How To Repair Dodge Minivan Instrument Cluster

[EricTheCarGuy]

This repair was actually suggested by many people in the comments of the original diagnosis video of this van. I decided to give the repair a try. If nothing else, this video will show you how to take the instrument cluster out of one of these vans. I think the real issue with this van is the ignition switch. The next time I see Barbara’s van I hope to replace it. What did you think of the video?

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[Norman]

[quote=”Rereonehundred” post=148890]Did all these bad solder joints occur because they took the lead out of solder?[/quote]
Actually I think in this case it’s not lead-free solder. The joints look very shiny, as opposed to lead-free joints that usually look kind of dull / greyish. Plus the lead-free stuff became mandatory in 2006 (and this is a 1998 minivan, if I remember correctly).

But otherwise I agree, that lead-free stuff isn’t the greatest thing under the sun. Better for the environment, but harder to work with.

[EricTheCarGuy]

[quote=”Norman” post=149171]Hey Eric, really nice soldering job! That’s exactly what a solder joint should look like. Nice and shiny, and without a big blob of tin 🙂

One suggestion: since you’ve gone through all the trouble to get to that circuit board, just re-solder the entire connector, not just the one pin that looks suspicious. From my experience, those cracks can be virtually invisible, yet still cause trouble. It certainly increases the chances of hitting the right one, and it takes very little extra time.

Dry solder joints often like to form at points of mechanical stress, i.e. where some large/heavy part connects to something else and some sort of movement is involved. Connectors are often prone to this because the board moves/vibrates, even if just by a tiny amount. What I would to is re-soldering all connectors plus large components, especially those that sit on a heat sink (didn’t see any of those here, so just a general FYI).

(yes, I’m a bit picky when it comes to soldering, probably because I’ve been an electronics service tech for 10+ years and I’ve seen some really weird things happening because of dry joints 😉 )[/quote]

That’s a great suggestion. Thanks.

[Author]

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