I just picked up an '05 sedan and on the instrument panel,the backlighting on the left half of the right gauge (I can't remember if it's the speedo or the tach) is flickering randomly. I tried some percussive troubleshooting (banging on the dash above the instrument panel) with no real change in the flickering lighting. Is that an internal failure of the gauge cluster or something that I can fix?

 

Does it also do it with the headlights on?

 

Good question. I'll have to check.

What if it does (or doesn't)?

 

It doesn't seem to make a difference whether the headlights are on or not.

I did notice that it's not actually the entire half of the speedo. It's a small area between 15mph and 30mph, or there abouts.

Bad single LED in that particular section? Any fixes other that replacing the entire gauge cluster?

 

I had that issue with a POS Mazda 626 I used to have. Such a common issue on those the fix was pinned in the forum. They put a green translucent cap on the bulbs to make the gauges even greener but the caps would overheat the bulbs and they'd burn out. Had to pull the cluster and replace the bulbs and leave the caps off. Gauges were still green and now a bit brighter. Our cluster though, not sure what type of lights they use but it may be possible to replace just one burnt out bulb or LED.