Please help! This isn't good...

[MGLax13]

I have a feeling that I have a problem on my hands that won't be easy or cheap to fix.

Today, I was changing a light bulb that went out on my gauge cluster. I changed bulbs in it before and installed reverse glow gauges so this is nothing that I havn't done before. When I put the cluster back in, reconnected the 3 big plugs and the 3 little plugs for the gauges, I pushed the cluster back in and all of the sudden, I got a little puff of smoke coming from the left side of the cluster. Next thing I know, my reverse gauges don't work. I flip the little switch I hid to change them from blue to green and it does work then, but only in green. Turns out a wire connection broke, but whatever, no biggie. Then I screw it all in, stick the key in the ignitiion, put it in the "ON" position, and my temp gauge shoots up to the top. My car mind you had not been driven for at least 6 hours and it's cold here right now, so it's definatly an error. I turn it off and try again and yet agian, shoots up to the top. Something is up and I have a feeling it has to do with that puff of smoke. I visually inspected the plug and the little things that it connects to on that green film on the back of the gauges, nothign seems burnt or anything, but does smell a little. none of the wires are burnt or melted either. What could this possibly be? Any ideas?

[Jai_Jai_Binks]

My neighbor did a bumper-to-bumper hit on my dads cressida, and since then my temp guage went up like you described (even tho the car was sitting for like 2-3 days at a streatch). Apparently, she cauged the temp guage to goo kaput...simply put, it costed us 60 bucks+labor to get it like before. I'm guessing the same thing with you...but the smoke thingie could be a combo of a few thing..so you never know. GL!

[SC V6]

ive got a gauge cluter at my house that isn't being used.. let me know if u want it
later

[MGLax13]

Ok, is it for an auto? How much would it run me? I have a feeling it might be the cluster since thats the only part that smelled of burnt\melted plastic.

[SC V6]

its actually for an manual.. the only difference is that it doesn't display the P,N,D,2,1.. you it has the spots for the bulbs tho..

[Hsakuragi]

u put in led bulbs?

[Mole]

seems like an open wire somewhere had contact with the frame, having the smoke come out.

[pythonjosh]

seems like an open wire somewhere had contact with the frame, having the smoke come out.

Exactly. The way a gauge works is it has 2 wires (+ and -) and one of them varies in strength. So waht happened in your case is one of the wires is either grounding out, or touching a positive wire. Smoke usually shows that a wire grounded out and fried. There's 6 plugs in the back of your cluster? My 99 only has the 3 big ones. But I would look for deformities in any of the wires like swelling or discoloration. This is the wire that needs to be replaced. Also, if there was smoke, then there should be burn marks where it came from. If there's no marks on the cluster, then that's not the problem. You should get a flashlight and thoroughly check every wire behind the cluster. Good luck,
Josh

[MGLax13]

It doesn't have 6 plugs, it has 3 big ones and 3 little ones for my reverse glow gauges. I know that I burnt out a wire in the after market gauges b\c only the green option works, not the blue. All I gotta do is re-solder that wire and it should be fine. As far as the plug to the far left, I don't see any kind of damage to any of the wires. You think that since only the thermostat is acting up, that maybe I blew out the senor or something? How much do you think that would cost to replace? Aren't there some Toyota Techs on this board? Any of you guys got an idea?

[pythonjosh]

I think our closest thing to a Toyota tech would be SC V6.
And if you don't see any damaged wires back there, then maybe you did blow out the sensor. But it's wierd that it goes straight up when the car is on though. Makes me think that it might not be the sensor. How long have the indiglo's been in? And what wires did you solder them to? I don't have the indiglo's so I don't know anything about their installation.

[MGLax13]

I've had the indiglo's in for about 8 months now. The red is connected to the farthest right plug, there is a wire, forgot what color, but it's the standared one everyone uses. The black went to a bolt in the bottom center of the hole that the gauges go in.

[indiglosolara]

Here one on ebay for you...

http://cgi.ebay.com/ebaymotors/ws/eBayISAPI.dll?ViewItem&rd=1&item=7930996823&category=46100

[MGLax13]

Now as far as the odomter, I understand that the milage is stored in the gauge cluster and changing clusters will change the milage reading. Would it somehow be possible to transfer the actual milage over to the new cluster?

[indiglosolara]

Now as far as the odomter, I understand that the milage is stored in the gauge cluster and changing clusters will change the milage reading. Would it somehow be possible to transfer the actual milage over to the new cluster?

yes... you can take apart the Mileage part and put that into antoher lcuster so you still have the mileage. Or you can just change over the circuit board to you existing cluster. since the circuit board is what you burned out.

[Hsakuragi]

just to let u know that green stupid POS cost 50 bucks alone!