Rep Power: 183

As the title implies, while I was driving at night, I looked at my instrument panel and all the needles were off.

Speedometer, tachometer, engine temperature gauge, fuel gauge and odometer stopped working.

I thought I had another alternator problem but the battery indicator wasn't on and I tried turning off the low beam and then turning them on back again along with the high beam, it didn't made any difference.

The engine was still running, it didn't stall, heater was still blowing, and check engine light was still on as usual (just a P0420 catalytic converter code).

Afraid that it might get worse, I gambled and turn the engine off while still rolling, and turned it back on, all gauges went back to normal.

Now although it didn't seem much of an issue, I want to know why and how it happened and if there's something I can do to prevent it from happening or getting worse, I don't want the engine the shut-down all of a sudden.

It's currently winter, but it is very warm right now, snow melting, feels like spring, so cold weather cannot actually be the real culprit.

Any ideas ? Thanks!

 
Rep Power: 518

Elaborate:

Needles only were off?
What are you calling "off"?
As in not illuminated?
Or dead-- laying on zeros?

What about the rest of the cluster lighting?

Wait.... What still DID work when this happened?

 
Rep Power: 183

Sorry for my bad english haha.

Needles were on zeros yeah.

Cluster lighting was still working. I could turn it on and off.
High beam indicator was working too when I turned them on.
Check engine light was on too, as usual, so I assume the cluster was still getting current.

What was working:
-The engine
-the center console (heater blower and the rest of it)
-The exterior and interior lighting.
-Everything else aside from the cluster gauges including the odometer.

 
Rep Power: 518

Not bad English, just trying to get a clear idea of what was happening and how many items were affected.
Ok so if I understand:

All 4 gauges were reading as though the car was off (0 MPH, 0 RPM, empty fuel and cold temperature), and odometer?

Yet all the illumination, warning lights, all worked? The only symptoms are the gauges?

Did the odometer display anything at all, like a series of dashes, zeros, eights, or a word?
Or was the backlight just missing (display dark) but it still showed mileage (kms)?





This has only happened one time thus far?


Since you said it worked again after switching the key off and on while rolling along kinda makes me think it had a microprocessor glitch or something. there's a CPU and a driver that run the 4 gauges and the odometer.
Short answer: I really don't know what happened.

It would be interesting to perform a cluster self-diagnostic to see what happens. You would have to wait until this failure happened again though.... and it involves cycling the ignition key so it might reset and test OK at that point.


Look for any new codes in the PCM

Fuse check
Dash fusebox #10
Engine fuse box #9

 
Rep Power: 183

Oh yeah, the odometer back light was off, no numbers or anything displayed.

Yes.

It happened only once.

Hopefully it is just a glitch. I am just taking preventive measures since the last
time the gauge turned off while driving was when the alternator was failing.

By PCM, do you mean ECU? Checking for CEL code?

I will do a cluster self diagnostic test and check the fuses.

Thanks as always.

 
Rep Power: 518

So this HAS happened before......

In the previous post I had thought about mentioning that microprocessors are susceptible to power surges.....I've seen this a lot in aftermarket radios, they can do strange things when there is a power surge spike or drop.......I don't think I've personally witnessed gauges do this though.

So keep your alternator in mind. Seems like it would be a logical cause of voltage spike or drop.

PCM stands for Powertrain Control Module. Engine computer (and trans computer when equipped with automatic trans). Some people call it the ECU or ECM.

 
Rep Power: 183

Well, yes it did happened before, but the alternator problem has been solved for a while already, almost a year now without any issues after I have replaced the alternator cable with a gauge 4, if you remember.

The gauges would turn off due to power shortage, I had to turn off the low beams and interior lighting for them to come back on.

I heard this is the ECU cutting the power to certain circuits in order to save power and allow the engine to run without stalling?

You believe this caused some damage and caused what happened recently?

 
Rep Power: 518

More like some items can continue to operate while system voltage is low, others can't. Some things quit or act funny long before others quit.

The battery can only supply a limited amount of power. Headlights use a lot of power, so when you shut them off that may have allowed some other stuff to resume working.



Um, maybe not. I didn't realize what the scenario was.

I still don't have a solid answer for you.

 
Rep Power: 183

Don't worry, you've helped me greatly already.

Thank you!