Anyone know how to bench test a instrument cluster?

[DonutHands]

Going to be swapping out a LCD screen and want to know how to power it up without plugging it into the car.

[mpower]

Blue plug...

12v - Pins 1 and 23
Ground - Pins 7, 9, 24

[DonutHands]

12v SLA with (+) to 1 and 23 and (-) to 7, 9 and 24. Just like that.

Any idea what will happen when i do this? Will everything light up or will it actually resemble what it looks like when you turn the car on.

Thanks for your help.

[mpower]

Yes, the cluster will power up just like in the car, except that it will not have feed from any of the sensors so you will get warning lights for ABS (mainly). You have to be very careful not to cross the pins or you might burn up the cluster. Your best bet is to test in the car with original connectors. Any reason for doing bench test?

[A62TURBO]

Check this link out LCD Replacement

[prizmatik]

I just tried powering it up by connecting the pins. IT WORKS. I used the small red butt connectors and cut the plastic on 1 end to use on each pin for positive and negative.

[jkspeed]

Sorry for thread revival, but did you really hook up power from a car battery to do this test? or, what battery was used?

[okkim]

I have made my own test bench, and it works but the backlights don't lit up. in facelift clusters. I have tested with facelift A4 and RS4 cluster. If I use old pre facelift A4 cluster, backlight works. If I remove the pin 20 wire, the backlight goes off in pre facelift cluster. It doesn't change anything with other cluster if play with it.

I have connected 12V to pins 1, 15, 20 and 23. If I don't connect the pins 15 or 23, the odometer has text "SICH". I think that if the cluster was coded to English, it would say "FUSE".
Ground pins are 7, 9, 24.

I don't understand what am I missing? I can connect with VCDS, and all other lights work, but the backlight doesn't.

[okkim]

I figured it out. The parking light wires, blue connector pins 26 and 27 have to be connected to +12V.
Instrument_cluster_backlight.png

The pin 20 wire is not needed.

[DaytonCarCare]

Blue plug...

12v - Pins 1 and 23
Ground - Pins 7, 9, 24

Do you know what color wires those are on the blue plug harness?...

Later...

I did some testing and Pin 1 is black and 23 is Red/Black, Pins 7, 9 and 24 are all Brown (blue plug from a 2000 1.8t)