[Salva76]

Hello,

The flex of the sid (sid 3) of my Saab Ng900 96 turbo broke so I replaced with a new one I bought from ebay. I did the job of soldering the new flex trying to be very careful cleaning the contacts and aligning the ribbons properly. At first sight, it was all ok.

After installing it, all pixels are on, but now I have a problem: the lights in the cluster and the clock in the sid, turns on just for about 5 seconds before they go off.

I have read that it is caused by the light sensor in the sid. My question is: Is there a way to bypass the light sensor and make the cluster lights to switch on whenever the key switch is on?

It's really annoying to drive at night without lights in the cluster :evil:

Thanks in advance for some guide!

 

[EdT]

The light sensor in the SID controls the brightness of the SID display and the odometer only. The rest of your cluster illumination is totally controlled by the panel illumination knob down below the switches for headlight, fog light, etc.

When the car is first started, the SID and odometer are on full bright no matter what. Then, in a few seconds, the SID will dim if it's dark, to the level set by the rest of the cluster illumination (speedometer, tachometer, etc.)

What do you see at night? Is it only the SID that is dark, or everything else? Is the speedometer lit or dark? Do the gauge needles move? What happens when you move the dimmer wheel?

 

[Salva76]

Thanks EdT,

When the car is started, the lights in the cluster and the lights of all gauges turns on for about 5 seconds, then all the lights (in the cluster) turns off. The SID display is always illuminated and has never dim at night, always has a constant brightness.

If I unplug the SID, all lights in the cluster keeps turned on, thats why I thought the SID has something wrong.

With the SID plugged in, the dimmer wheel does nothing, when the SID is unplugged the dimmer works fine... By the way, the gas and turbo gauges had never worked since I have the car, I use the DTE of the SID to control the average fuel consumption.

 

[jakejm79]

Make sure when you reassembled the SID that the light sensor is properly seated in the recess for the case for it, if it isn't it gets bent to the side and will pick up the back lighting of the SID screen has the current light level rather than the light level outside the SID.

 

[EdT]

Are the gauge lights totally, completely off? At minimum brightness they can only be seen in full darkness. Also, your temp and tach gauges work okay? What happens when you press Black Panel?

What happens when you shine a bright light right into the sensor?

I am puzzled by what is happening, specifically that the dimmer setting does nothing when the SID is installed. Even in full daylight, on the NG900 the dimmer wheel varies the brighness of the gauges, and the illumination never goes out. And in full darkness, the SID and odometer illumination first is full brightness, then goes to the level set by the dimmer.

In other words, I don't see that a simply malfunctioning SID light detector would cause these problems.

 

[Salva76]

Hi jakejm79, today I checked the light sensor and it is properly seated in the recess.

 

[Salva76]

Are the gauge lights totally, completely off? At minimum brightness they can only be seen in full darkness. Also, your temp and tach gauges work okay? What happens when you press Black Panel?

What happens when you shine a bright light right into the sensor?

I am puzzled by what is happening, specifically that the dimmer setting does nothing when the SID is installed. Even in full daylight, on the NG900 the dimmer wheel varies the brighness of the gauges, and the illumination never goes out. And in full darkness, the SID and odometer illumination first is full brightness, then goes to the level set by the dimmer.

In other words, I don't see that a simply malfunctioning SID light detector would cause these problems.

EdT,
It is correct, all the gauge lights go completely off. The temp and tach gauges work okay and when the Black Panel is pressed, all lights go off, including the odometer. Also, with the Black Panel pressed, the tach gauge falls down.

Today I tried with a bright light in front of the light sensor and the light in the SID gradually increased. Oddly, now when the SID is unplugged the dimmer does nothing, but the light in the cluster are bright.

Another thing, the clock works ok but it has no lights to illuminate it. I will check later if they are ok.