bulb might be dead

 

what krzayzie said seems right. The bulb behind the indicator might be burned out.

And as for if your not sure if your high beams are on or not, if you pull the trigger and theres more light, your high beams are on

 

what krzayzie said seems right. The bulb behind the indicator might be burned out.

And as for if your not sure if your high beams are on or not, if you pull the trigger and theres more light, your high beams are on

lol yeah thats what ive been doing. alright so id have to pull out the cluster to get to the bulb and replace it? thanks for the info guys

 

Yep That would be the best possibility...take a small phillips screwdriver and unscrew the two screws holding the trim bezel thingy where the cluster is. Put your steering wheel all the way down, and push down on the bezel and pull it out. Then take a longer phillips and catch the two screws on either side of the cluster and then use a short phillips to catch the top center one. The cluster will pull out part of the way, but you will have to unplug the wires in the back of it which isn't hard, and I think since it is the first time it will be pulled out, you will have to cut a zip tie holding the harness to the cluster while you're at it. Then find the top center light socket (the little black plastic thingys, and turn it a quarter turn counterclockwise and pull it out. The bulb is in this socket...if it's burnt out, replace it, if not, idk...
If this was confusing, use this article changing bulbs in g3 clusters
Malhon

 

Yep That would be the best possibility...take a small phillips screwdriver and unscrew the two screws holding the trim bezel thingy where the cluster is. Put your steering wheel all the way down, and push down on the bezel and pull it out. Then take a longer phillips and catch the two screws on either side of the cluster and then use a short phillips to catch the top center one. The cluster will pull out part of the way, but you will have to unplug the wires in the back of it which isn't hard, and I think since it is the first time it will be pulled out, you will have to cut a zip tie holding the harness to the cluster while you're at it. Then find the top center light socket (the little black plastic thingys, and turn it a quarter turn counterclockwise and pull it out. The bulb is in this socket...if it's burnt out, replace it, if not, idk...
If this was confusing, use this article changing bulbs in g3 clusters
Malhon

wow thats great. Thanks for the step-by-step process that helps ALOT! im gonna go out and try it and replace the bulb. i should be able to find that bulb at any auto parts store right.

 

should be able to...heck, I got some at walmart even!

 

Im not really sure if they sell those bulbs at an auto parts store because of its size, but any dealer should have them! Its prob gunna be around 4-5 dollars!

 

Im not really sure if they sell those bulbs at an auto parts store because of its size, but any dealer should have them! Its prob gunna be around 4-5 dollars!

yeah thats what i was thinkin. Ill check around and hopefully ill get lucky.

 

well it turns out no auto store by me has these bulbs. I called my local acura dealer and i ordered the bulb and it costed me 10 bucs. it should be in on thursday so its not too bad. Thanks for all the help everyone!

 

ok i got my bulb today from acura and just installed it. and guess what...nothing. No light came on for the highbeam indicator and im pretty pissed. does anyone else know what the prob might be. i know it doesnt really matter that the indicator light isnt working but its just one of those things that bugs you. so if anyone else can give me some possibilities what it may be i would really appreciate it.

 

Basically you'll be looking for an electrical problem following a path/pattern; from the bulb to the points in the wiring harness that divert power from the battery and the alternator. These instructions isolate the cluster panel board. If you have trouble making sense of this, please reply with questions. Other members, please pipe-in and correct me when I'm wrong. No matter how much I know, it seems I can always learn more. You may need to re-read this:

1. Check your fuses (if you haven't yet). It could be a 40A, 50A, or 15A fuse that leads to the lighting. There is one in the underhood box. I'm not sure if there is one or more under the dash, so check those too.

2. If those are good, then we need to see if the bulb is getting power from the wires that lead to it. With the aforementioned instrument cluster out, remove the bulb.

3. Put your keys in the ignition and turn the key to the accesorry position. Your engine doesn't need to be running (unless you got a bad battery).

4. Pull back on the dimmer switch.

5. Confirm your high beams are on.

6. Use a multimeter to test the leads going to (not from) the cluster panel. You should get 12 volts or less (if you know the actual number, please reply with it!). If the readout is negative, you have your test leads backwards. If you get no volt reading, no matter if the test leads are backwards or right, then you certainly know there's something wrong. Take note of which wire is hot/positive. The hard part comes in trying to find where the problem lies; that's why I like following a pattern. Theoretically, a problem could be between the lightbulb socket and where the alternator &/or battery sends power to the cluster. It could be something wrong with the cluster board or in the wiring (or worse, both). Make sure there's no corrosion on the leads where the lightbulb fits. I'll get to isolating the cluster board later. There could be a grounding problem.

7. If you're not getting any voltage reading whatsoever then you need to check for resistance (congruency) in the same leads you just tested.

8. Switch your multimeter to Ohms and check the resistance of the multimeter itself & note that number.

9. The same way you tested the leads to cluster panel the bulb for voltage, test for an Ohm reading. It should not be infitity and it should be higher than the number you just noted.

10. If you get a voltage reading from the pig tail/connection going to the instrument cluster pig tail, that's a bit of good news. That's what I would expect. So now we have to test the instrument cluster.

11. Plug in the instrument cluster back in and repeat the tests with the leads to the lightbulb. I'm sorry, before you do that, leave it out and check the cluster board for congruency (done by Ohm reading). That maybe not feasible if it has more than one pair of wires going into it to power the cluster board. If there is just one pigtail that connects to power, one hot lead will be in the pigtail (attached to the cluster panel that you disconnected). Hopefully you know which one from noting the hotwire from the aforementioned step six. Attach the red lead from the multimeter to the wire that gets power. Attach the other, black, lead of the multimeter to the + side of the lightbulb socket. If you're not getting congrency, that's a sign it's a bad cluster board. If it's a bad board, you can replace it or have automotive electrician see if he/she can fix it. Fixing boards isn't typically done at a person's residence. Unless you are an electrical engineer, an automotive electrician, or you fix boards to earn money. A good tuner who works on ECU's maybe able to fix a instrument cluster board.

If you're not getting volts to the cluster, but you have congreuncy in the cluster board, that doesn't mean your cluster board is bad. However, If the cluster board is getting power (volt reading from the connections coming from the connection from the wiring harness) and it doesn't have congrency then it is bad. Reconfirm this buy plugging back into the wiring harness and test the leads of the lightbulb socket for volts and ohms.

Oh yeah, checking the ground wires for congrency is how to test for grounding. The way to test for grounding on the board is to attach the red test lead to the negative lightbulb socket and attach the negative test lead on the end of the negative lead in the pigtail (the lead that's not hot). You want a higher Ohm reading than the Ohm reading than the Ohm reading you get from touching the multimeter leads together and you don't want infinity or zero.

If the instrument cluster board is fine, then you're gonna have to go deeper down the "path". In the meantime, I'll look for a *good* wiring diagram to reply to this.

 

I'm not sure OP still has a bad bulb six years later.

 

Renewing Old threads



Yeah, I thought about how long ago this thread/topic started. The orginal issue is probably fixed today. However, knowing that highbeam indicator lights & cluster panel lights do go out, there probably will be someone else who will have the same proplem or perhaps has the problem currently and hasn't gotten to it yet. That has been my case for over 5 years. There were much more important things that needed done on my car before I entertained a thought of fixing a little bulb (e.g. bad clutch disk, worn CV joints, worn brakes, bad thermostat, etc.). So when the bulb gets shipped to my house or I go get one, I'll spend 30 minuets on a break to replace the bulb. And, God willing, I won't have to use a multimeter.

 

checking the instrument cluster "board" part 2

Check for congruency between the lead, 2nd from the right, in front of my index finger and the lower contact that goes to the bulb (middle missing bulb socket in picture). I think this is the positive lead (I'll have to check later) Also check for congruency between the top bulb contact and follow the copper line until you get to a screw (not in picture, but you can see the copper line at the top of the panel). This, I believe is the negative/ground. Place the test leads of a multimeter on the top bulb (red) lead and the other (black) on the bulb.

The numbers I was looking for/trying to remember: 0 ohms is bad, one means "infinity" which you don't want either. You want any number besides 1 and zero even if it is 0.01

I checked my bulb to see if it was good by swapping it with the "brake" bulb (a known good, working, bulb). The high beam indicator still light didn't come on.

I couldn't find a decent schematic/diagram of this, so there'll be more to come. With more pictures.

As I was doing this, I remembered that I will also have to check for a signal coming from the high beam switch/turn signal switch. This might become a "write up".

Does anybody know if there's a relay between the turn signal switch and the board?

 

For those of you who are more visual. This is the screw and contact I was referring to:

 

When you remove the instrument cluster behind it looks like this. The blue connector in the middle is bigger than the one on the left.

 

This is the left blue connector and I'm pointing to a negative lead, second from the middle. This is a point to test for voltage (the black multi lead will go here, not the red).

 

And the red/positive or "hot" goes here; 2nd from the left. This is the "middle" blue connector. It should read 12 volts (or less, just hope not 0.00) when the highbeams are turned on.

If you're getting a voltage reading here, big enough to make the tiny bulb shine, then you can assume there's nothing wrong beyond this point. If you still get nothing, it maybe the turn signal relay (or another relay I haven't seen yet). But I'm not sure if the turn signal relay is a part of this circuit. It wouldn't hurt to test the relay(s).