I just picked up the second third gen I've ever owned, an 89 Iroc, just a couple weeks ago. It has a few issues gauge-wise, such as gas gauge that was way off but has since stopped moving and a tach that reads way too high. It also has several lights out, all of the ones that light up the gas gauge, one for showing my high beams are on, a few around the bottom of the middle three gauges, and one behind the bottom of my tach. I was replacing the bulbs tonight to find that the bulbs were all fine but still weren't lighting up.

My question is 1) are the ailing gauges related to the dead light problem (I figure it is coincidental) and 2) does anyone know what is going on here with my dash lights? Is it a bad wiring harness or what? Obviously I don't know a lot about what has previously been done with the car, but from what I've been told it was a Sunday driver for a long time and hasn't been messed with a whole lot (only 92,000 original miles between three owners) so I don't think anyone else has messed with anything in the dash, but who really knows.

 

Bump.

 

Nobody has anything to say before I start prodding around with wire testers? Darn. :/

 

That's probably the only way to find out if the lights & gauges are getting the correct power signals.

 

I would say to look very closely at the printed circuit on the back of the panel. Make sure the traces arent broken or missing.

 

Yeah, that was my plan, I was just hoping that there might be some completely random fix all that someone had encountered at some point. Not likely, but it was worth a try looking at some of the random, but common, occurences we have with our third-gens we know and love.

 

A tach that reads too high is not uncommon at all. I went through 4 tachs trying to find one for my v6 that worked (I do have a working V8 tach if you find out that yours is bad)

bulbs burn out... I would say it's time to pull the cluster and just look at which bulbs don't work. I'm assuming replacements are available. If not hit me up. I have three clusters over here and lots of extra bulbs.

I have a couple of gas guages too

Dr know if right, the printed circuit could be bad, but I've never seen one go bad. anything is possible

 

I think the board could be, that or I've got some bad wiring. The bulbs are good though and they won't light, even when I swap them with other good/new bulbs. Between this, my air duct issues, and my cracked dash (not the pad, but the dash itself) I think I'm just going to have a massive dash project this summer as soon as I get back home from school and have access to the shop. I love doing my own work on my car, but man, I hate digging into the dashes on these things, ha ha.