Up in Smoke

[Texan]

As I left from work, not even a mile down the road, smoke starts coming from top of dashboard. I pulled over and ripped my dash cover off and abroken piece of dashboard. I had already shut of the engine. The smoke was coming from the cluster box, white and black box. The smoke eventually stopped and I let it cool down for 10 minutes. Started it back up and no more smoke. Then I noticed the message box and gear selector box were blank. The backlight is working and the needles are too, just the message displays aren't.
Do I need a new cluster or can this be diy fixed?

 

[MadDogDelpho]

?

 

[05alive]

what he said ^

 

[TheAutumnWind]

Clusters can be repaired potentially.

They don't often go up in smoke though. Could be more damage then it is worth. Might want to look @ something like http://www.rockauto.com/en/moreinfo.php?pk=2163908&cc=1431454&jsn=445


FYI that is an escalade cluster though and im not sure if they will accept that for core charge. just had it handy

 

[Texan]

?

I was posting thru my phone, sorry for the vague message. So, what happen was the cluster box started smoking and smelt like burnt plastic/electronics. My dash was already cracked/broken, so when the smoke started puffing out, I ripped off my dash cover which is held on by Velcro and removed a broken piece of the dash to see where the smoke was coming from. The smoke eventually stopped, but when I started the Tahoe back up, the DIC and gear selector display were no longer working. I never had any problems with it before. I've been doing some researching and I guess the circuit board probably has a fried component.

 

[KBones]

Wow that's frustrating. I'd just buy a sweet aftermarket cluster and check all connectors on the back. Sounds like something internally went wrong

 

[MadDogDelpho]

That's a bummer man.

 

[2011SSVHOE]

Hmmmmm , maybe they make the dash crack there for a reason

just what you needed, two things fix! it could of been worse.

 

[abright52]

Mine didn't go up in smoke, but they stopped working a while back.

I replaced Q16 MOSFET.

http://www.tahoeyukonforum.com/threads/need-help-instrument-panel-off.26769/page-5#post-803037

 

[Texan]

Seemed easy enough to replace the MOSFET, so I bought one for $9. Thanks to my cracked/destroyed dash, it was a little easier to remove the cluster. Opened the sucker up and.....the MOSFET was completely TOASTED!!

I tried very carefully to remove it, but the solder pads were burned off, so I could not repair it.

I contacted a few ebay cluster repair people, two said they could not fix it and one said they would attempt to repair, but it would be an additional $50 to the regular price with no guarantee.

Decided to just reinstall it for now, just annoying to not be able to see the mileage. The gear selector display works but is very faint, only can see at night. I'm surprised nothing else was damaged.