loss of lighting in instrument panel
 

Hi All, I am new here and wondering if you can help me out with something. I have a 1996 900S, just bought it. I noticed that when you start it up all the backlighting on the instrument panel lights up but then quickly dims. I am specifically talking about the backlighting on the speedometer, tachometer, gas guage, heat controls, all dash controls. At night I cannot see any of the guages. The various lights such as check engine, shift up etc. work fine. I checked to make sure all fuses were good, the headlights are on, and the dial to the left of the steering wheel is all the way up. Any ideas why this is happening?

RE: loss of lighting in instrument panel
 

Are you sure your night panel mode isn't on?

Does anyone know where I can get the small bulbs for the instrument panel, for a 2002 95 arc? They're the style that pushes in and turns 90° to lock in. I've been searching a lot of sites online, and none of them are usefull, most of the parts dealers are generic in their sites, and most cars don't have a simple way to replace the bulbs.

Please help, thanks.

We are having the same problem. Anyone have the solution to why the instrument panel dims out? Night mode is off.

eeuroparts.com has them. I just had to replace 3...

Someone please help.....Sigh Could it be a bad dimmer switch?

Thanks in advance.

Chris

i have a 96 as well, mine did not dim though. the lights would be on for some time then flicker off and then back on so on and so on. the gauges would also go out when this happened. i checked voltage to every wire on the back and re-sodered weak looking connections. but in the end nothing came of it, i ended up buying a used gauge cluster off ebay. they are 150 dollars or less it probably your best bet.

instrument cluster problems
 

I had a similar problem with my 94 Saab 900. Namely, the gas guage, SRS, warning triangle, and odometer were intermittent (among others, but thats a different post...) Somewhere on the net, I found some information that pointed me to cold solder joints on one of the instrument cluster circuit boards. Sure enough, after touching up the connections near R13 on the smaller board with my soldering iron (which also showed some discoloration by the way), the problem with the gas guage/odometer was fixed!

Unfortunately, I still have two other instrument cluster related problems...

1) the speedometer works intermittently
2) the battery is not charging

Did you ever find an answer to this? I just picked up my (new to me) 2008 9-3 LInear 1.8t and driving in very bright sunlight, all I could read on the dash was the mileage/info section. The speedometer and all other gauges were completely readable, however they never turn green, same with dials and other dash / console buttons. Do the headlights have to be on, or is it that you have to be in the dark to really see the green color? Sounds dumb, maybe but I”m wondering. Thanks.