Toyota Repair: 1990 Corolla Remove Instrument Cluster, toyota corolla dx, dx station
Question1990 Toyota Corolla DX Station Wagon. Automatic Transmission.
I am 99% sure that I blew all the light bulbs on my daughters instrument panel and floor shifter the other day when I was fixing her stereo. The stereo was aftermarket and the install job was horrendous... wires twisted together, held together and "insulated" with duct tape, so I was reconnecting with wire nuts. I errantly tied the now unused "dimmer positive" (orange w/white) to the "dimmer negative" (orange w/black). There were lots of wires and I did not realize that these two were not the same color, nor did I realize they did not belong together. To any extent, the lights stopped working and I am sure this is why. I have since untied these two leads and capped them. Lights remain dark and after verifying that all the fuses are good, I went to pull the instrument cluster to access the light bulbs. I had all the screws removed, but cannot get the cluster past the steering wheel for fear of breaking the plastic instrument cluster. Am I being overly cautious with the cluster, missing a small, simple step, or is something crazy like pulling the steering wheel required to access the rear of the cluster? I was getting quite frustrated with the task yesterday so I did not even look at how to access the lights in the floor shifter. Any assistance on how to accomplish that access as well would be appreciated before I go to work on the car again.
AnswerIt's unusual for all the light bulbs to blow out, a fuse always burns out first so I don't think replacing bulbs is the solution, if you are sure that all the fuses including the ones marked gauge/dome/are ok, check the rheostat knob and make sure it is turned all the way on, this sounds simplystic but I have seen many times that someone says their dash lights don't work when the rheostat knob was turned off, if you still want to remove the inst cluster, make sure the speedo cable is disconnected at the back.
