Please forgive me for making another post on this subject. I have searched extensively both here and on the rest of the web. I'm going kind of batty at this point.

2001 S60 167k miles

A sort of new to us car. Was my stepsons, and it needed a heater core. He had someone do it, and while it was there, my stepson graduated from college and decided he didn't need a car since public transportation is available to him. We needed a car so we bought it.

The guy who did the work did remove the cluster.

When we got the car back, the speedo didn't work. I pulled the cluster and found one or the spring pins that goes into the speedo was bent. I fixed that and the speedometer works. I have the ability to check generic OBD-II codes, and there are none.

So...the speedometer works, the tachometer works, the odometers work, all the traditional warning lights work, and there are no generic OBD codes. The airbag light is on.

The message center is totally blank, and the illumination lights don't come on at all.

The dimmer switch for the lights works as it dims the lights on the center console.

I checked all the fuses I thought may even be remotely related, and the check good...I metered them instead of just looking at the filaments.

Is there another common power source for the message center and the illumination lights?

I have read a lot of information about the DIMs going bad, but everything I read had more problems than we are experiencing. I am hoping I am missing something simple.

Is there a voltage regulator or a component on the circuit board that is common to both? It's been 20 years, but I have done component level repairs, so I'm not intimidated by working on printed circuit boards.

I'm tempted to just get a used cluster, but I hate the shotgun troubleshooting approach.

Thank you for your time.

 

Some more info I should have included:

The fuel gauge and temperature gauge work.

The triangular warning light in the center is lit.

thank you