When driving home in the dark tonight the light in the instrument cluster went out, the display for the clock and odometer still on.
No problem I thought, probably a fuse or bulb gone.
When indicating to leave the dual carriageway some minutes later the panel lit up again complete with indicator clicks and a strangulated buzzer sound !

Braking silenced the funny buzzer sound. I amused myself by ringing the changes; braking put the light on properly, indicator, either way, set off noises and illuminations.

When neither braking or indicating, no light.

I drive to my satnav speed indication rather than the speedo and can work around the problem by dabbing the brake to illuminate the fuel gauge long enough to read it or remembering to check when indicating.

There must be an way to fix it though, any ideas ?

Any ideas that don't involve ripping out the whole fascia/panel/cluster that is

wiltshire said:

When driving home in the dark tonight the light in the instrument cluster went out, the display for the clock and odometer still on.
No problem I thought, probably a fuse or bulb gone.
When indicating to leave the dual carriageway some minutes later the panel lit up again complete with indicator clicks and a strangulated buzzer sound !

Braking silenced the funny buzzer sound. I amused myself by ringing the changes; braking put the light on properly, indicator, either way, set off noises and illuminations.

When neither braking or indicating, no light.

I drive to my satnav speed indication rather than the speedo and can work around the problem by dabbing the brake to illuminate the fuel gauge long enough to read it or remembering to check when indicating.

There must be an way to fix it though, any ideas ?

Any ideas that don't involve ripping out the whole fascia/panel/cluster that is

Click to expand...

Hi,
Almost certainly he ground (chassis / negative) connection(s) to the instrument cluster has failed broken. The brake switch is giving a ground through a sneak path and allowing it to work. Small possibility it's the body ECU ground, but less likely. Not sure where the instrument ground is on a multi, but eLearn should tell you.


Robert G8RPI.

Thanks for that, I've downloaded the eLearn, all I've got to do now is to try to understand the diagrams.

What I would like to know is how the car senses that you've fixed two longstanding problems and finds a new one to keep you worrying.

F.I.A.T = Fix It Again Tomorrow

I'm getting closer to understanding what's going on.
I had other things fail which meant a trip back home on a lorry as had no rear lights, indicators or stop lights. Or anything else running from the same fuse circuits.
When it was up on the lorry I noticed that the cable to the tow bar socket had somehow been across the exhaust outlet and the whole lot was a mess of oxidised wire and melted/burnt crumbly insulation.

A eureka moment ! The unfamiliar strangulated beeper sound. it is ( or was ) the beeper that someone had added with the tow bar wiring to give assurance that the trailer indicators were on. I'd never used a trailer on this car.

So the melting of the cable caused short circuits/dummy load for the beeper and failure of something else.
The RAC man poked wires and checked a few fuses, perhaps there's a relay or master fuse in there somewhere that feeds fuses 6,7 13 and 14.

Must try to find the wiring diag and check it out, unless, of course one of you smart guys can tell me what it is.

Did RAC person cut the trailer wire off before the burnt section and insulate the wires?
That needs doing after battery disconnected.
Then see what situation is re lights etc
If not back to normal check all fuses again.

Thanks for update as to what is going on.

No, he didn't spot it. It was only when it was up on the truck a I could see it without actually bending down to look for it. It's a mystery how it came to be dangling across the exhaust outlet.

I've just been out, disconnected the battery, cut off the burnt bit and insulated the cropped ends. Then I extracted fuses mentioned above, they were burnt out !

So much for the RAC man 'checking fuses'

Replaced two with spare 10A and 15A from alongside the fuse array ( All Hail whoever uploaded the info into the download section )

Things sprung back into life !

Woo hoo ! Sorted !

Just got to buy a few fuses tomorrow.

That failure to spot stuff and put two and two together cost the RAC an hour this morning and a 220mile round trip by a transporter truck. An expensive mistake, checking the odd fuse and wiggling some wires is the electrical equivalent of kicking the tyres it makes you look busy.

Logical thinking with a bit of advice from those who know wins the day.

wiltshire said:

No, he didn't spot it. It was only when it was up on the truck a I could see it without actually bending down to look for it. It's a mystery how it came to be dangling across the exhaust outlet.

I've just been out, disconnected the battery, cut off the burnt bit and insulated the cropped ends. Then I extracted fuses mentioned above, they were burnt out !

So much for the RAC man 'checking fuses'

Replaced two with spare 10A and 15A from alongside the fuse array ( All Hail whoever uploaded the info into the download section )

Things sprung back into life !

Woo hoo ! Sorted !

Just got to buy a few fuses tomorrow.

That failure to spot stuff and put two and two together cost the RAC an hour this morning and a 220mile round trip by a transporter truck. An expensive mistake, checking the odd fuse and wiggling some wires is the electrical equivalent of kicking the tyres it makes you look busy.

Logical thinking with a bit of advice from those who know wins the day.

Click to expand...

it was brilliant you spotted it.
RAC man should have had a go if you pointed it out.
220 miles free trip saved enough to pay for fuses.
Big well done.

Unfortunately the RAC man had gone before the transporter company turned up, the driver of that was just a driver not a techie type.

A nice comfortable trip back with an amiable chap to chat to while he did all the work.... and RAC paying for the fuel, win win.