- This topic has 30 replies, 5 voices, and was last updated 10 years, 6 months ago by
.
-
Topic
-
I am not sure if my problem relates specifically to the dash or if it a bigger issue with the cars computer. Yesterday, the gas and temperature needles rose all the way to full and hot, the speedometer stopped moving altogether and the rpm needle started bouncing erratically. (The gauges on the dash are all needles, except for the trip set and odometer which are digital… the trip sets seem to be correct, but the odometer is reading 9999999) I drove the car and everything was operating normally except for the gauges and I am unsure as to whether there is a problem with the instrument panel or the cars computer.
I disconnected the battery for about an hour and then upon reconnecting, all had returned to normal… This lasted for about 2 short drives and now the dash is behaving in the same fashion.
I am unsure as to what troubleshooting steps to take at this point and was wondering if anyone had any experience solving any similar problem.
Also, if I need to change the computer, does anyone know if this is a big deal… or easy to do?
-
Replies
-
I certainly will… thank you for creating this great venue to talk with other like minded people… and thanks for the great videos…. I watched all your electrical troubleshooting ones and that was how I was able to make the decision to buy the new cluster…. Also…. I enjoyed your ETCG1 video this week… believe me… what you do… does matter a lot… Thank God there are still good people left in this world such as yourself… Thanks again… I am a computer tech by trade, so if ever I can help you out with something, please don’t be afraid to ask…. Appreciate all you do… take care for now…
– Matt
[quote=”mattmontalto” post=98365]I certainly will… thank you for creating this great venue to talk with other like minded people… and thanks for the great videos…. I watched all your electrical troubleshooting ones and that was how I was able to make the decision to buy the new cluster…. Also…. I enjoyed your ETCG1 video this week… believe me… what you do… does matter a lot… Thank God there are still good people left in this world such as yourself… Thanks again… I am a computer tech by trade, so if ever I can help you out with something, please don’t be afraid to ask…. Appreciate all you do… take care for now…
– Matt[/quote]
Thanks very much for your comments. It means a lot to hear that my work has such a positive effect. You made my day with this one. Thanks again.
Keep us posted on your cluster.
i say instroment cluster, replace it and hopefully that fixes your issue, good luck and keep us posted.
Thanks… ordered the part and the junkyard is shipping it to me… and it is only costing about 6 dollars to ship…. (and 75 for the part)… can really beat that… I have now a couple more videos…. One is showing a couple of discoveries I found… (that I never really noticed or paid much attention to before) First thing is a hose that I believe is connected to the transmission on one end… but I cannot find any where for the other end to go… and the other thing is a computer connector that I know I did not detach that is disconnected…
The car is operating normally and no codes have surfaced…so I cam clueless about the plug… What I think the hose is… is for air to get to the transmission… though I would think that it should somehow be connected to the air intake assemble so that air is at least “filtered”…
Just throwing these out to hear some opinions on the matter….. they second video is just basically to show a point on the vehicle where I believe the battery (neg.) cable is supposed to be in contact with vehicle’s body… So I had cleaned it up just to make sure the contact was good…
Like I have said before… I make no claim to have any idea what I am doing… I just try and use the best logic I can with these things….*** Also… (this part of the post is for Eric).. I took the liberty of posting a link to your site in the description of my videos… I literately “stumbled” across your site (interesting story for another time), so I wanted to help anyone who stumbles onto my videos so that they can be pointed in a direction where they can get some real help… — Heck, I might even just throw an ad for you on my website… just for the heck of it… my site at the moment has very little traffic though.. Thanks again for every thing.. below is the first video link…. I will post the second when it finishes uploading…Thanks everyone for listening
– Matt
Here is that second one:
The hose is just the vent. It doesn’t connect to anything. Anytime you have moving parts inside of an assembly you need to vent the pressure inside. That’s what the tube is for. There may be an internal check valve inside of it but probably not. It’s curved downward to keep moisture out. Do not try and hook it to the intake, it may draw fluid out from the transmission and cause other problems. Leave it be and you should be fine.
The connector isn’t used. If it was, it would be clean as if it had been connected to something. Many times wiring harnesses contain other connectors for things that may not be used on every vehicle. Once again, nothing to worry about.
Thanks for your comments on my work as well as the links. I really appreciate your support. Thank you.
I thought that the hose might have been an air vent since (ironically) I had recently watched your transmission dissection and that exact line stood out in my mind (about anytime you have moving parts in an enclosed space…etc..) … so thank you again for the help there… I received that instrument panel in the mail yesterday… have to say I am impressed at a junkyard that ships their products out… plus it only cost about 6 dollars to ship.. I think I am going to try and make a video of the removal of the old and installation of the new… which ought to be interesting since I am still not sure (upon seeing the replacement) of how the speedometer connector is removed from the cluster… I imagine it must twist and unlock, but am just not sure… by the way… I saw your xbox 360 video for the red rings… and (coming from a tech with over 20 years experience with hardware),.. I have to say..”well done”. Nothing I could have done better about that job myself. Nice work. Have a great Memorial Day…
I hope that I am posting this correctly so that it is seen by all forum users as I would like to hear some opinions on this matter.
I received the cluster panel and installed it properly… (The speedometer piece I was concerned about was not a problem at all… was only a point on the back of the dash for a wiring harness clip to go in… just happened to be right behind the speedometer).
After installing the new one, everything immediately appeared to be normal again. However upon close inspection here is what I found…. The thermostat gauge remained at “Cold” even well after the car was warm… Then I realized that when I first put the key to auxiliary, I did not see a seat belt or check engine lamp on the dash (these appear just below the thermostat gauge — [I think that is relevant… more on that in a second])
So In light of this weeks ETCG1 video… I am now feeling a little silly…thinking this is not the only problem… however, I have never had thermostat issues before and everything else seems to have returned to normal after installed this new cluster…. So I pulled it out again… I checked every single wire on all the plugs and the all seemed to have good connections and I re-tested every fuse in the vehicle thinking maybe one blew during the install… all fuses are still good…..
So I swapped out a couple of the bulbs from the back of the old dash to the new one for the seat belt and check engine lights and that seemed to have been the only problem with them. Now the only piece not working is the thermostat gauge…. Now since the bulbs that were discovered to have been bad were on the same part of the dash as the thermostat gauge itself, I feel that I can’t really rule out that the problem is with this new panel itself….(maybe it was damaged on this side during removal?)
I have attached photos so that everyone can see what I am talking about with the proximity of the bad bulbs and the thermostat gauge… Aside from getting another cluster to try, the only other step I can think of at the moment is to somehow try and verify that the dash is receiving input from the engine’s temperature sensors … which is a task I am not really sure how to accomplish.
NOTE: Those plugs on the back of the dash in the photo are not mine… they came with the new dash.
Would love to hear any feedback (thoughts or advice) anyone may have regarding the matter. As always, thanks for listening…
POST SCRIPT:
I just want to add that I spoke with the junkyard that sold me the part and they were more than understanding and accommodating and although they do not have another of that exact cluster that I need, they are going to try and locate one for me and will work with me to ship this one back and refund me the difference.
I have to say, I have never been so impressed by a junkyard… From letting me text them of photo of my dash to match up the part… to shipping it to me for such a low cost… to the way the product arrived in 2 days… packed very well I might add… Great experience so far… which I think is important with a matter like this… frustrating enough to have to deal with the quirkiness of this problem itself…. having to fight and argue to get the part swapped out would just make it so much worse…
I am a big believer in being reciprocal when you find good people who do the right thing… So I hope that I do not overstep my bounds here when I say that I have posted a link below for this junkyard… they are out of Union New Jersey, but they will ship anywhere.
Please note that I am not only posting this here to help them out, but due to my experience with them, I believe they can possibly be helpful to some here in this forum as well…
As always…. thanks for listening…
http://www.unionautowreckers.com/
– Matt Montalto
I would suggest checking the signal for the temp gauge at the back of the cluster. If you have a signal coming in, then the problem is the cluster. If you don’t have a signal coming in, then the problem is elsewhere and you would need to check the circuit further.
At this point you’re going to need a wiring diagram that includes the connector on the back of the cluster so you know what wires to check for the coolant temp input.
http://www.ericthecarguy.com/faq/solving-automotive-electrical-problems
Good luck and keep us posted.
Hard to say. Depends on how the circuit works. If the signal comes directly from the sensor then their may be a voltage value. There may be a chart that shows what voltage you should see based on engine temp. In short, the voltage you get may vary depending on engine temp. If you have the service manual, it should cover temp gauge diagnosis.
In reading the Nissan Service manual, I have discovered that this particular instrument panel can be put into “diagnostic mode”. When put in this mode, holding in the trip set button causes the needles of all the gauges to go to a specific point on the dial shown in the manual. There is some further testing that I can do, but I would think that it is probably not really necessary at this point. I took a short video of it this morning and have posted the link below.
I spoke with the junkyard and they have located another cluster for me and are shipping it out to me at no charge…. and they are shipping me a return slip for the other one. Honestly I can’t say enough good thing about my experience with them. For anyone looking to deal with a good, honest junkyard,… they are at: http://www.unionautowreckers.com/
Here is the link for that video… Thanks again all for listening…
other things that would cause a temp gauge not too move properly is a falty coolant temp sensor or wiring too the coolant temp sensor being damaged, in this case quite frequently the vehicle will go into a safe mode sort of, if it detects a faulty coolant sensor it MAY turn off your temp gauge, turn on your MIL, and throw a code for the coolant temp sensor, it usually also in this instance leaves the radiator fans on for saftey reasons, but usually when a coolant temp sensor goes bad the gauge will not work, or will have odd false spikes in coolant temp, have seen it before on a PT cruiser.
in which case it seems the gauge isn’t moving perioud, and with the service manuals “diagnostic mode.” showing the temperature gauge is not operational i would lead me too think also that the temperature gauge is also faulty. if where you are getting service is sending you another instrument cluster free of charge plug it in and see what happens, won’t hurt, but if you continue too have the same issue i would suspect something ells may be too blame.
Thanks so much for the feedback… I was not aware of this information…
I would assume though that in diagnostic mode that the gauge would be forced to respond regardless of the input signal (or absence thereof)… So at this point I also am inclined to believe the gauge is faulty… I might just do the testing of the other parts anyway…. just for the learning experience… however… sometimes “time” has other plans… i.e wife and son…
But if the new cluster doesn’t solve it, then will definitely be doing the other work… Thanks again for your great input…
Matt Montalto
Well, as it turns out, it was in fact a bad cluster panel that I had originally received. I received the replacement on Friday.. and installed it on Saturday morning and I now have all working gauges again.
I have to say this has been one of the “greatest” car problems I have ever had. Not only did it help me in terms of researching electrical troubleshooting, but it was the cause of me reaching out in this forum which has been a wonderful experience. I cannot thank you all enough for your thoughts and help.
I almost wish I had some more car problems to talk to you all about (joke)… Seriously though, I do have something that I would like to get some feedback on regarding my other car. I will post that in a new topic.
Thank you especially Eric and 13AceofSpades13… It has been great to be able to converse with you guys and finally end up at a resolution. Thanks again..– Matt Montalto
Factory service information is the best. With it, you found the information to help you diagnose the problem. Remember the people that made the vehicle wrote that information and with a self test like that, looks like the planned ahead.
It’s nice to hear that you had a good experience with a recycler. It’s always good to here when people in the automotive world are doing good service. Thanks for sharing that.
Keep us posted on how the new cluster goes.
Thanks Eric…. and again thanks for this great venue… So far so good on the cluster… and those documents are fantastic… would love to find those for my Honda Odyssey as well… Speaking of which…. I know you said you have an Odyssey too, and I just posted a topic about it and would love to know if you have any feedback on it… the question is posted under: “2009 Honda Odyssey – Oil Fill Level”
Thanks very much…
– Matt Montalto
- You must be logged in to reply to this topic.