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Ghost "I" Light

Posted: Thu Mar 25, 2021 9:59 am
by linderpat
So a new thing has recently reared its head on my red 85. The "I" light in the cluster center never fully goes out after I release the e-brake. Instead, it just dims way down. You can't really notice it in daytime driving, but it is very obvious in the parking garage or the garage at home, or at night.

One other data point, as long as I've owned the car, when I put the headlights on, I get a full brightness "I" light and a tail light warning on the cluster. No tail lights are out. I push the "I" light button on the consol, and the "I" light on the cluster always went all the way off, until recently (now it's a ghost light).

Thoughts?

Re: Ghost "I" Light

Posted: Thu Mar 25, 2021 10:22 am
by N_Jay
Failing electronics. Standard electrolytic capacitors have a useful life of 5 to 20 years.

Re: Ghost "I" Light

Posted: Thu Mar 25, 2021 11:57 am
by captainOCD
My blue car had a bunch of false warnings on when I got it. Turned out to be the central warning module in the foot well. It had lots of corrosion on it. Put in the one from my parts car and that solved it.

Re: Ghost "I" Light

Posted: Thu Mar 25, 2021 3:13 pm
by 3.2 Targa
linderpat wrote: Thu Mar 25, 2021 9:59 am So a new thing has recently reared its head on my red 85. The "I" light in the cluster center never fully goes out after I release the e-brake. Instead, it just dims way down. You can't really notice it in daytime driving, but it is very obvious in the parking garage or the garage at home, or at night.

One other data point, as long as I've owned the car, when I put the headlights on, I get a full brightness "I" light and a tail light warning on the cluster. No tail lights are out. I push the "I" light button on the consol, and the "I" light on the cluster always went all the way off, until recently (now it's a ghost light).

Thoughts?

From a general perspective, when lamps do this, it is usually indicative of a bad ground somewhere. There are other components on the lamp circuit drawing power and the ground current is passing through the lamp and causing it to illuminate. The cluster ground is a good place to look.

Re: Ghost "I" Light

Posted: Thu Mar 25, 2021 5:03 pm
by linderpat
Yes, the grounds are what the consensus seems to be, and what I suspect too. I did a full refresh of the pod recently, including the grounds, and this weekend it'll be the CE panel out and on the bench for the full refresh, and a good cleaning of grounds and battery posts, etc,.