Repairing Dodge Magnum dash lights

Dodge Magnum Dash light flicker or not working at all ?
All cars from the table bellow have in common the trouble with dashboard back light illumination failure and they can flicker at first but eventually will go out completely, so you will not see your gauges at night. 
Those cars use a glowing EL foil to produce dashligh. The Electroluminescent foil its a thin piece of plastic that emit light when powered from an electronic inverter located inside instrument cluster box.
Dashlight failure is due to failure of the poorly designed OEM inverter !

Repairing your instrument cluster backlite using ELD-M inverter have the following advantages:

• No dealer reprogramming required
• No additional cost
• More reliable than original inverter !

Based on the same rugged and reliable hardware as the acclaimed ELD5 inverter (a proved solution for fixing similar issue on Dodge Caliber/Sebring/Avenger ..etc) we have now developed ELD-M inverter.

ELD-M inverter is a digital inverter that repair backlite illumination issue of the following Instrument Clusters:

Make / Model	Production years	Trim	Engine	Download Install Instructions
Dodge Magnum	2005 - 2009	All	All	click to download
Dodge Charger	2006 - 2010	All	All	click to download
Dodge Challenger	2007 - 2013	All	All	click to download
Chrysler 300C	2005 - 2009	All	All	click to download
Chrysler Sebring	2002 - 2006	All	All	click to download

ELD - M  digital  inverter is designed to fit inside instrument cluster box and drive the EL panel that produce the back-lite of instrument cluster. Having digital inputs for controlling output intensity it seamlessly integrate with  instrument cluster by connecting with dashboard's processor trough its digital interface. In this way it makes a repaired Instrument Cluster to work exactly as original.

 * It  drives the large EL Panel  of instrument  cluster without any problem

 * Designed to be easy installed and fit inside the Instrument Cluster box
  
*) Retaining the same functionality as original one including dimming capability

 *) Capable of outputting a whopping 145 Vrms  under load, compared with 124Vrms of original, so the maximum brightness can be higher than original.



Repair Instructions:

Basically, all its need to install ELD-M into the Instrument Cluster Box is:
- De-solder and remove TR3 transformer from the electronic board
- Solder the six wires of ELD-M to the indicated points

Further, we will present the recommended procedures, step by step to accomplish this task.

Required Tools.
Besides soldering station with controlled temperature for soldering, the following tools are necessary:

desoldering vacuum pump

plastic pray bar (or a dinner fork)

1. Remove Instrument Cluster from the car 

2. Remove the plastic back cover by first removing the T15 torx screws.

Disconnect the flexible conductive rubber band of the EL foil from the black socket

3. Remove gauge’s needles.
Before removing the needles it is recommended to put a piece of paper scotch tape under each needle and mark its position with a pencil. Later you will use those marks to put needles back in exactly the same position where they were.
Using the plastic pray bar put uniform pressure under needles, then just pop them off.
If you don’t have a plastic pry bar you can use a dinner fork.   

Use plastic pray bar (or fork)

Mark the original position of the needles

 After removing the EL panel and gauges faces, transformer’s pins can be accessed.

4. De-solder and remove the transformer. Using the de-soldering vacuum pump, desolder and remove the TR3 transformer from the electronic board.

 

de-solder and remove the TR3 transformer

 5. Re-assemble the cluster’s EL foil, gauges faces and needles. Place ELD-M.
 After removing the TR3 transformer, you can re-assemble everything back except the back plastic cover.

 

place ELD-M into one available cave space, use glue gun plastic to fix it

 Use one of the cave space in back plastic cover to place the ELD-M inverter. Secure it in place using plastic glue gun. 


6. Connect ELD-M to the electronic board.
After placing the ELD-M into the back plastic cover, solder its six wires to the indicated points to the cluster’s electronic board.
NOTE: There are two types of boards, two layers PCB and three layers PCB, use the bellow schematics that match yours.

2L PCB type

3L PCB type

 

ELD-M photo

Wire colors are irrelevant, always identify J1,J2,J3,J4,J5,J6 by consulting the pin-out bellow:

ELD-M pinout

 7. Reconnect the EL foil to the black socket on PCB, close the Cluster box.
After reconnecting the flexible rubber band to its socket,  paying attention to the six wires close the back cover of instrument cluster.



Note:
ELD-M cards are high quality digital inverters rigurous tested before shipping, yet, if not carry out properly the six wires soldering could become the “weaker” point in this repair procedure. If those soldering are not done by a experienced, qualified personnel, the wire could come loose in time due to vibrations of the car.

After testing, always secure the wires using plastic glue gun

IT IS MANDATORY TO FIX THE WIRES TO PREVENT THEM MOVING.

Use a plastic glue gun to fix the wires to the PCB, near soldering points and also near ELD-M inverter.

A repaired dashlight of Magnum Cluster, ELD-M inside the cluster

IF YOU ARE IN DOUBT ABOUT YOUR SOLDERING CAPABILITY ALWAYS ASK FOR QUALIFIED ASSISTANCE !

If you need any other details please contact me: