The main instrument panel does not light up when the head lights and park lights are on. The radio, heater control, Automatic shift lever, power mode toggle switch, ashtray, cigar lighter, etc all light up, and they dimmer when you rotate the dimmer switch.. Also all the indicator and warning light light up when they are suppose to. Any suggestions on what has happened and how to fix. This is on a 2002 chevy tracker 2 door with 2.0 engine.

 

You've checked all the fuses inside and in the engine compartment. I suppose?

 

yep, fuses ok

 

This happened to my 2003 Tracker. I purchased the vehicle around 6pm and as I was driving home and it was getting darker I noticed that some instrument lights were on, others were not. I put it on my list of things to correct. Once I popped off the dash panels and got the cluster out, I checked bulbs obviously and all were good. I then noticed 2 crispy hot spots on the copper film that connects some panel lights together. upon inspection they fried and broke the connection rendering the panel about junk.

Look for signs of overheat or burnt sections in the green and copper film behind the instrument panel. Broken copper means there's a disconnect in the power.

Solutions to this would be a new dash cluster (I found one online for about $55 that was 2K miles over of my original broken cluster). If you're not so lucky to find one close to the mileage,(go ahead and drop one in that cuts your mileage, but that's kind of frowned upon) purchase a new working one and replace the green film that has the copper film connections. This will result in a functional dash backlight and preserve your actual mileage.

I'm certainly not an expert, I have zero clue what could have caused these burnt locations. And it was like this when I purchased the car so I have no details on what had happened when the lights went out.

Best of luck.



Back of cluster, where you would replace burnt bulbs.

Fried location one

Fried location two

 

DaveD,
Excellent photos. I have added them to my collection. Another option that would preserve the mileage is to repair the broken traces. They are copper and a jumper can be easily soldered across the break. You can insulate the bare copper with Testor's model paint.

 

I had the same problem with my 02 two door Chevy tracker with 2.0 engine. I removed the panel and found a shorted trace on the printed circuit. A large panel screw had backed out and hit a trace which shorted out and created a gap in the trace. I went on line to the internet and found a liquid silver ink pen used for repairing traces. This allow me to build a “bridge” across the gap. Works fine and going on three years. Oh the pen costs about $30.