I was able to spend a couple of hours playing around with it yesterday. I topped off the coolant, as it was low. When I opened the cap, it still had some pressure in the system from the prior week when I was messing around with it. I couldn’t find any signs of leaks.
I pulled the CEM to check for any signs of corrosion, thinking maybe that could be why the gauge cluster wasn’t working. CEM looks perfectly fine. Zero signs of water. I cleaned all of the pins with CRC electrical cleaner, applied plenty of dielectric grease to the harnesses, and put it back in. Still no working gauge cluster.
Next step was to scan it for codes. Tons popped up, which I expected. When I cleared the codes, the only ones immediately coming back up were for CEM faults. Yes, the left low beam is burned out. I’ll be replacing the bulb soon, it’s just not a priority, yet.
Since I’m still waiting for the CD player to arrive, I didn’t install the waterfall. I still have to repair one of the fiber optic lines for the CD player before installing it when it comes Monday.
I decided to plug in what I could, and see what happens:
So, lesson learned. If the center stack isn’t plugged in, the gauges won’t work. On a side note, the A/C works great.
As for the AUX input, I found one under the right side of the waterfall – upper right corner of the storage cubby. I can’t test it until the CD player is installed.
I went into this project thinking it may have some major electrical issues. That doesn’t appear to be the case, at least not at this time.
I did swap parts from the original waterfall to the donor. Where the green connector plugs into the unit, the surround for it was completely busted out. I took apart the whole waterfall, and removed the back cover from the original switch panel. I put the donor back panel on it, then set the unit into the donor silver surround. I had to adjust the pins slightly (they were a little bent) to get the harness to plug in, but it’s working properly now, and looks a LOT better.
Parts so far: waterfall (primarily the silver surround), back plate for the switch panel, CD player, fiber optic repair tips, dielectric grease, electrical cleaner and antifreeze. Total spent, so far: roughly $120.
Still to do: sort out suspension clunks, replace headlight bulbs and clean/polish the headlights, replace a tail light bulb and a serious detailing inside and out. The headliner is starting to sag a little in the rear. I may tack it for now to help keep it from getting worse.