glad this video continues to help after all these years.
You should suck off the bad solder at the connection with a vacuum desoldering tool FIRST, then re-solder the connection. Otherwise you will have the original problem again in the future. Old flux is bad news, must get rid of it first. You should use
as 25-35 watt soldering iron not a gun with a 1/8" tip designed for use with electronics. If you don't, stray electricity from the soldering iron will zap parts on the circuit board with you touch the tip to a circuit foil. Weller is the best brand of soldering iron for this kind of work. You must prime the tip of the new soldering tip by heating it up just to the point where the solder will flow on it, then turn the power to the soldering iron off and gently brush the solder tip on a damp room temp sponge until it is evenly shiny, then let it cool and you can plug it back in to use it. Then you have a tip that is ready to use. The gunk you are talking about is non-conductive burnt flux, bad news. Time for a new tip or iron which will come with a general use tip. If you are going to go to ALL THE TROUBLE of taking the cluster out of the car, disassembling it, re-soldering, and putting it all back, make sure you know how to solder and are using excellent soldering tools. Other than these considerations, which you should include in the video, the video is very good and I am grateful you took the time to do it. You might have included how you get the cluster out of the top of the &^%^%$ dash. I can't figure it out.
thanks man, having the whole dying needles problem on mine. considering attempting this with a bud of mine. Thanks a lot.
oh man, I can't wait to try this on my own car, the speedometer always acts crazy and makes my car lurch when im on the interstate. i hope this will fix my problem!!!
Awesome buddy worked for me thank you so much ! 20 minute job from start to finish. Cheers Travis
Its not necessary to remove the bulbs, however it gives you a nice even surface to work with.
Thanks for the repair tip man this fixed my instrument panel on the neon.
You should really use a solder sucker to get the old solder off and re-do with the new solder. Otherwise good tip!
I'll be trying it this weekend. I'll let you know how it works.
I'm so happy you got fixed up!
Great vid! Had mine out, fixed and back in the car in 20 minutes
Thanks!!! I'll jump into this project next!
The best video thanks so much!!
nice and clean it can't get any better that
Thank you Thank you SOOOO Much!!! this has fixed my gauge problems!! A++ video.
Clean your tip. If the tip is clean and has a fresh thin layer of solder applied, you dont need to start a ball of solder high up and drip it down like that. ALso after you have your solder on hold the tip on the joint for about another second to really flow the solder fully around the joint.
but- good info!
i have dodge neon 97 ,this video work perfect for me !! thanks man
To each their own brotato. I'm up to date on my maintenance, 40 psi in my tires, and she provides me with reliable service and 38mpg after 170,000 on the clock. Oh, and I beat the crap out of it.
Oh btw if you can't solder it what we did is push on the cluster and it would start working so try this until you can get it soldered
Oh yea, check your radiator cap. You'd be surprised.... I discovered i had a bad one after hearing the water boiling out of the overflow tank (while driving!) Air bubbles get in with a bad radiator cap and obstructs the flow of water / radiator fluid. Stagnant burning fluid may then damage the seals on your radiator, causing it to leak at the top (usually). I'm a newb with mechanics, but i've owned 3 neons! ^_^
This worked perfectly. Thanks for this great how to video.
I really liked your video. But I jsut was curious as to how you really were able to remove the cluster from the dash board. If you could post a video as to how you were able to remove the dashboard to remove the cluster it would be really helpful. I am new to this so any video demonstaration would be really handy. I have a dodge neon 2001.
Thanks bro. I learn some thing new.
My friend had the same problem then now i could fix it exp he sold it 2 years ago
all my guages work again. thanks for the tips
Thanks buddy ..it works great..... Very easy to do it.
very helpful and the background music made it tha bomb dizzle
I love dis claimer class act so if cant sodder stop take the board to some one that can .. well done video
The friction clips contacts that connect to the gauges to the c/b also should receive some contact cleaner and/or contact preserver. As easy as it is to solder, you should have mentioned rosin flux for those youtubers who don't know anything about soldering or at least recommend a video for noobs. Your solder jobs could use some practice maing... ;)
Epix ... wonderful video I like the way you developed it. Thank you for taking you time to show us. God bless you.
I try to fix now. I ' ll update results.
What editing software did you use?
Why must the light bulbs be removed? The video did not explain or show why this is done.
My Neon cluster illumination lamps are not working. Should the contact areas for the bulbs on the circuit board
be re-soldered, too?
Very good video.
Cant help you on the illumination problem. This is specifically to repair gauges that are no longer operating, or intermittently operate.
Great video thanks it worked like a charm.
Thank you! You did a good job, this helps!
Thanks. Glad it helped!
If you take a good zoomed in picture of the bad solder joints then zoom into that picture on your computer monitor you will see all the cracks in the bad joints.
I'm going to try this, thanks for the video!
Thank you man!!!!!! You helped me out alot and saved me so much money:)
@ Epix182, Thank you for the video. I learned a lot. I tried reinstall, but am having the same problem. Any Suggestions? Thanks Justin K.
dude, I'm surprised you can solder at all with that, you need to respect your equipment, that tip is probably useless by this point and should be thrown away, get a new one and keep it in decent shape, you need to keep a wet sponge or rag to whipe it on while you're soldering, the end should stay shiny and clean, & some flux would really help with heat transfer and speed up your soldering, aside from that great video.
i have a 99 neon. worked great when i bought it in the below freezing weather. but once it warmed up. turns out my car has a pool in it! yay!... oh wait. that's not normal with this model. anyway. once that happened it wasn't shortly after when my gauges decided to not work. so i found this video. and took the gauges out, looked like it was light on solder so i added some and re soldered the ones that ok. and added some to even others that looked like they was lacking. and still doesn't work.
I did this to my 95 SOHC automatic. It has no tach but the speedo wasnt working and this worked!!! Now i have a sport DOHc with a tach that has a jumpy needle. Im gonna see if this works
Heck yes its going to work! Glad it helped you out.
It sounds like your thermostat is bad. Its a 7 dollar part. Might as well change it regardless. For the fuel, you probably have a bad fuel level sending unit in the tank. The needles jump around quickly or just don't do anything at all when the solder on the circuit board is cracked.
You can swap out the milage piece from one cluster to another.
There are a bunch of threads on how to repair it, but since people asked way too many questions I figured I'd do up a vid just to clear up how to do it.
this fixed my problem, thanks!
Chris Greenhouse Dude! THE Chris Greenhouse shared my vid! Glad it helped!
Worked great! Thanks!
@turk3yn3ck I own a pair of Neons, each with over 200k worth of hard driving clocked. They're not luxury cars, and were definitely built on a budget, but are amazingly durable and fun to drive. I can count at least half a dozen friends and family members who went out and bought Neons after just one drive in mine.
I just do what you indicate, remove the old solder and solder it back and go fix the problem thanks!
Well done vid, thank you very much
Epix182 , I have a 04 Dodge Intrepid and from what I have seen/read online the repair process for the solder joint should be the same on my car. When I key my car on the oil light is very dim and when I turn my headlights on the cluster doesn't always illuminate. Do you think soldering the connector will fix the issue? I was also thinking that while I am at it I should replace all the bulbs in the assembly which look to be the 194 wedge types. Now if only I could find the time to actually do it!
@freakofthewest I picked up my 2dr for 1600. I feel that the first gen's are only worth something to actual enthusiasts. Any joe off the street who happens to own one or your typical used car lot will most likely let it go for dirt cheap.
What kind of solder are you using? That looks like crappy leadless solder. Always use a 60/40 flux core solder. Also don't roll the blob of solder down the tip of the soldering iron. Place the tip of the iron on the joint, and flow the solder directly on the joint. If you hit the soldering tip first, you are wasting the flux on the tip and not the joint where it's supposed to go.