Hi,

My son has had a 2001 discovery 2 for a few years, and every year when temperatures drop into the lower teens Fahrenheit, the dash (binnacle?) electrics go out until the car is warmed up by driving a few miles with the heat on. Just the thing in front of the driver with the speedo, tach, gas gauge, etc. Everything else continues to work as expected.

No amount of wiggling wires on the harnesses that plug into it, or unplugging/replugging, makes any difference.

However, I have a spare dash from another 2001 disco that I plugged in and everything works fine (except the mileage is a 50k miles higher and the mileage flashes). But all the gauges work even dead cold.

I've been told it might be a cold solder joint. I gently removed the white plastic cover and then get flabbergasted since I don't know anything about electronics beyond basic 12v lighting/accessory circuits.

Any tips on what I could look for?

Is there any way to recode the other highr mileage gauges to match our disco? I have a Nanocom if that would do anything.

Thanks!

 

I did some reading here and it sounds like I can synch the other instrument cluster with the vehicle using Nanocom, but it would synch to the higher mileage of the cluster, making it appear that the vehicle has a lot more mileage than it does.

Does anyone have ideas about where I could look on the original instrument circuit board for something that could cause this? I do have a multimeter and a soldering iron if it is something pretty straightforward.

Or does anyone have a working used cluster for sale that fits a 2001 Disco 2 with lower mileage that I could pair to this vehicle to reflect the actual or at least closer to the actual miles (139,600)? If a replacement cluster is lower mileage, I think the Nanocom will let me synch to the actual miles on the BCU.

 

I found a seller on ebay that had a working cluster with lower mileage. They seemed knowledgable and hooked me up with one that will work with our Disco (they verified by part number...).

Thanks, all.

 

I am having basically the same issue. It got into the teens here a couple of days ago and I lost all of my gauges. I drove for a few miles and the gauges came back to life, except for the speedometer. I am getting 14.4 volts according to my Scan Gauge, so its not the alternator. The gauges have been working since, but still no speedometer.
Does anyone have an idea on what is going on?
Thanks,
-Len

 

I wish someone could help us...

I have a used instrument cluster incoming that I will recode using Nanocom.

I'd much rather fix the original cluster, but I don't have the skills or knowledge.

In my case the issue is 100% something inside the electronics of the instrument cluster. Putting a good spare in confirms this diagnosis.

 

I got the new cluster, installed it and it works as expected.

The new cluster has a lower mileage than my BCU and is flashing, so I want to synch it.

I plugged in Nanocom and went into the menu and chose SYNCH ODOMETER TO BCU, and the screen flashed to "Function in. progress..." then came back to the menu, but it didn't change the mileage on the odometer. I tried three times (maybe four), and it never changed the instrument cluster.

Can anyone share any Nanocon tips and tricks for synching the instrument cluster mileage to the BCU?

 

I went in to check the firmware version of my Nanocom and while I was in there thought I'd try again to synch the Odo and BCU.

Not sure how/why it worked, but I tried again and it worked this time (synched to the higher mileage in the BCU as expected and stopped flashing).

I don't think I did anything different this time but am not completely sure (I also turned off the dash blinky light for the security system in the same session).

Thanks all.

 

From what I've read it's due to a soldering issue, and isn't considered fixable. I just live with it.