texholdem

The history: because my instrument cluster (IC) had a few blind dots in the display of mileage, clock and outside temperature I tried to repair it with the result that all dots have gone dead. All the needles of the gauges for engine temperature, fuel, speed and rpm still worked fine.
I then replaced it with a used instrument cluster bought on ebay. The new one has no blind dots but all the needles of the gauges for engine temperature, fuel, speed and rpm are inactive, they do not move as you can see in the video at
http://s245.photobucket.com/albums/g...entCluster.flv
which I recorded during a test drive.

I thought the new one might be defective regarding the dial needles and deployed my old one again because better to have all blind dots than no information on speed, engine temparature and fuel gauge.

To my great surprise they are now dead on the own one as well.

My guess is that the malfunction of the dials is now not from the cluster, since it fails on both clusters.

I replaced all the related fuses #4, #6 and #7 from the fuse box under the hood.

Please tell me what could it be that no dial needle moves?

texholdem

New development: The game below was played upon me 3x this afternoon and evening. In regular interval I started the engine just to check and lo and behold all needles came to life except for speed because the car did not move. Engine temparature went above 40, fuel gauge to almost full (I filled up 30 miles ago) and rmp went up when I pressed the gas pedal.

I wanted to be sure, shut down the engine and restarted ...

The dial needles are all dead again and again after another and another trials.
There might be something like loose contact, since the cluster itself works fine, but what?

Help! Help! Help! I'd appreciate all comments!

texholdem

RobertG

Pull the dash again and check the plug alligment

texholdem

Thanks Robert, I did it many times, alternatingly with the two clusters, making sure that the plugs are firmly inserted. Same error, every thing (lamps for headlight, direction lights etc..) works fine except the needles.

I reached behind the cluster, wiggled the harnesses to see if there is anything loose with no success.

If I leave the car for some hours then the first time I turn the key to position 2 and start the engine, the needles come to life then dead again at the next trial (turn engine off and restart) without me touching anything, the fun can be repeated after several hours again and again.

RobertG

So you loose the needles with either of the two panels installed.
I guess next question would be what drives the needles, the ECU?

texholdem

On recommendation from other forum I ordered the relay unit K40, the one in the picture with 3 blue and 1 orange fuses. Hope that it is the culprit.

RobertG

That unit is what drives the gauges?