Digital Dash

[stang35]

Can anyone tell me how I go about trouble shooting my digital dash.
The dash is completely black nothing lights up at all. Same with the climate control, nothing lights up. Is there a common component or power wire, ground wire.
Any advice would be greatly appreciated

 

[Frat-man-du]

Can anyone tell me how I go about trouble shooting my digital dash.
The dash is completely black nothing lights up at all. Same with the climate control, nothing lights up. Is there a common component or power wire, ground wire.
Any advice would be greatly appreciated

Dont have a Mark VII but my 85 Tbird had the upgraded digitial dash and when the lights went it it turned out there were actual lightbulbs used to illuminate the LCD. For some reason they all blew at once - also got the little bulbs in my radio - had to have a shop replace those.

It was not too bad of a job to repalce the dash :wrench bulbs, it was worse to swap sockets as the replacment lamps from the autoparts place were just the bulb.

Hope this helps!

Current Stable:
1998 LSC
2000 Stang Vert
1965 T-Bird Vert
1965 T-Bird Coupe
1994 E-150

Past Stable
1978 TC
1985 T-Bird Fila Edition
1990 TC
1990 TC

 

[Awesund]

Wait.. .did he misunderstand or did I? There are no light bulbs that illuminate LED displays or digits... The only bulbs are behind the lighted buttons or function plates.

Check fuses, check wiring. I think I'd be pulling that dash out and checking the power/ground leads. It's ez to get out.
You didn't mention what year you car was although there's not much difference.
But if it's an older Mark, sometimes the plug behind the climate control gets hot and brittle, then falls apart.

hope this helps..

 

[stang35]

Its an '85 Mark
NO display or lights in the whole dash area.
Its hard to tell the guy that owned it missed up the wire harness in so many places.
He did have the steering colum out and also replaced the radio with a aftermarket one.
I'll start checking the plugs I guess when I pick up the car

 

[MichiganTeddyBear]

at least on my 91 conti, the digital dash is lite from behind by light bulbs. also, if your are REAL carefull, you can change illumination color by changing the green filter to another color.

its really a well thought out system for lighting the I/P. since LCD's use VERY little power, and are fairly robust, they work good in auto displays. The drawback is the dont generate light of there own. they can only let it pass thru or block it.

Florescent displays (like a lot of radios have), are more power hungry, not as robust (they are infact glass enclosures with a gas inside), and they do fade over time.. something LCD's have very little problem with.

True, lcds are glass also, but they are a sandwich of glass plates, with essentially no gap inbetween them.

 

[MichiganTeddyBear]

On my Conti (different vehicle, but may give a possible path to fixing), my dash lights wouln't dim at all. full bright all the time. I had 2 blown bulbs, one in the display itself, and one next to the headlight switch! That kept the damn thing from dimming!

look at the dimmer control and its associated circuitry. And of course all fuses.

 

[BigD]

I have an 89 M7. All my lights went out on my digi dash and also my radio and climate control. My problem was a harness in the steering colum. Used a zip tie to fix... problem solved!