08 LR3 V8 SE. My instrument panel isn't working. More often than not it has no power so all screens are blank (no backlight either) and the gauges don't work. I peeled back the tape behind it as far as I dare but I haven't found anything that looks damaged/broken. The instrument panel will come back on sometimes if I knock on it, and it used to come back on more reliably if I wiggled the trip reset button. The only lights that work consistently are the parking brake light, and the red light that flashes when the car is off (anti-theft?).

Any ideas before I buy a replacement cluster? Is that the next logical step? Thanks!!

 

Used ones on eBay are sup risibly cheap, often seen for less than $100 USD. They have to be encoded over though using a GAP tool or such. If you feel adventurous, you could open it up and check the solder points on the connectors. There are a few that develop colt joints (tiny crack in the solder). Can simply re-solder then and see if it helps. I tend to doubt it is an issue further down like wiring, especially with that much going out on it.

 

I sent mine in for repair to Clusterfix.net. Have not had any more problems. You can probably buy a used one cheaper, but as Dakota said, it will need to be programmed. I also understand that GAP will not decrease the mileage of your new-used cluster to match your existing cluster. By having mine repaired, I did not need reprogramming, and I retained my actual mileage.

 

I saw the repair options but I figured a replacement will (hopefully) be less down time. I ordered an ebay replacement with fewer miles and will tackle pairing with the GAP tool, wish me luck!

 

Milage will not matter, it will sync up with the truck to match what you had before.

 

This is good to know. There’s bad info in another thread stating otherwise. It would make sense to me that mileage would be retained in the pcm, not the cluster, but I’m just guessing.

 

Seems to have worked but the odometer sync only goes up to 162k miles (per Gap Diagnostic). The car has 195k miles, the replacement instrument cluster only has 190k miles so I wasn't able to match the 195k. Other than that it works great! Thanks for the input.