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2001 Dodge Grand Caravan gauges gone wild!

Okay, this one's just weird!

The day before yesterday, while my wife was driving our 2001 Dodge Grand Caravan, all of the dash gauges in the instrument cluster lost their mind and started clicking back and forth in an erratic manner. She called me on her cell phone and I could actually hear the gauge dials clicking in the background loudly!

As of yesterday, the speedometer dial clicked so much and so hard that it clicked itself right off! Now all that remain are the temp, fuel, and tach gauges, which still flip wildly back and forth.

Before the speedometer gauge dial fell off, we noticed that when we turned the van off all of the dials returned to home position except it, which hovered around 45mph. The next morning I came out and looked and it had spun down to the left of center at the bottom (past the highest speed listed, clockwise). That day it fell off.

Per reading online, I held in the trip button in order to perform the diagnostic test. All of the dials seemed to do what they were supposed to do, except that the speed one was off a bit since it would not go back to zero.

So, any ideas? Is the cluster going bad and needing replaced, or is there something more wiring-related that I should check? Has anyone seen something so crazy as this? :)

Also, incidentally, this vehicle was crunched somewhat by a tree last year, which shattered the front and rear glass, dented the exterior in places, and poked a small hole in the top of the dashboard above the radio area towards the windshield. This incident happened months ago and I don't know if it is related or not, but I figured I might as well put this kind of info here in case it helps!

Thanks in advance for your suggestions!! I really appreciate them!

Reply to
lgerhardx
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Nothing is listed under Technical Service bulletins on this..

If the whole dash cluster is going flakey it may be as simple as a loose connector, or a poor ground for the dash. Give the harness a slight tug/shake while you have it running to see of the gauges go back to normal.

Reply to
m6onz5a

I've never had the cluster out on this vehicle. Do you mean for me to pull it and play with the connector where it attaches to the back of the cluster, or somewhere else? Thanks! I really appreciate the tip!

Reply to
lgerhardx

If you can reach the connector without removing everything give it a jiggle, or the harness leading to it. You can also try to wiggle other harness wires under the dash to see if that help/hurts. Just won't wiggle them too violently. Sounds more like a bad ground since the whole cluster is going nuts.

Reply to
m6onz5a

Thanks, I'll try to see if I can ferret out a good spot to juggle.

Also, I noticed last night, driving the van, that the light behind the temp gauge seems to be burnt out. Even at maximum brightness it seems only to be ambiently lit by the other lights. If there is anything there it may be only very dim.

Should I also start calling around to find replacement clusters? Is it possible that the ground problem is in the cluster, or is that unlikely?

Thanks!

Reply to
lgerhardx

One sure way to check is to use a voltmeter on the harness going to the cluster to see if the voltage is going crazy or holding steady. Since that cluster is electronically controlled it's most likely the cluster that's gone bad. If/when you get it out look for a burnt capacitor, or diode, etc. If you can't fine anything burnt on it-it could still be bad.

Reply to
m6onz5a

Reply to
man of machines

My brother-in-law is a mechanic and is out of work right now. He thinks he may be onto something, and wants to use his 'free time' right now to hunt it down and fix it. Turns out that we have a leak that is causing some water/moisture in the floorboard on the passenger side. He said something about there being some controls/electrical stuff down there that can get affected by the water and things will start messing up.

Anyway, we're going to drop it off there and let him ferret it out. Thanks for all the ideas! I'll print this thread and pass it along for him to have!

Reply to
lgerhardx

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