Odometer display malfunctioning. Over the past weeks I've noticed that sometimes my odometer trip gauge would not display, and other times it would. I can't narrow down the problem. There's no consistent situation where its either on or off. When it does work, the display is bright and all the readings are accurate. At first, I suspected that cold weather is causing the backlight connectors to not be in contact, but even in normal weather, I'm getting sporadic display from it. As of my last drive, the display came on for a few seconds at a stop light before it went dark again for the rest of my trip.

I'd really like to figure out what's causing this and if I can DIY fix this before sending it to a mechanic. Thanks in advance

 

This is a "well-known" problem with the First Gen RL's Kushaal, I have pasted a copy below of my experience with this problem in August of 2017, and going to a dealer to have it fixed. If your not concerned with having the correct mileage on your odometer this is probably the best way to go.
https://www.ebay.com/sch/i.html?_fro...uster&_sacat=0

Long story! Just got my RL back from the dealer after 10 days with my odometer functioning. I took my car to the Acura dealer last December to have the timing belt, water pump, and radiator hoses replaced and to have them troubleshoot my odometer which had been dead for about 2 1/2 months. The tech said it was the bulbs for the unit that were bad. I ordered the bulbs for the whole cluster ($371.00) and was going to have the tech install them but he had reservations about taking the dash apart and possibly damaging the trim piece around the radio and climate controls. The reason he had reservations is the OEM piece costs over $1200.00, and he didn't even think he could get one. I told him to wait and I would research getting a back-up trim piece before he tries to fix it. I found a trim piece on eBay and told him I would bring the car back in July or August, 2017 to have the bulbs installed which is what I did. The end of the first day I get a call that the bulbs didn't fix the problem and that it need the odometer, trip-meter print ($411.00) to fix it. The end of day two I get a call that the that part didn't fix it and "oh-by-the-way" the tech inadvertently broke the instrument cluster glass. At this point the tech says it's most likely the circuit board that runs the whole length of the dashboard and depending on what reference you use it runs anywhere from $612.00 to over $900.00. At this point with me having spent over $780.00 they decide to buy me a used instrument cluster and ship it with my old cluster to a company in California that is authorized to download the milage information from the chip on my old cluster and upload onto the replacement cluster's chip. The cluster came back Friday the 18th and on Saturday the 19th after they install the new bulbs, odometer, trip-meter board and the new glass on my used instrument cluster I pick my car up on the 19th with 106,403 miles displayed along the the outside air temperature. I'm a happy-camper at this point until I get in to drive away and notice the SRS light is on, and the first thing that comes to mind is the seat belt buckle the dealer replaced last year under warranty. The tech comes back with his laptop and runs a diagnostic resets the light when I asked him why he didn't notice it before he said that he thought my car came in with the SRS light on I said I wouldn't drive with an SRS lite because it disables the airbag system but he said a lot of people do because of the related costs of replacing parts in the system. My guess is the light was set by the system of the car the instrument cluster came from because it cleared no problem and has not come back. This is why I didn't attempt to fix this gripe myself and was willing to eat the cost of parts and the dealer's hourly labor charge to get this problem fixed. As it turns out it only cost me the price of the bulbs and the circuit board and they ate the the cost of the new glass, the used instrument cluster, shipping costs to and from California and the labor cost for putting it all back together. I feel fortunate that this worked out the way it did since the original estimate for new bulbs and the two hours labor to install was $621.37 which is high but a car without a functioning odometer is unacceptable to me. These are the issues that come with owning older vehicles and in the long run it's worth it to me. My other car is a " 32 year old Mazda RX-7 I have had for 23 years so you can see I tend to hang on to my vehicles.

 

@2000RL

I just bought a 1998 Acura RL yesterday and one of the issues I have is that the odometer/tripometer is showing nothing. This would be the same problem yes? I DO want the odometer to be accurate though. If i'm reading your post right, the only way you know of to do that would be to pay the dealer a significant amount to ship off and move the data over from my old cluster to a new one?

 

I found no other way to get your cars "current" accurate mileage from and inoperative instrument cluster unit to a replacement unit Lily.

 

Sorry to revive an old thread. Has anyone tried Mechanic Modules website? I just bought a 1999 Acura RL which is in decent condition. The issue is that the odometer does not work but everything else does such as speedometer, rpms, etc. I really like the car and want to continue to take care of it mechanically and aesthetically. I understand for the odometer is not just a bulb but rather a board. I was emailing with mechanic modules and they seem to have experience replacing the board and bulbs. I purchased the service and am going to take the cluster out and ship it to them. Does anyone know if the car drives fine without the cluster? I could not find much online for this specific car. I will have an update myself next week but wanted to see if anyone knew prior to that. Thanks.

 

Just thought I would drop an update in case anyone every needs the same information. The cluster was removed and shipped to be repaired. The car runs fine and signals fine without a cluster in case anyone needed to know.