Issues with the gauges in my car?

M

melissa

New member
A few times now when i've been driving my car, the speedometer would drop to zero, then shoot up to the normal speed but it was just the gauge messing up. Last night when I was driving all of my gauges dropped (gas, temp, tachometer and speedometer) and my service light came on, then my temperature gauge shot right up, then fell down again. I stopped the car for a few minutes then started it again but none of my gauges worked for about a minute, and the light for the gauges would dim then go back to normal. Today I drove my car to work and the temperature gauge didn't work... What could be wrong with my car?
-Thanx
It's a '97 Plymouth Neon 5 Speed Standard
 
Don't panic, start with the simple stuff. It could just be a loose ground. There are normally 3 main ground connections on a vehicle. 1 from the battery to the engine, 1 from the engine to the frame and 1 from the engine to the body of the vehicle. Check all three of these first. There are more grounds also, the entire instrument cluster should have 1 main ground. These are simple things to check before paying someone to do the same thing at $60 to $100 per hour. Also, your battery may be telling you that it is getting weak. The discount parts stores will usually come out to your car and check the battery for free. Hope this helps!
 
If your car is a CHEVROLET, it most likely means it's gonna be your Instrument Cluster. Impala's Malibu's and Silverado's from 2000 and up usually have problems with the instrument clusters. It would help alot if you can provide us with your vehicles information, I may be able to provide u with more info.

*UPDATE* oooo....a DODGE. you my friend are probably gonna have problems with your vehicles PCM. I see it all the time! I would take your vehicle in to shop asap. If it is your PCM and u don't fix it, u may damage other electrical parts.
It will be expensive.
 
Sounds like you need a new instrument cluster. The whole thing is bad. Depending on what kind of car you have, some had a voltage limiter on the cluster and some had a voltage limiter in the PCM (computer). Just hope it isn't the PCM, not cheap and the cluster is hard to get to. Not a good problem to have.
 
I had this happen to a car. The whole gage cluster needed to be replaced. Most gages are electronic now a days and the come as a unit. It can be pretty expensive to replace.
 
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