Chrysler Repair: 97 Sebring JXi Odometer display dies suddenly, soldering pencil, best guess

Question
Hi,

I have a 97 Sebring JXi. the RPM gauge, and the digital meter stops working suddenly, and it will come on like the next morning whne I start the car up. Please Help!!!

Answer
Hi Kith,
Virtually all the data that are needed for every meter reading on the dash is in digital format and arrive on a single pair of wires to the instrument cluster. I would wonder if the other gauges also fail at the same time?
If so, then I would believe that there is a cold solder joint at the socket for the incoming plug wire on the circuit board of the cluster. You could try rapping on the top of the cluster to see if that corrects the problem temporarily and it it did then remove the cluster and reheat all the connections from the socket to the circuit board with a soldering pencil. If not, then it is probably something having to do with an electronic component on the cluster circuit board that is needed for those two readouts to function properly. The rpm and odometer have separate and different sending units (one at the engine, one at the transmission) so those should not be the cause for them to fail simultaneously. That is my best guess. If you observe some other failure pattern let me know what it is.
Roland