Dash it all

I’ve lost count of the number of times I’ve been lying under my car, blood dripping from my knuckles because I just smashed them against the engine when the spanner slipped off a bolt, or I’m into the 5^th hour of doing a 5 minute job and have 3 screws left over that I have no idea where they came from when someone (much smarter than me) walks up and sheepishly comments, “why don’t you save yourself the hassle and take it to the mechanic”.  Truth be known I’ve asked myself the same question on a number of occasions and have at times given in to this.  It certainly would have saved me countless hours of heartache and in some cases money like when I paid $150 to have the alternator rebuilt because the dash light showed it wasn’t charging the batter.  Turns out, I discovered latter, it was just a 20c fuse causing all the problems. Much worse than that it was actually my own fault because I had taken the fuse out to give it to a mate who had a blown fuse in his car and I just forgot to replace it in my car.  However each time I ask myself why do I keep doing this I keep coming back to the same answer.  Peace of mind.

If I can’t fix the most simple of jobs that need to be done on the car in the comfort of the home garage with all the tools in my shed at my disposal and where helpful advice from my Father is only a phone call away, then how could I possibly ever think that I would have any chance of performing repairs in the middle of the bush in 40⁰c covered in flies with only limited resources and 300km from the nearest assistance.

In the same way that we scoff at the supposed lack of preparation of some 4wd owners when they venture onto soft beaches without so much as a compressor to reinflate their tyres perhaps we should consider our own ability to overcome challenging situations.  As owners and drivers of 4wd vehicles we have a responsibility to ensure the safe return of the occupants (often our own kids) from whatever destination we travel to. 

It is for this very reason that I do all the servicing of my 4wd and as many of the repairs as I can.  I know that I’ll never be able to tackle everything that goes wrong with my mighty Paj but at least by making myself familiar with it in basic maintenance I’ve got more of a chance of doing repairs in less than ideal situations and perhaps saving mine and my families life or at the very least not burdening someone else who has to come and rescue me.  Incidentally I apply the same theory to the maintenance of my boat.  I couldn’t think of anything worse than being stuck out in the middle of the ocean 20kms of the Western end of Rottnest as dusk approaches with a broken down outboard and having to rely on someone else to come and find me for a tow home just because I didn’t have even enough knowledge to realise that a spark plug lead had rattled of the back of the motor. 

I’ve always said that the main reason I like to fix even the most small things that have gone wrong with my car is because I can’t stand not to have something working properly but it is just as much about making myself familiar with my car.  So if you haven’t ever bothered to do many repairs to your car this job will be a great starting point on the road to mechanically proficiency (that is if this is actually a problem with your car).

Anyway think about that as I give this months repair tip on the Pajero.

So what are we fixing this month?  The all important dash lights.  Seems that this is a very common problem amongst Pajeros.  Secretly we all love flashing lights, gauges and various other meters in our cars so when a globe on your dash blows why not fix it?

This was another of those jobs that took me 2hrs the first time I did it but now I know how it is done can be fixed in less than 15mins with nothing more than a Philips head screw driver.

The process

Step 1:         You need to remove the plastic/vinyl shroud that covers the instruments on the dash.  A good place to start is to lower the tilt adjust on your steering wheel to give you a bit more room to work.  There are three screws that retain this shroud.  One is on the right hand side above the cruise control switch, one is on the left above the rear demister switch and the last one is under a small plastic cover right back against the windscreen.  You’ll need to lever this plastic cover off before the screw can be exposed.  Use something like a very small flat head screw driver.  I found it easier to get out of the car, stand along side it, and look through the windscreen to see what I am working on otherwise you’ll be working by touch and feel if you stay in the drivers seat.

Set 2:          Once the three screws are out lift off the plastic shroud.  The next step is to remove the instrument panel that has the cruise control switch etc embedded into it.  This should not have any screws retaining it but you will not be able to completely lift it off due to the wires going to the four switches in this panel.  The wires have clips on them which can be undone with a bit of jiggling (there are two on the left and two on the right).  They can only go back in one way so don’t be too concerned about mixing them up.

Step 3:        There should now be three large gold screws going through white plastic tabs that need to be taken out so the dash gauges (speedo, tacho etc) can be removed in one piece.  You shouldn’t need to completely remove this just pull it forward enough so the back of it becomes visible.

Step 4:        You should now see a heap of small black lugs in the back of the panel with wires coming from them.  These are the dash light globe retainers.  You need to identify which one has the blown globe and remove it by giving a slight twist to unlock it.

Step 5:        The actual globe should now be visible and just pull free of its holder with a bit of effort.  You have two choices now when replacing it.  You can either take it down to Super Cheap and buy a new one (they usually come in a pack of three for about $2.50) or you can do what I did and just swap it with another globe in the instrument panel that is not being used eg I don’t have a rear diff lock so this dash light will never be required so I just swapped the good globe from this into the location that I needed it.       

Step 6:        Reassemble everything in the reverse order that you dismantled it.

Remember that all of the info above relates to my 1994 NJ model Paj so other models may vary slightly but shouldn’t be any more difficult to fix Remember that persistence pays off.

Best of luck.

Trevor