I have an 04 LX and the ac, cluster lights, gauges went out a while back and I am just getting around to fixing it. The dealership people told me it had burned up the connection at the cluster and the harness and would need to be replaced. They quoted me like 1500 bucks to fix and I am not about to pay that much to fix it. I have conquered bigger fixes so it shouldnt be a big deal but I wanna get my ducks in a row. The dealer guy told me it could be spliced instead of replacing the entire harness if I could find someone "really good".... he did say the conector was fried so it would have to go. I took the cluster out today and it does appear to be melted on 3 of the connections where the cluster meets the harness. My questions are 1: is splicing a good idea with a soldering iron on these wires? 2: how bad is it to replace entire harness? 3: if I buy a used cluster, is the mileage in the cluster? If so is there a way to retrieve the info from the original cluster.. this is a minor concern but I am curious.

 

Me, I'd go to a local bone yard and find the harness, you might be able to get away with just the plug end and as much of the wires as you can get.

If you get the plug and some amount of wires.....then the soldering iron (practice on something if you have never done this) and some heat shrink tubing to cover/protect the splice and you should be good.

My only concern. Why did the OE fry, could cause the new repair to do the same

 

It happening again did cross my mind. Maybe it was some kind of flaw in the cluster although it took nearly 8 yrs to break. I know the electrical system in many cars seem to be the most vulnerable as much of it is subbed out to cheap factories and whatnot. Hopefully it was just a screwed up cluster unit. I did just move to Florida and it happened in the heat of the summer... maybe that contributed. The tech at the dealer did take 2 days to diagnose this and they said it was the first time they had seen this issue. I did multiple searches on the net and couldn't find anyone else with the same problem either. I would hope they would'a found a problem with other components if they existed. If it was something else would'nt it just blown a fuse? I have soldered stereo wires on a few harnesses and don't attempt anything till I have done as much research as I can before hand. Thanks for your input.

 

Can you tell which wire(s) caused the problem. Maybe you can trace back a bit to see if there is another cause to this. Tell us the wire color and the plug description (like red wire, 20 pin electrical connector with only 17 wires going into it).

Have you done any modifications to the car, like aftermarket stereo, alarm system, etc.?

 

its got 22 wires and the three that are fried are 2 black and a redish pink.. all three have gray dots on them and they are right beside each other.
I have done no mods to the car. Thanks

 

If I am reading the manual right, does that electrical connector have 30 possible spots for wires?

If yes, then the two black wires are ground. The red wire would be power for the dash brightness controller. That brightness controller is part of the instrument cluster. From what I see on the wiring diagram, there is no obvious component to check other than the wiring for damaged insulation near that connector.

 

yeah, 30... forgot to put that in there. The lights in the cluster and all the guages were out. The AC went at the same time. Wifey was driving down highway when it went out and noticed AC failed at same moment. I would hope the lights burning out just shorted something to do with the AC. Does the cluster have any AC power running through it? Thanks for all your help by the way!

 

This is going to be tough to figure out the source of the problem.

Try doing the diagnostic trouble code(s) for the HVAC system. See the second post in this thread. https://www.hondaaccordforum.com/for...-code-s-34589/

 

I will need to have it put back together to have the system tested though right? If I slap the cluster back in and take it to Advance to have it tested won't the bad cluster screw up the reading?

 

Yea, you will have to have it back together. However, you can get the HVAC codes yourself, click on the link PA has in his post and you can do it yourself....plug they do not come up on a normal OBD Scan tool.