This past Saturday I went to start my truck and discovered that the instrument cluster had failed. The entire cluster remained black except for a solid red security light to the left of the water temp gauge. The truck started fine, but I had no headlight control (the headlights came on by themselves as soon as I started it, but I could not turn them off), brake lights would not come on except for the high brake light behind the cab (cargo lamp), wipers not working, turn signals not working, horn, hazard lights, etc, all not working. Radio worked fine, as did the power windows and A/C.

My truck is a 2002 Dodge RAM SLT 4x4 with only 46k miles. I troubleshooted the problem and determined that it had to be either the front control module (FCM) or the instrument cluster (IC), but was leaning toward the IC since I couldn't get the IC to respond whatsoever, even to the self-diagnostic test.

I called Dodge and they want $674 for a new IC and will program the old miles and VIN into it at the factory, before shipping it to the dealer. The parts rep told me he doubted it was the IC and that I should bring it in to get properly diagnosed. I disregarded his suggestion since I don't have a good experience with dealership service departments and felt they would just start replacing items at my expense until they found the problem. Further, I did not want to take a ~$700 risk since I wasn't completely sure it was the IC that had failed. I decided to buy a used IC off eBay from a 2003 Ram with 97k miles. I found a decent deal for $80 shipped. I plugged it in and reconnected the battery and the problem was fixed. The entire replacement IC works great.

I'm posting this thread since I had no luck searching for a similar problem online. It would have been nice if I found others with the exact same problem and could read what they did to resolve it, but I only found a single post that matched my description, and it was posted 3 years ago with no response. And that forum appears to have been deactivated in 2008. I hope this information, and all the keywords I included helps others who experience this same problem.

On a side note, I asked the eBay seller if the truck the IC came out of had power door locks and an A/T. He confirmed it did. However, my power door locks do not work with the replacement IC and the back of the IC has no socket for the RKE module which leads me to believe the seller was mistaken. So I am trying to come up with a solution to re-enable my power door locks. Also, I'm disappointed that my odometer shows much higher mileage than what the truck really has, but since I love this truck and plan to drive it into the ground I'm not losing sleep over it. I've recorded the mileage prior to the IC replacement, and the replacement IC's odometer reading, so at any time I can calculate the true mileage. I'm sure the mileage is also stored in another module under the hood so I would expect I can buy a diagnostic reader to show this if needed.

Anyways, I hope this helps someone. And if any Ram experts have advice on helping me re-activate my power door locks, I'd appreciate it anything you can share.

 

Glad to see your post - have this van (eX w/3.8L)which has been a trooper hauling all 5+ of us and stuff, and noticed on occasion the LED's that display the odometer would flash bright or flicker. Then later the Tach and Speedo gauges started going 0-100 and other lights blinking after a period of weak engine starts. After a seeming dead battery episode (batt wouldn't take a charge), I replaced the Mopar battery. Upon restarting -- in the 1st few miles everything worked great, then when I used the turn signals the gauges went nuts again!

Now odometer LED's are almost indistinguishable (brightness) and gauges may or may not work intermittently, and the door open buzzer is faint -- BUT ALL THE OTHER ELECTRICAL ITEMS WORK (windows, radio and dome lights, heater etc)

Very puzzled, 1 mechanic said he was aware of some 1998-99 era IC issues but not this year (2002).

Will try to find an IC based on your post.

Any other suggestions - anyone? Thanks