Any electronic wizards out there?
My problem originally surfaced a couple weeks ago when the fuse blew for the instrument panel. I replaced with original size 5 amp, only to have it blow
2 seconds later. Probably not a smart move, but I then replaced that with a 10 amp. The gages then worked fine, until today. The "trip computer" LEDs started flashing off and on, almost like a wire was loose.I pulled it apart, and there are no real wires, it is all a printed circuit board. (attached is a link to a picture of it).
formatting link
At first I thought the burned-looking spot at the lower right of the display signified a problem, but after plugging the board back in, and starting the car, I found out that the component in the upper-right gets hot really fast. Not sure if it is bad, or a short somewhere else is causing the problem. It has what looks like a heat-sink attached, but I am sure it is not supposed to get that hot.
The fuse draws .02 amp without the trip computer plugged in, and 2.5 amps with it. That is obviously too high. (actually it drops to about 1.2 amp when things get hot)
I probably should just try to find a board in a junk yard, instead of fooling with it, but I would prefer to pick up a part at radioshack if that is all it needs..
Thanks for any ideas, -Ron