Hey.. I need some help.
97 2.4 Cav. 5 speed swap.
My gauge cluster is not working properly and I can't figure it out.
The tach & temp gauges dont work at all. The battery light is on, the theft system light is on & the gauge lighting doesnt work either..
I swapped in a different cluster, and that one does the same thing... Checked all fuses. The connectors for the gauge cluster look okay as well.. The car is running @ 14.7v when running, so no reason for the battery light.
Battery terminals are tight..
The car has been sitting for over a year, I recently pulled it out, got it inspected and have been driving it a little. I had to install an alternator a few months ago because the old one crapped out...
The car is turbo & needs a tune, its not running very well... When Im driving it, it almost stalls, then pretty much every warning light in the cluster comes on until the car is turned off. Battery, Oil, theft system, coolant light etc..
ANY IDEAS ??
Thanks.
don't know much about turbo'ing our motors, so someone else correct me if im wrong, but your issue may be because your vehicle isn't properly tuned? think about it, some of your engines sensors are getting wierd readings because you have a power-adder, which allows your engine to exceed some of the parameters of different sensors. because you say two guages aren't working and some lights aren't, it's probably a wiring issue from your harness (not the cluster). check all your wiring through the computer, and check all the sensor wiring too.
we had a few guys boost a cobalt with a 2.2 eco at work the other day and instead of boosting it at the battery (located in the trunk), they used the "boost" plus terminal under the engine bay and used a strut mount bolt as a ground. well, the connection wasn't very good, and it fried something in the guage cluster causing the speedo to not work. we simply went into the vehicles diagnostics with a scan tool and someone reset something to do with the guage cluster, and it worked again. i'm not too sure how that works though, wasn't there to personally witness it
It sucks because the car was sitting so long, I can't recall if the tach worked after the 5 speed swap or not...
I went over the car today, added another ground from the battery & checked most of the wiring...
I doubt it has anything to do w/ the turbo. Even at startup & idle, nothing is working...
Im either gonna chalk this up to a faulty alternator or a bad ground somewhere for the gauge cluster... Its just a pain in the ass checking everything because theres alot of wiring for all the extra stuff in the car and Ive been thru the whole car changing things.
Im glad I checked over the engine bay really well, I discovered the radiator fan came unplugged somehow. Couldnt tell you if the car was overheating or not because the gauge doesnt work!
Im wondering if its a bad PCM. IIRC doesnt the PCM control almost every aspect of the Cluster?? I am pretty sure it does. I could be wrong but if everything looks good as far as wiring then its probably a bad pcm. I would start checking for ref voltage at the pcm for all those lights. Basically see what they should be at, and check and see if your getting them at the pcm, if your within specs but your still getting lights, I would think its safe to say the pcm is done. I think the manual tells you what they should be at. Goodluck.
That sounds like a real pain in the ass !
The PCM came from a company on eBay. I had them reflash it to a 5 speed VIN number for the swap...
We've always had some issues tuning the car due to strange problems. Maybe its been a bad PCM from the start.
I might pickup a new PCM & see if that squashes the problem. Thanks !
