Burnt instrument panel on backside

[My383duster]

Hello everyone, I have a question, ( it's not an A body) my daughter has a 1996 dodge stratus I bought for her 3 years ago for 200.00 dollars, I had to rebuild the engine and that is it.low miles, very nice car.she was coming home yesterday and smoke came out of the dash and died, I took out the gauge cluster and right above a plug connection there's some burnt resistors and inside also.All wiring and plug in are great. The battery is completely dead, is it possible that the alternator could have sent wide open voltage to the gauge cluster. Thank You for any help on this even though it's not an A body. I Have a picture attached.

 

[Dana67Dart]

WOW that's bad. Was there any symptoms leading up to this? Probably quickest thing you could do is pull the alt and have it tested if you suspect it. My guess is just an electrical malfunction on the PCB. The two black resistor looking components by the large connector look like diodes to me. It sort of looks like the large capacitor blew. Care to post more detailed photos of the burnt area from other angles? Is there more burnt components anywhere else on the PCB?

 

[Tooljunkie]

I would test battery. It may have forced alternator to overcharge.
Cluster likely can be found pretty cheap used, but i would suggest you get the lock cylinder and keys to go with it as the cluster contains the anti-theft module. I could be mistaken, but you might want to know whats needed before you head off to the wrecker.

 

[Dana67Dart]

Cluster likely can be found pretty cheap used

Saw two on ebay for ~$60.00.

 

[My383duster]

Hey guys, I had the alternator checked AT our local rebuilder, IT checked o.k.,we loaded hard and it stayed in range. ( sorry I forgot to add that to my post),this is the only damage, I checked complete harness, under hood and dash and it all looks great, I can't even find overheated insulation, I will post more pics tomorrow, I have seen batteries do some weird things so I'm gonna buy a battery, then start checking grounds and voltage through out harness, my daughter told me she was coming down the highway and everything was o.k. and working, then all at once smoke came out of dash and died, I will check Ebay for one. Thank you gentlemen for your help and I will post more pics tomorrow. THANKS AGAIN GUYS. I JUST WANTED TO SAY THAT ALL OF Y'ALL ARE GREAT AND HAVE A KICK BUTT MOPAR OR NO CAR WEBSITE!!!!!!!

 

[Dana67Dart]

I have seen batteries do some weird things so I'm gonna buy a battery

Unless you have bought a battery already have it charged and checked, most auto parts stores will do it for you.

I work with electronics and have had more than my share of capacitors go off on me. I even had a cir work perfect till I disconnected the power supply and reconnected it. POOF-POP-FLAME! double checked I didn't do something wrong and tried a second cir and it did the same thing with the same 100% verified correct setup.

 

[67Dart273]

Don't know. It's possible the alternator developed a problem and caused "full output" charging and high voltage. It's possible the trouble started "right there" in the cluster.

IT IS ALSO POSSIBLE that some other problem caused enough current in the harness that it melted some wires together and "crossed" them in the harness.

"Good luck." used dash at a junkyard. Power it with the old cluster removed and any wiring / connectors "safed." and check for shorts, heat, smoke.

If you get it running, use a good battery "to test" and MONITOR battery voltage with a voltmeter. Start and run, bring RPM up SLOWLY while watching for too much battery voltage. If it climbs much over 15 and continues to 16, shut it down, check alternator, related wiring, voltage regulator, and or replace.

 

[Dana67Dart]

 

[My383duster]

O.k.,that's what I am gonna do today, I have checked all wiring harness under hood and dash. I have been a mechanic for years now on cars,some semi's,and worked for John Deere for 23 years. I Have had to trace wiring problems on many tractors and replace or repair harness problems, I have all of the meters and one of my Fluke meters has a amp and voltage sensor that I use.I rewired my Duster and put all ignition components, ballist resistors, starter relay, voltage regulator inside the firewall. It had a slant 6 when I bought it, I built my motor mounts and dropped in a 383.At the time all I could buy were fender well headers, Even with heat wrap it was getting hot around the electronic's, so I cured that, anyway there are things I run into on wiring. I always check out every thing I can but sometimes wiring throws me a curve ball and I need advice and you guys are a lot of help and I really appreciate it. I Have some more pics of the instrument panel that I am putting on here. Many Many thanks for the help on this and have a great day

 

[Dana67Dart]

Sounds like you have everything well in hand. I'm just an electronics nerd and love trying to figure out the root cause of electronics malfunctions. Would live to see some of the soot cleaned away.

 

[Daves69]

Had something similar on our '08 Sebring. It didn't get to the fried and die state. I pulled the cluster because I could smell some plastic stinking. Looked to me this connector was getting a bit warm by it's discoloring.

Looking at the cluster a sticker on it indicated it was change out a 20k.

These are smaller pins and than the OP's. I was thinking possibly poor connections were possible with the connection.
So I bent the pins out in the back of the cluster to attempt better contact.
Drove it to LA and back not too long afterwards. We traded it at about 80k and no more issues.

 

[Dana67Dart]

What was the outcome?

 

[joseph schrom]

you could have was in open circuit and the amps or your volts that runs got hot and caused it to burn like it did the because amps dose all the work in the system wires had in open circuit and caused it to get hot

 

[67Dart273]

you could have was in open circuit and the amps or your volts that runs got hot and caused it to burn like it did the because amps dose all the work in the system wires had in open circuit and caused it to get hot

I tried reading this backwards and it still made no sense. It got somewhat better when I read the first part of the second part and then tagged that to the second part of the first part. Last I adde..................................................

 

[BillGrissom]

1996 was still reasonably simple analog electronics so you could replace components. Perhaps all components on the dash circuit board are still detailed in the schematics, as they were in our old cars. But, probably easier to just swap circuit boards. I don't think my 1996 Voyager has any security devices. My 2002 T&C does have the SKIM security, but I don't think that involves the dash cluster, just a pickup near the key and the engine controller box.

If the voltage regulator failed, that could cause over-voltage. I think all 1990+ Mopars have the Vreg inside the engine controller. It is a fairly stand-alone circuit and was just included there for cost. You can find Dodge truck sites where they cut the wires and installed a 1970's Vreg when that circuit failed. Buy a cheap cigarette-lighter voltmeter to monitor as you drive.

I agree there is a spot next to the capacitor where some component was vaporized. If you can make out the lettering, that would tell you what (C = capacitor, D = diode, ...).