Given that I have pretty much checked out everything in an effort to track down the cause of my dead instrument cluster, I am leaning towards the likelihood of the ignition barrel being the culprit. The sequence of events are as follows. All was well, driving along, listening to the (stock) radio/CD player. Then the CD player volume increased noticeably and wouldn't adjust. In fact the whole unit froze and nothing would respond. Then, when I stopped and switched off the ignition and removed the key, the CD player continued playing, no matter what I tried, it wouldn't turn off. So, with the ignition off and the key removed, I disconnected the negative battery lead and upon reconnecting it, the antenna went down, CD player was off and all was well. Until I drove the car again next day!

I turned on the ignition and didn;t get any of the usual warning lights, oil, battery, etc. etc. But the car started fine, except with no instruments working, no gagues whatsoever. The backlight comes on when I switch on the exterior lights (different circuit?) and the indicator arrow shows when I use the indicator. I have no full beam indicator on the dash when the full beams are on, but it comes on when I "flash" the full beams. I have also lost my cruise control, which had been operating perfectly. Hard resets did nothing and all relevant fuses and relays check out ok.

The heater/AC works and everything lights up, but nothing from the radio! It is getting power at the connector at the back however, so a bad earth? I have checked all obvious earths and they are all good.

I have an ignition barrell , with keys,on a donor car and wondered would it be worthwhile swapping them around? If so, it it a big job to remove the barrell. I just took a passing glance under the cowel and it doesn't seem too obvious as to how it comes out. Also, would there be any issues with the car itself, as in, alarm, ecu, whatever!!

Am I missing something? Any thoughts or info much appreciated.
96 x300 4l