Thread: instrument cluster problems...

yeah i am going to have to check the voltage at the alternator also to see if the alternator harness is getting 12v so i can rule that out.

i havent installed or messed with anyting electrical so im really not sure weather or not the wiring is the issue or not. i have checked ALL fuses and those are fine, i will have o rego over the relays and see how those check out.

i have checked on the other forum and all of these problems have been had on the other forum and it ended up being the alternator voltage regulator.

if it is the voltage regulator in the alternator i am having the opposite problems whichi heard is possible, whcih normally the voltage regulator will spike the voltage or will undercharge and run the voltage lower than normal

either way i havent had any stall or non driveability problems which is competely weird becuase i dont have a alternator on the car as of now and the car starts drives and doesnt die, i guess i just have a really good battery

You checked all of the fuses, but did you check all the fuse wires? Sometimes the connections in back get sh*tty. I had a problem where my sunroof and heater would not work, or the hazard flashers, and after hours of trying to figure that out, it turned out to be that when I moved the fusebox around, the relay clicked on. Finally figured out that there was a crappy fuse connection, and I was able to fix it by sticking some tin foil in the crappy side of the fuse slot (just in the one side, not connecting them).

My guess is you have something messed up inside the car, not under the hood, especially since your driveability and external systems are ok. Odd question, but do your tail lights work? They share a lot with the internal electronics believe it or not, and when my gauge cluster lights were going out all the time, the tail light fuse was blowing too.

Long story short, I had a similar problem to you, but a bit different. Every time I turned on lights, the tail light fuse blew up and none of the interior stuff worked. In order to solve the problem, I disconnected the interior components and tail lights one at a time, and sacraficed a fuse each time to see if it would stop the problem. When disconnecting everything (including the headlight switch itself) still did not fix the problem, I decided it had to be a short someplace that I could not find. My solution was to run a brand new wire to the back of the fuse box where the normal power wire for all that stuff went, and to the power switch, and then to all of the components, where I just chopped the original wire off and attached mine. Now it all works just perfectly, so I have just assumed the wire was messed up somewhere for some reason.

So I'd suggest to you:

1) Disconnect the affected components one at a time and test it each time to make sure none of them are causing the problem somehow.

2) If none of them are, test their original power wires coming from the fuse box to see that there is power there. If not, you'll know the problem is before the fuse box (which means most likely under the hood). If you're fine there, then try to track down where the power goes inside the car.

3) If all else fails, you can do what I did assuming your power to fuse box is good. It really wasn't actually as much work as it sounds like. Took me about 5 or 6 hours to do all of the inside and the tail lights.

yeah i have thought about that, i will have to check the back of the fuses.

my taillights
turn signals
sunroof
emergency lights
heater blower
cluster
doesnt work

the thing is tho, that even if it was a fuse problem or interior problem, why the really low voltage, becuase for a second i donnt if it was the alternator going out or not and then it just went out but before the cars voltage dropped really low, the voltage went to normal like 13.5v and everything ran fine. cluster,lights,tails,sunroof eveything.

there isnt alot that can cause the voltage to be low, the alt harness,alt and the battery. i had the battery and the alternator tested and they passed, but i was told at autozone that just becuase the alternator past is doesnt mean that its not bad, so it doesnt really rule out the alternator, i couldnt see how the alternator isnt bad it looks like hell,but i donno

my battery was a little low on water so i added the correct water level and all is good with the battery.

ive heard that the cluster is wired in with the alternator so that if the alternator isnt working neither will the cluster or any of that.

i read on the other forum about the voltage regulator and they were getting simular symptoms as me and it turned out to be their alternator.

the only real way to rule out the alternator is to go ahead and get a new one and see if the problem fixes that sucks tho

I don't know man, there's an awful lot of weird sh*t that can go wrong in electronic things haha. But yea, that's why I suggested checking at the fuse box first, so you can figure out whether to spend time looking at the interior or under the hood. That should let you know where the problem lies.

im going to definitly check that

Yeah...that is not true. The cluster lights, just like parking lights, are wired into the constant 12v supply that comes up the steering column. If they were wired to the alt., it would not work unless the car is running. Some people get some weird ideas about things . The alt is wired to the battery. Nothing else.

If you have the FSM (if not, contact me), the wiring diagrams will show you exactly where to look for your dash lights problems. Danja's method is excellent as it bypasses all the potential problems you get with old wiring. I prefer also sitting down with the book as well and looking over the diagrams to get an idea of the circuits so I know where to look. I suppose it's the engineer side of me that likes it .

Just don't give up, and move through the car methodically. Solve one problem at a time, and you'll stay sane. Electronics problems are murder on any car.

And also, I might still have the wiring diagrams around which I copied from my FSM when I did it (because there are a sh*t ton of them in there), so I could probably just post them upwith much ease. It is kind of a PITA to understand them for me haha, it took me a while just to figure out which wires went where. And that combo switch for all the lights is a nightmare of wiring LOL!