Auto Parts: 1997 Mitsubishi Mirage, 1997 mitsubishi mirage, mitsubishi mirage

Question
If my car sits in the sun all day(about six to seven hours) the instrument cluster has some issues. First of all, all of the indicator lights will work as well as the fuel gauge and temperature gauge. The Speedometer, tachometer and the odometer however do not! I have taken the cluster out several times and the plugs don't seem to be loose and if i put them in and make sure they are tight sometimes it still won't work. It will eventually work but there have been times that i did not have any of the three for the whole trip home(about fifteen minutes). If i stop the car and sit for about three minutes after driving home, they work just fine! Any thoughts or suggestions would be great!


Thanks,


Curtis Logan

Answer
    Is this a digital dash?  If it is, you are probably going to have to replace it.  LCD's are sensitive to being cycled on and off every time the car is turned on and eventually they will just give up.  Everyone with an older car sporting a digital dash has this problem.  If it's not a digital dash and we're just talking about the lights not working, then my guess is that the printed circuit has a fault.  It's probably in the ground side of the circuit, but might not be.  You have to squint real hard at the circuit elements, looking for  breaks (cracks) or corrosion.  Do enough looking around and you'll probably see the fault.  It can be repaired by bridging the fault with a short piece of wire soldered to either side of the break.