Cole560

Hi, I recently bought a 1988 Mercedes 560SEC and am having some trouble turning on the speedometer, tachometer and other gauge lights. All the other interior lights work fine and I was wondering if there was a seperate switch for those ones? My manual is in Japanese so it isn't much of a help.
Any info or suggestions is greatly appreciated.
Cole

w123_w126

No, the dash lights come on with the parking and/or headlights. There is a dimmer knob for bringing up the dash lights.

jhodg5kc

chances are the potentiometer for the dash lights is on the fritz. More often then not they are just dirty.. As a quick and easy try swinging the knob back and forth (the one of the left of the cluster) see if they wake up @ all. If nothing then I would wager you need a new potentiometer.

Did you purchase your car from the fellows out on the west coast? If so which one did you buy??

Jonathan

cdplayer

I had the same problem with my 500SEC after I changed the outside temp gauge from Cent. to Fahrenheit.

You will need to pull the gauge cluster out. From the passenger side of the cluster look behind to find the square plug right behind the speedometer.
Push it in firmly. Or perhaps the wire plug has detached completely and is just laying somewhere close by.

Cole560

Thanks for the info, I'll look into a potentiometer.
And actually I just got it from a private seller.
Cole