Today while driving my temp and fuel gauges suddenly quit working... I figured it was probably the common fuel gauge contacts issue because everything else was still working normally.
So I pull the instrument cluster and remove the four screws one at a time and clean the contact pads with Deoxit electrical contact cleaner. You do NOT want to remove all of the screws at once; they are the only thing holding the fuel gauge in place. I plug it back in and still no fuel qtty reading... crap.
The four screws/pads in question:
So I go through the whole process again, but also lightly polishing the contacts with 800 grit wet/dry sandpaper. I plug it back in and still no reading... and then I hit the signal lever by accident and notice that the turn signals are now non-functioning. Crap... did I blow a fuse? I know they are both on fuse 15 (TURN). Check the fuse, it's fine... check a couple other fuses just cause... they're fine... check the fusible links because I'm running out of ideas that don't involve tracing wires in the column...they're fine. So I sit there for a few minutes, go look at the METER schematic and fuse box diagram... And it finally occurs to me, maybe the turn signals won't work w/o the hazard switch installed... plug the hazard switch back in and the turn signals are back; YAY!... but still no fuel reading. Often this is enough to fix the problem, but not this time... man I was hoping this was going to be easy
Ok, time to disassemble the cluster and pull the fuel gauge to see what I can figure out... worst case it will be ready for a replacement gauge if I need one. Of course I go about this the hard way, by pulling the speedo/tach pointers and unscrewing the faceplate. Apparently they can be removed with the faceplate by removing a screw (screws?) from behind... I didn't find that until too late.
Finally I get the fuel gauge out and everything looks good... I'm contemplating reflowing all of the solder connections and soldering over the welds because I'm running out of ideas... Then I eventually find a bi-metal spring type contact and clean that with the 800 grit and Deoxit (folded the paper into a little file shape).
It didn't seem to remove much; and it's a little hard to believe both systems/gauges are dependent on that tiny/weak connection. But I reinstall the fuel gauge and plug it back in to test... and I have a fuel reading! Hurray!
Take it back out to reassemble the cluster... try several times to install the speedo/tach needles so they are actually indicating zero with no luck. Finally I figure out to install them indicating a little high and then wind them back. Get everything back together and reinstalled and everything is now working!
But while I was at it I decided to see why my backup camera hasn't worked since the last time I pulled/reinstalled the radio... turns out I managed to snap the connector off the end of the video cable... so that's the next project I guess...
So I pull the instrument cluster and remove the four screws one at a time and clean the contact pads with Deoxit electrical contact cleaner. You do NOT want to remove all of the screws at once; they are the only thing holding the fuel gauge in place. I plug it back in and still no fuel qtty reading... crap.
The four screws/pads in question:
So I go through the whole process again, but also lightly polishing the contacts with 800 grit wet/dry sandpaper. I plug it back in and still no reading... and then I hit the signal lever by accident and notice that the turn signals are now non-functioning. Crap... did I blow a fuse? I know they are both on fuse 15 (TURN). Check the fuse, it's fine... check a couple other fuses just cause... they're fine... check the fusible links because I'm running out of ideas that don't involve tracing wires in the column...they're fine. So I sit there for a few minutes, go look at the METER schematic and fuse box diagram... And it finally occurs to me, maybe the turn signals won't work w/o the hazard switch installed... plug the hazard switch back in and the turn signals are back; YAY!... but still no fuel reading. Often this is enough to fix the problem, but not this time... man I was hoping this was going to be easy
Ok, time to disassemble the cluster and pull the fuel gauge to see what I can figure out... worst case it will be ready for a replacement gauge if I need one. Of course I go about this the hard way, by pulling the speedo/tach pointers and unscrewing the faceplate. Apparently they can be removed with the faceplate by removing a screw (screws?) from behind... I didn't find that until too late.
Finally I get the fuel gauge out and everything looks good... I'm contemplating reflowing all of the solder connections and soldering over the welds because I'm running out of ideas... Then I eventually find a bi-metal spring type contact and clean that with the 800 grit and Deoxit (folded the paper into a little file shape).
It didn't seem to remove much; and it's a little hard to believe both systems/gauges are dependent on that tiny/weak connection. But I reinstall the fuel gauge and plug it back in to test... and I have a fuel reading! Hurray!
Take it back out to reassemble the cluster... try several times to install the speedo/tach needles so they are actually indicating zero with no luck. Finally I figure out to install them indicating a little high and then wind them back. Get everything back together and reinstalled and everything is now working!
But while I was at it I decided to see why my backup camera hasn't worked since the last time I pulled/reinstalled the radio... turns out I managed to snap the connector off the end of the video cable... so that's the next project I guess...
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