Dashlights and guages sit low in the bezel (Page 1/1)
sjmaye APR 20, 05:00 PM
Please bear with me. I am working on the itty bitty nuisance things now. Something that has always bothered me on this Fiero is the lights and gauges sit low in the bezel. See pics below . At first I thought it was just the translucent plastic for the idiot lights and turn signals, but even the water temp and fuel sit low. Has anyone else ever seen anything like this?
theogre APR 20, 06:37 PM
The whole dash is made so can only assemble the parts the "right way" IE "fool proof" manufacturing.

Quick guess someone took it apart and now has missing screws between front, "middle," and back plastics.

"Middle" section includes side and top trim you see. This has front and back attach to it then back and middle mounted to the car and lower trim. Loose/missing screws or crack plastic here could cause above problem.

You likely need, at minimum, remove front trim and maybe the "glass" over gauges etc. to see what else is wrong.

To remove the whole dash pod need to remove bottom trim and lower column by loosen 2 front nuts and remove rear 2 bolts.

While dash pod is apart to fix, Clean the inside of back.
See http://www.fiero.nl/forum/Forum2/HTML/138175.html

------------------
Dr. Ian Malcolm: Yeah, but your scientists were so preoccupied with whether or not they could, they didn't stop to think if they should.
(Jurassic Park)

The Ogre's Fiero Cave

fierofool APR 20, 11:00 PM
The instruments are also positioned behind the trim plate so that the driver, whose eyes are positioned about a foot above the level of the gauges, can see the full legend on the gauge. If your picture is taken had-on instead of in a downward direction, it will look as if it's sitting low.


Those do look unusually low, though.
cvxjet APR 20, 11:35 PM
Wait, wait, wait! The instruments and warning lights are offset downward so as you peer at them from eye level you see them centered in the facia openings....I have never fully agreed with the way they are but if you look at them at the level of the INSTRUMENTS they look low......(I would have TILTED the whole instrument panel up approx' 5-10 degrees)
theogre APR 21, 12:20 AM

quote
Originally posted by fierofool:
The instruments are also positioned behind the trim plate so that the driver, whose eyes are positioned about a foot above the level of the gauges, can see the full legend on the gauge. If your picture is taken had-on instead of in a downward direction, it will look as if it's sitting low.


Those do look unusually low, though.

Yes looked lower to me too. Is harder to tell for above pics.
Missing hardware or crack in plastic should be easy to find.
Dash pod has less breaking then other things like shift surround but can still have issues.
Spadesluck APR 21, 12:53 AM
It has always bothered me that all the stuff does not line up but yours looks a lot lower than mine.
sjmaye APR 21, 05:08 AM
I know this instrument cluster was apart before I owned it as the fuel and coolant gauges were from the wrong year Fiero. I had to replace them. As pointed out here the cluster does seem to be constructed in a way everything just bolts together. No ability to adjust anything. At least as I recall when I worked on it a decade ago .

I will start work on this when I get my LED dash lights in the next few days. Like many others here I don't like how dim everything is inside the car. Thanks for all the threads on the LED replacements.

Question on working with plastic to plastic connections like with instrument cluster and dash pieces- I find I hear creaking sounds out of the dash as I work on it and as I go down the road at times. I am thinking it is the plastic on plastic connection between parts. I know the fasteners are tight. I still hear it. I would like to make this old boat sound as tight as it was new. Do any of you have a tip on how to silence these joints?

[This message has been edited by sjmaye (edited 04-21-2020).]