Instrument cluster not working, help!

[wahoossi]

I finally finished putting in a subwoofer and adding two JL amps to my kenwood aftermarket system. Everything put back together and initially I noticed that my dash light/ dimmer was out. I checked the fuses and two 10 amp fuses were out so I replaced them and the light came back on. I also did the zero pony calibration . Now the whole cluster (speedometer, tach, gas gauge, odometer all do not work. I checked all the fuses and they were ok. What am I missing?

 

[wahoossi]

Please help. I did a search and I can only find issues with individual gauges posted , not whole cluster. An additional fact is that digital odometer as well as the "computer ", where it spews out exaggerated mpg's, range etc is also completely blank but lighted. Did I fry something major ? All the gauges are resting at the below zero pins. I rechecked ball the cabin fuses (two had been blown and they are good. Are there other fuses in the engine compartment in a 2003 V8?Help needed please!

 

[CookieRoe]

Reminds me of when I fried my ECU when installing my HIDs.

1) Where did you tap power for your 2 amps?
2) Fuse to the amps the correct one?
3) Are the grounds ok?
4) Is the source (where you tapped for power) capable of feeding your amps power? (ex: you tapped a courtesy light to power 2 amps............. not good).
5) If all ok, then, disconnect the battery, wait a few minutes, reconnect. Can't hurt.


Can't say much else, hope you find the culprit. Hopefully it's something simple.

Good luck

hope this helps

 

[wahoossi]

Reminds me of when I fried my ECU when installing my HIDs.

1) Where did you tap power for your 2 amps?
2) Fuse to the amps the correct one?
3) Are the grounds ok?
4) Is the source (where you tapped for power) capable of feeding your amps power? (ex: you tapped a courtesy light to power 2 amps............. not good).
5) If all ok, then, disconnect the battery, wait a few minutes, reconnect. Can't hurt.


Can't say much else, hope you find the culprit. Hopefully it's something simple.

Good luck


hope this helps

Both amps wired directly to battery and grounded to frame. Fuses for amps inline with power line and are large fuses provided with amp kits. The power and ground wires are the same gauge as my battery cables. I will try disconnecting battery once my wife brings the truck back from taking tha dogs to the beach. We are using the gps for the speedometer right now.

 

[wahoossi]

Well, dogs had a great time on the beach but disconnected the battery cables left them off for one half hour but still no function of any of the gauges or computer. I wonder if I did the zero point calibration wrong and screwed up something because the gauges were working fine (dimmer light was just out) until I did the zero pint calibration and replaced two 10a fuses that were out (lower right, can't remember exact pin#'s.i

 

[riceandpho]

unhook the dimmer wire from radio. check dome fuse and tail fuse, i think another one too. do u hve a dmm or test light to check all fuses.

 

[TOY2G]

Sounds like you may have run your dimmer wire from your head-unit to a 12v source. If you disconnect your head-unit... do the gauges work? Are the fuses blown again?

 

[wahoossi]

Thanks for the reply . The gauges and head unit were working together. I did another search and someone had a similar problem and apparently there is one ground (brown or brownish wire) for the whole instrument cluster and it is beginning to sound like I screws this up somehow. I won't be able to get to the truck until tonight. I went through all the fuses unless it could be the "type C" fuse which I don't know how you can tell if it is blown.

 

[madiwright33]

Same Problem: instrument cluster not working following radio install

Hi there. I am having the exact same problem you had here. What was your solution?

Purchased an '03 Limited two days ago. Have been tuning it up before a cross-country trip back to school in two days.
Took apart the dash and installed my own radio. Radio works perfectly. Also painted dash with black truck bed liner. Looks awesome.

I put the dash all back together and turned on the car to find that the instrument cluster was not working. No lights, no odometer, no movement of the gauge hands.

Was there a wire cluster I did not connect again?

When I took the dash apart, I did not go past the instrument cluster.
All the lights work, the turn signals work, the radio works, etc. I checked fuses and spun the dash light. The problem is that the entire instrument cluster doesn't function.

I've attached an image. Let me know what y'all think!

 

[riceandpho]

check the dimmer, and also the dimmer wire, the harness you might be using gives a orange, and orange white, i just leave them capped off.

 

[rumfoord]

Having the same issue hear, was this ever solved? If so can you please post solution? Thanks.

 

[Anton]

04 4runner

Thanks for the reply . The gauges and head unit were working together. I did another search and someone had a similar problem and apparently there is one ground (brown or brownish wire) for the whole instrument cluster and it is beginning to sound like I screws this up somehow. I won't be able to get to the truck until tonight. I went through all the fuses unless it could be the "type C" fuse which I don't know how you can tell if it is blown.

Did you find the problem?

 

[rumfoord]

Turned out my issue was related to a corroded ground wire that was severed. Check the ground attached to block on passenger side.

I had my head gasket replace shortly before the issue and the ground had to be disconnected, doing so seemed to irritate the corroded wire even more and eventually just went, started with some flickering.

 

[4runner2005SR5]

Could you please describe where that ground wire is? I randomly am having a similar issue. Entire cluster is out/backlights not working. Dimmer switch and radio lights all work as normal. Not sure where to start with this. Thanks in advance

 

[Masdomonkey]

Turned out my issue was related to a corroded ground wire that was severed. Check the ground attached to block on passenger side.

I had my head gasket replace shortly before the issue and the ground had to be disconnected, doing so seemed to irritate the corroded wire even more and eventually just went, started with some flickering.

bringing back the dead on this one, just did the heads myself this last week and started it right up but kind of the same issue. I had let it run since the zero restart for about an hour at idle and jumped in and drove it around the neighborhood a few times just making sure I didn't have any leaks and such and it ran good but noticed that the gauges were dark but I was getting a read of temp and speed and rpm at least. I am at work currently and wifey took the kids to school today but she sent a pic with the whole dash off and the mile avg display under the radio was not reading as well. I do remember re-attaching the grounds on the passenger side (there are two on the head its self and one on the sheet metal just left of the block looking at the motor from the front of the car) but I think maybe one of them came loose again but I will update here just incase this happened to anyone else to see if I can fix it. the car was sitting battery-less for about 8 days before i got it started after the head work I did

 

[Masdomonkey]

So last night I was checking into the issue my wife was having. So turning back on Sunday after I finished the head work and yes I did put the grounds back on the passenger head and fender area, I had my reader plugged in just to get the live data a more accurate reading but I did this before I even put the key in to turn it over. So I started the car, start was rough on idle (around 320 rpm) because it was reset after the battery has been unplugged for some time. I didn't realize but after I had unplugged the reader the cluster went dead but I didn't figure this out till Monday night.

I was just doing some research and found a Chevy forum that one guy had a situation where his cluster would only come on after the obd was plugged in and ran the car with it plugged in. His fix was to use the obd grounds in the plug and made a jumper to complete the ground. I did the same thing and the fix worked but I had used a paperclip haha. So only a temporary fix till I find which ground wire it was and also by doing this I knew the cluster was at least getting positive power and the fuse was intact even before checking the fuse. Still weird but I feel like the issue isn't a big deal but also I need to get the multimeter out and check the alternator to see if its charging.