We used a "Pink Pearl" eraser to clean the ribbon cables on Radio Shack Model I.🙂

I drive my young co-workers crazy when I do that old trick. 😄

Yeah the Mercedes uses the same technology as my $1.49 desk clock.

Mercedes durability is a shadow of what it was….such a waste of money these days.

@@kentbetts 😂😂

Thanks Craig, I have a soft spot for keeping the old reliable cars on the road :) They are like time machines to a simpler era and deserve to be cared for!

@@PineHollowAutoDiagnostics Yeah, like a '96 Mercury.

@@PineHollowAutoDiagnostics wow, that's deep...

this is a band-aid fix at best. The real cure is to remove the needles, separate the cluster halves and resolder the contacts where the ribbon cables meet the board(s). Take it from a former cluster repairman! It's almost always a failed solder issue, and the same problems can be found on many makes and models of clusters.

Thank you for the kind words! Euro cars definitely keep things interesting 😉

Credit too you for being honest even though you work for MB

They wanted to charge me $1000 to do the repair which took me 30 minutes to do on my kitchen table. Same exact problem

@@walibran yikes! I believe it! And if a person didn't know what was involved, it could seem like a reasonable price. I am glad you saved the $1000! Better in your pocket.

Thank you for the idea

90s design but built in the 2000s is best :P

BMWs and Mercedes of the 90s were the best cars. All downhill from there.

@@rkan2 I can't argue with that. I have a 2002 Acura MDX that's AWD, 3 rows of heated leather seats that lay down, moon roof, dual climate AC, 3.5L Honda Vtec engine. It's so awesome. Zero rust, zero dents, and NO leaks anywhere under this thing, only 155k miles, and I got it for $1700. bwahhaah.. I freaking stole this thing.. It's such a great car. and I still have my 2002 F350 7.3L 6spd 4x4, manual transfer case, manual locking hubs, manual everything.. manual seats, manual locks and windows, manual mirrors. It doesn't even have tilt or cruise, but it's such a great truck. I have over 340k miles on it now, and it's still going strong. It's more like a tractor than a truck. 9ft flat bed; I've pulled a lot of heavy trailers with it over the years.. So I have to agree that early 2000's vehicles were awesome, and still are... Before that I drove a 95 F150 with 302. 5spd 4x4. I drove it to 330k miles and it finally spun a bearing. It never gave me any trouble whatsoever; Even when it spun a bearing I still drove it home, with the engine HAMMERING like crazy. lol.. and during those years I also drove a 97 Isuzu Rodeo 5spd 4x4-- great little SUV that's a sleeper off road. It has almost 320k miles and it finally threw the timing belt.. I ran it hard on the trails and at the dunes, and it never broke anything the entire time I had it.. I still have that thing, and the entire timing belt kit online is only $90- including water pump and pullies, etc, and I could get it going again. lol......... These 4 cars are all that I've driven for that past 20 years, and they were literally flawlessly reliable until the end. Pretty wild. I love 90's cars (and early 2000's)... I know the year right after my 2002 7.3L Diesel was the last year that they made the 7.3L Powerstroke -- and then they made the 6.0L in the second half of 2003... and it was all down hill from there, because it had a lot of problems with blown engines. That only lasted like 4 years, and then they just threw away that design because it was costing Ford so much money from all the problems it was having, while still being under warranty. Then they made a 6.4L or 6.7L diesels, and they were terrible and had lots of issues. smh.. and now Diesels have some silly "exhaust particulate filter" system now; smh. insane. I would never buy a modern diesel now. I think I got lucky, and got one of the best trucks Ford ever made, which is the final years of the 7.3L... Granted, mine is very basic and not a King Ranch or anything-- but at 340k miles, it's still a strong truck and runs great-- and since it's a manual, I don't have to worry about an automatic transmission dying (because they always do). People stop and ask me to sell it all the time, so I guess it's pretty well known to be a good truck. Cheers. Long live the 90's/2000's vehicles. lol

That's awesome! Same year as my neighbors '67 Austin Healey...also with carbs and Kingpins ;)

Mechanical gauges seem to be the best

Nice job, we had the same deal in my girlfriend's 08 Acura center display unit. It's an led screen with a speaker on top of it It would flicker on and off. I took it out, reflowed the solder with the help of a KZfaq video, and boom good as new, no parts required.

I'll take it over the 2010 model any day of the week 😅

@@PineHollowAutoDiagnostics hahaha, we'll see if you are still making these types of repairs, in say 2032 you just might say the very same thing about the 2010. My point is when this amount of planned obsolescence and high speed production started quality disappeared.

@Les Reeves Hahaha Les, it came for me years ago. It's all part of a learning curve. Some learn and sadly, some don't. 👍

Use the high strength De-Oxit spray to remove the corrosion in your Renault.

@@Anonymous-it5jw Thanks, but it's the thin ribbon foil that is degraded. Can't do much about it - it's the exact same problem as in calculators and the method shown in this bad video does not work because there is not enough length to trim the bad part out: kzfaq.info/get/bejne/Zs5kftpnqJfPmn0.html

Well 16 modules on a 1998 was pretty fancy at the time ;)

@@PineHollowAutoDiagnostics Yes, and in a C class, too.

Yeah steering wheel is not adjustable on the C class 😁

But they are glued to the circuit board lol

@@PineHollowAutoDiagnostics I hate those glued ones, packing is great but rubberband does deteriorate and break in time.

'70s hand full of wrenches and $20 you could fix almost anything.

The ones they use to tie asparagus vegetables together last a long time. They are usually purple in color and 2 or 3 times wider than most rubber bands.

Yep, they'll slowly disintegrate, O ring material might be the go or slice up so gasket material, a little bit of McGyvering required to achieve a permanent fix.

@@jo300hn Neoprene

Personally, I use old bicycle tubes made of butyl. I'm sure they won't turn into sticky slime.

Same with me, but when you are paid x amount for problem #1, you shouldn't do problem #2 even "while you're in there". He did the right thing. I have to remind myself to not to extra work when asked to do only 1 task.

Russian repair.

Caig not "Craig" 🤬

I have found the 5 red is the most common for most 99% applications. The Gold, Green, and Blue have their place.

I have the bottles...but always reach for the quick spray haha

Definitely not much muscle in this 4-banger...but probably decent on gas! :)

Yeah it's OBD2 emissions but you need the special adapter under the hood to talk to all the other modules 😁

@@PineHollowAutoDiagnostics I thought 1996 was the first year for OBD II.

hmmm I've replaced needle stepper motors on the GM trucks, but not Fords. Who needs the battery indicator anyways ;)

@@PineHollowAutoDiagnostics more of an irk, however, my truck currently needs way more than that! 🥴

I have an assortment pack from like 5 years ago. Some of them age and crumble, while other ones look mint ant stretchy. Wonder if the material composition is different?

@@PineHollowAutoDiagnosticsA thin film of glycerin on them will help but they'll rot in there. I make wire fasteners for Boeing aircraft. It's all nylon (boiled after injection molding)

I was also a little leery about the rubber bands, in Florida these things dry up in no time due to heat & moisture. I'm thinking sections of vacuum tubing might do well here. Still a great video on how to potentially fix inst. clusters. DeoxIT for the win.

The small cloth-covered hair bands that women use to hold their ponytails, have a long life and they don't melt with age.

@@KennyNica that would be too thick and uncompliant for this application. However a small slice of bicycle inner tube might last longer than a rubber band 🤔

I have...not that impressed. Autel and Launch is a better investment :)

Ok. Thank you.