Grounding issue maybe?

Twista · Dec 23, 2011

My temperature and already broken gas gauge started acting up on Tuesday. When i start the car after it been off for a work shift (8+ hours) its screwed up. My gas gauge has been broke for over 5 months. It sits on E no matter how much gas is in the car. But ever since Tuesday. My Temp gauge and gas are showing wacky readings. Yesterday, it started acting normal after i hit a bump. Just today (when i snapped this pictures) i hit tons of bumps then all of sudden on one the 2 guages started reading correctly. .

ignore the dust, low coolant light. The car has enough coolant, but the light stays on during the winter but stays off during the summer and the miles/gas odometer is broken)

Sigh, my entire cluster is going wacky. Would be funny if this is all tied together and whatever is causing my gas gauge to not work for the last 5+ months is also causing my temp. gauge to not work on a cold start now

Pictures below: 100% cold start:

1 minute in while driving.. notice the gas gauge slowly moving down, but the temp one is still broken!

5 minutes in: Gas hand still dropping slowly.

And hit some bumps everything back to normal (ignore the gas)

CC'S95GT · Dec 23, 2011

pull your cluster (not YOUR cluster, the one in the car). and check the connections on the back. Make sure they're clean and tight. Also look for burned spots on the circuit wiring on the back.
I need to do the same thing. My speedo is possessed and the tach had intermitant problems than can be adjusted by taping on the cluster lens.

Slykin · Dec 23, 2011

My car does the low coolant thing too, even scrubbed off the sensor. Not sure what to say about the rest of the stuff. I'd definitely clean off any ground connections and maybe take a look at your fuses... shouldn't be a fuse though if only two are wrong though.

Teal94 · Dec 23, 2011

Mine started that also. Now hard to start like battery is dead. Swapped in my optima and still the same crap. Pulled starter and replaced it and cleaned all the grounds and still thhe same. Oil pressure gauge is maxed out and temp gauge is pegged after a minute of running. Was told my starter cable and battery cables are bad. Starter cable is 250 bucks! Thats always nice!

HuskerGT · Dec 23, 2011

I had similar issues a couple of years back, especially with my temp gauge. We checked everything but found no issues. I took it to my mechanic and he started checking the grounds in under the hood and found a poor ground in back of the engine area somewhere. He cleaned the connection and my problems went away. I haven't had the problems resurface (knock on wood).

Hope this helps

Twista · Dec 24, 2011

I doubt its a grounding issue now.
When i went out there this morning the gas hand was already @ half full. Soon as i turned the key to the ON ( not on) position the gas gauge slowly moved to the right. The temp. gauge didn't start moving till i cranked the car up.

I drove to the auto store and the temp gauge was PEGGED off the meter again. I hit bump after bump and that still didn't fix the gauge. So i gave up and just went into the auto store with the temp pegged. 10 minutes after i came out the auto store i put the key to the ON position and the temp gauge moved down to correct spot before cranking the car.

I think my cluster is bad.

ttocs · Dec 24, 2011

STart simple at the cluster. Pull it out of the dash but do not disconnect it from the hrns. Turn the key on that then get technical and play/jiggle/move the wires going to the hrns and see if that makes the gauges move at all. IF it does then try to isloate it down to either one specific wire or wires. While doing this you will probably be doing a good inspection of the wires so be sure to looks for loose connection at the hrns of if a pin has been pushed out of it. While you have it out, I would go ahead and take off the plastic that covers it and remove the gauges from the housing. They are held in by two pins that is what powers the gauge. Check those for corrosion and it would not hurt to drag that eraser down it just to ensure its clean.

While you are in that far, this would be a great time to replace the lights behind it if you want to kill two birds with one stone. The cool white leds change the dash to blue from green if you would rather have blue.

Twista · Dec 25, 2011

Here is the deal.
No Multimeter so i just played with the wires.
Removed the cluster. When i pulled the cluster far as i could with it still connected the gauges went back to 0. When i put the cluster back its original place the gauges went back to full pegged. So i played with it for a bit till the gauges was back @ 0 and screwed it back in. So far so good. The temperate raised slowly according to the real temp on a cold start.

What was the problem? I dont know.

Slykin · Dec 25, 2011

Usually taking something apart and putting it back together works. I don't know why...

ttocs · Dec 25, 2011

it sounds as though you have a bad connection somewhere in there if moving it arond made a difference. Pull the entire pod out and see if you notice any loose wires in the hrns or if any of the connections are corroded. If you have it all out it might not be a bad idea to pick up a can of electrical contact cleaner from the rat-shack and clean them up to be sure

The reason disconnecting electrical stuff and then reconnecting it is often because corrosion has started to form on the hrns connections. When you disconnect the hrns and then plug it back in, you clean the corrosion off of the contace and allow it to work again.

Twista · Dec 25, 2011

Oh what the hell. Started my car to go somewhere and the cluster wasn't working at all. It worked fine when i turned the car off.

The fuse was popped for the cluster under the dash. If i see a cheap cluster on craiglist or ebay ill pick it up to see what difference that makes.

ttocs · Dec 25, 2011

well that means you do have a short back there. I would have a hard time thinking that its something inside the gauge pod as much as it could be the wiring going to it. Have you had your heater core replaced yet? If you have and the took the dash out it could just be a small nik the wire that is now shorting out. Take a real close look at the wires going to it and what ever you do DO NOT PUT A BIGGER FUSE IN to try and fix it. If you understand why I said that then please do not be offended but I have seen people do that and it makes a much MUCH bigger problem.

Twista · Dec 25, 2011

ttocs said:
well that means you do have a short back there. I would have a hard time thinking that its something inside the gauge pod as much as it could be the wiring going to it. Have you had your heater core replaced yet? If you have and the took the dash out it could just be a small nik the wire that is now shorting out. Take a real close look at the wires going to it and what ever you do DO NOT PUT A BIGGER FUSE IN to try and fix it. If you understand why I said that then please do not be offended but I have seen people do that and it makes a much MUCH bigger problem.

Im going to try it out tomorrow after it sits overnight and hope its not popped. I had 1 fuse blow in this car and leave me stranded last year and never happened again. Hopefully, it was some freak thing.. if not ill re-take it apart and look @ it closely like you suggested.

thanks

ttocs · Dec 25, 2011

fuses blowing is not something that will fix itself. Just check that hrns going into the pod over REEEEEEEEAAAAAAAAAAALY closely as well as the connection to the hrns. If you see ANY copper on the wires no matter how small, go and put some tape on it or insulate it somehow. I have seen the smallest niks in wires that you could hardly see cause the problem. If you have had a problem with random fuses blowing then there is something not perfect in there.

I still think its the wires going to it though and you probable just popped the fused while putting it back in. You did try messing with the wires with the key on or the motor started right?