I bought a 90 chrysler lebaron 2d. the digital display doesnt light up. the seatbelt light comes on when first firing up the engine then turns off after about 10 seconds. i had never been able to get the guages to light up. 2 nights ago, i went to move my car and the display came on, but was dimming in and out. most of the brightness was coming from the center outwards.. i noticed that the more gas i gave it, the brighter it got, so i took it for a short drive where i could floor it.. i managed to get the whole dash, clear the the corners, to light up for about 3 seconds. when i let the power die down in the engine, it dimmed back to bare minimum in the center, dimming in and out again... havent gotten it to light up since..
checked all fuses, all are good. not sure what would be causing this.. any ideas?
id love to have a spedometer lol

 

I once had a 1989 Olds Ninety Eight with exactly the same problem. So, also not knowing what devil was going on, bought a replacement at salvage yard. Ended up the Olds instrument cluster is in two parts. The illumination section and the gauges. It was the illumination section that went out. Recall how home fluorescents work? Same idea. The Olds illumination part is essentially the same thing. A ballast and lighting section. I swapped sections and got original gauges back on.. Which let me retain the original mileage reading. I pass this along a tad late likely? Sorry. Not on very often.

I know an Olds is not a Chrysler. But tech is often common. Your gauges likely operate in a similar manner of tech. Replace ballast section and I bet it works.

 

4374384 is the part #....1990 Lebaron (1 year only). I have 3 of them used and untested.
mkolner14@hotmail.com

 

Hi!
I just repaired a 1993 LeBaron digital dash that had issues with the turn signals,headlights, and problems with the guages like yours.
I removed the dash fascia and a few screws and then extracted the dash digital
display module.
I then used a 30Watt grounded tip soldering iron and reflowed/resoldered all of
the solder joints on the module.
I would wrap the module in Aluminum foil when you remove it to keep any static
discharge damage to a minimum. You can use the Alumiinum foil as a work surface
that will provide some static discharge protection while resoldering the module.

After a head full of rosin core solder fumes for 4-hours, I had a fully functional digital
display again.
Regards, and POR - Press On Regardless
Bob