I thought I asked this awhile back but can not find it so I will ask again. My 97 TJ 2.5 dash gauges are not working. I been looking and nothing has worked. I just changed all the batt cables and cleaned all connections. I also cleaned the ground at the passenger floor kick panel. Still not working. What should I try next? I read somewhere there were grounds behind the fuse box to clean but found none.
Dash guages not working
- Thread starter woody367
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Did what you all said and removed the cluster' cleaned with contact cleaner, adjusted the pins and used dielectric grease. Did this 2x and still NG. What to try next. Are there any other grounds to check beside the 1 at the pass kick panel, engine block and on the firewall near the heater box. The dash lights work and so does all the idiot lights and the low gas comes on.
Can you do a start test? Hold down the trip button on the cluster then turn the Jeep to accessory (you can let go after you hear the beep). The gauges should cycle through from one to the next moving the needle on each. If the needles don't move then somehow they've all busted or they're not getting power. Just to check you replaced fuse #10 on the interior fuse block? I believe that's the right one according to the 1997 service manual.
Sorry, been out of town and just got to check this out today.
When I started this almost a year ago the fuse and dash test all check out good. I checked the fuze again today and all is good and cleaned fuse contacts. Did the dash test and now the gauges do not work in the test but the warning lights and sound still do. Is there something to check now? I am thinking to trace the wire from the fuse to the dash connector and see if power is there.
Do you have a multimeter? May be easier to check a few things. Unfortunately there's quite a few spots where something could have happened to take out all the gauges. Look at the pic here from the 97 service manual:
You have all the sensors going into the PCM that then go out to a few splices then the data link connector you probably cleaned then off to the battery. It could be as simple as a bad ground. I know just enough about this stuff to be dangerous and haven't cracked open the dash myself before. My bet is there's just some bad wiring or bad ground somewhere along the line since none of your gauges work.
You have all the sensors going into the PCM that then go out to a few splices then the data link connector you probably cleaned then off to the battery. It could be as simple as a bad ground. I know just enough about this stuff to be dangerous and haven't cracked open the dash myself before. My bet is there's just some bad wiring or bad ground somewhere along the line since none of your gauges work.
So I found a wire diagram for the 2 cluster connector. If I have the right ones and reading correct I do not have power to port 9 on the left black plug and port 3 on the right gray plug. I do have ignition key power on left port 8. I checked all fuses again and all have power and are good. I need to find where the power wire from the dash goes and trace it out. I hope I am not chasing my tail look for this and being completely wrong with there even suppose to be power at these spots.
Well figured it out today and all is working. After reading the wiring diagram there are 3 + feeds to the dash cluster. 1 is power from ignition, 1 is a 10 fuse behing the glove box and the third which the fuse was blown was a 10amp fuse in the box under the hood,. What was the real issue I will never know. Like I said awhile back The cluster test was all good but no gauges,. now was the test failed but I cleaned all the grounds and the cluster connector. At what point the fuse under the hood blew is not know. But all works good so hats what maters.Thank you all for the help.
@woody367 I am currently having the same issue, but all my fuses currently look good. I have no power at the cluster C2 (Blue) connector at pins 9 and 8. So fuse 10 behind the glove box is good. All fuses in the block under the hood are good. What were the 3+ feeds you checked/found if you recall? Thanks!
Hey djbrand, did you ever get your's fixed? I have the same problem and haven't been able to figure it out so thought I'd check to see if you found a solution for your's that I could troubleshoot.
Mine goes out every winter and works off and on. I cleaned the connectors years ago and it worked for a while. From what I’ve heard the clusters do fail after a while. Mine seams to work fine about 6 months out of the year when it’s not freezing.
Having same issues with a cusyomers 2004 wrangler, long story short there's a large harness that goes down close to where the lower steering column mount is. There is a very sharp edge that rubbed a short in the orange wire in that harness shorting the dash lights.
So an update. My issue was I had a weak battery. It could have. also been a bad terminal. I really replaced the battery and my gauges work great now.
Thank you! This helped me out! Fuse under the hood was blown and kept blowing. Speedo, Tach, Odometer, radio, interior lights did not work. The lights on the cluster worked, turn signals, fuel light and sounds.
It ended up being a broken foot light driver side that kept shorting out the IOD fuse under the hood. Removed the light and back in business. Love this forum! Thank you!