131mirafiori forum

HI all
Have any of you ever cleaned a instrument cluster ie. taken it apart to clean behind the clear plastic and if how easy it ? Mine is fully working but very dirty behind the plastic  :(
Thanks

Easy to do except getting the knob off for the trip mileometer can be a pain.

Yes, but it should just pull off. Be careful  not to lose the spring behind it. Cleaning the instruments makes a big difference and make sure you carefully clean the pointers too as they get a film of dirt and you don't realise how dull they've become until you clean them.

Thanks guys  ;)

You might as well repaint the pointers, if you take the cluster apart for cleaning - I did this 10 years ago, and they still look bright in orange (took enamel paint for model making), much better than in faded yellow:

apart from being careful with the three plastic knobs on the glass, you should clean the black dust from the watch. You can see this awful black dust, all this is from the watch mechanism. So after keeping away the whole thing from the car, let's work on a table. The cluster is made of sheets, just separate from each other, the glass, the front trim, and the back case. Once you get access to the instruments, you can gently clean them with a wet cotton staple and a little mild soap. Don't exceed, cause you could drip it behind. Then clean with more wet cotton staples until you have no more soap. Same for needles, and remember to clean all the white surfaces you find behind the instruments, cause they are needed to reflect the green light from bulbs. Change all bulbs, and clean contacts. If your bulbs don't glow as should, you may have the typical failure on the reostate. The weak point is a connection on the reostate made with just one tiny copper wire between the center of the reostate and the rotating arm. Just add a bigger wire to upgrade electric contact. And rememeber, copper contacts on the side of the cluster are delicate, and can easily tear off. Just clean them and be careful with the plastic plugs that slip on them.

Robert I'm impressed that looks good way better than before  8)