hey guys...

if you have no blown fuses or bad links... and your ip cluster suddenly died... but everything in the car still worked including head light indicators and dash lights, just no odometer and fuel level, etc pertaining to the guages...


what are the chances that the cluster is just dead....

i have verified power into the cluster and i have verified ground to the clusters harness's.

 

I would think it is a bit strange that more than one thing in the cluster would go bad at the same time, unless those things all relied on each other. What I mean by that is your odometer may stop working if the speedometer stops because one controls the other, but for your fuel gauge and your odometer to stop working I would like to think the problem is something else, but who knows maybe a power surge or something like that fried like half of the components in there?

have you looked at schematics and tested the wires for the individual components that are not working?

 

all i have done is verified power and ground to the cluster...

but when i ohm the cluster power and ground i get nothing!

i have disassembled the cluster down to the board and i don't see anything out of the ordinary. its just that nothing happened to my car to the time between when this cluster was working and when it stopped working. and i have no blown fuses!

i donno what i'm gonna do... i think i'll pick up a junk yard cluster and see if i get power to it!!

 

what are you using to test power and ground to the cluster? where are you testing for power and ground to the cluster? I am not sure on the D2's but I would think it should be like the D1's in the fact that each component has its own ground, there is a common grounding point behind the cluster that should go down to the drivers kick panel, if those grounds are becoming weak enough your gauges could stop working (most likely if this was the case they would operate sporadically) I would use your ohm meter and test the resistance between the common ground junction and a GOOD solid ground (sticking the probe inside the ignition switch is a great ground point) if there is any resistance read at all I would clean the grounds in the kick panel and try to read it again. then if you have a DMM start to test the wires for each component that's not working and see if there is anything there, if it is receiving a signal and you have established the ground is good then chances are the cluster is bad, if it is not then the problem lies somewhere else. I personally like to try to be sure that something is bad before I replace it!

 

to test power to the cluster i used my volt meter with key on and i had 12vt at all of the pins that are directly connected to the fuse blocks. i didnt check anyone the input connections for the handbrake lamp or anything like that..

i also tested for ground at the harness and they looked good.


the SRS light is on so i know theres power going to the gauge, and when i turn on the head lights the dash lights up but i still have no odometer or gas gauge. high beam light works also

 

well the input for the speedometer (not sure if that is working or not) is a negative speed-sense pulse the wire will pulse negative at a speed determined by the transmission, the fuel gauge should be a wire that should produce a voltage level that will fluctuate with the amount of fuel in the tank. I am still wanting to think this could be a ground related problem. Just because you put a meter on the ground and a good 12 volt source and the meter read 12 volts does not mean the ground is good. it depends on the amount of current (amps) that can pass through it. if you exceed what it will provide it will cause components to fail.

 

okay, well i 'm gonna put the cluster back together and then pull out the passenger seat i installed before i noticed the probelm... maybe i hit a wire that was hot and now its grounding out on the seat frame to the chassis and thats why maybe?

 

that's a good possibility

 

i reomved the passenger seat and re installed the cluster, but no dice...

i have no idea what to do now!!!

can i rule out the IDM,BCU,ECU since all of the windows work as does the starter relay and headlights, dimmers and switches in the car?