Hello everyone. The speedometer, odometer and digital mileage readout works intermittently. I have the cluster out and kinda traced it to the main plug that plugs into center of cluster. When you move the plug around it goes on and off. It sits in there pretty firmly it takes some pressure to move the switch around. whenever I have it working and try to put cluster back in it goes off. Im also guessing that a certain colorcoded wire might not be making contact with the prong. Would some one know which color wire operates these parts?

I know on the 99 OBW there was an issue with the actual unit that drove the speedometer/odometer and there were two fixes, one was resoldering the joints and the other was a screw installed in the connector to jam it so that the connection would make.

 

Not sure if these apply to your issue or not.

Nice work narrowing it down so precisely!

I know on the 99 OBW

Look up that repair - being a 99 issue only, it's a very small niche but it's common enough it's well documented, and investigate to see if it's similar to yours. Involves finding a particular solder joint and repairing it.

 

If you're not up to soldering, just diagnose it and then print out the pictures/directions online and hand it to any shop, they can repair it in less than 5 minutes.

 

It's not just OBW's, but 99 is the only year this issue is prevalent.

It's possible for a 2004 to have a 1999 instrument cluster in it or this one just happens to be failing in a similar manner, which I've never seen but surely can't be impossible.

 

You can also get a used instrument cluster with roughly the same miles and carry on, they fail so rarely they're basically worthless so they're cheap, can't strand you, and easy enough to replace that used is a good option:

find someone parting one out or

www.car-part.com

 

I'm less versed in Foresters but I think any 00-04 Forester should work, get AT or MT, and 99 would work too but I'd avoid that year for the issues stated above.

Edited August 29, 20178 yr by idosubaru

Is it the lights or the actual guage that doesn't work?

Thanks all. I will try to connect a different cluster today from the same year and model to see if it works. Other than that I just might have to find out which wire it is and re solder after I try jamming something in there to keep it in place.

Is it the lights or the actual guage that doesn't work?

Could not tell the lights it was during daylight but speedometer, odometer and mileage display were inter-mitten.

Update. It was the cluster that was bad. Pulled one out of junk yard and it works just fine. Its just it had 100.000 more miles on it, but hey it works. Thank You everyone. Im sure Ill have more questions soon.