Hey Guys,
I keep forgetting to post about this (was traveling and working too long/hard all this week), but last Friday (the 18th) I was driving my GT home from work up PCH. I was about 5 minutes into my commute when I scanned the gas gauge. It was on empty and I was like, "What the F&*%! I just had 1/4 tank on the way in." Before I could fully explore this mystery I glanced at the oil pressure and saw it at "0". I was just about to freak out when I noticed the tach and speedo also at "0" even though the engine was running and I was going about 30 mph.
At this point I knew the gauge cluster had died, but the car was running fine and with traffic congestion I couldn't easily pull over. This went on for about two minutes and I kept scanning the gauges looking for activity. They stayed dead but everything else seemed fine -- radio was working and all that. Then I got inspired by what my old 1970 Plymouth GTX does on occasion. The gauges will suddenly all start to peg out, with everything going to maxium and beyond. Obviously this can damage them if they stay this way for long, but if I flip on the headlights, or even the parking lights, it almost always settles them back down. I had trouble believing this would work on my 2005 Ford exotic car, but I tried it.
BAM! All gauges instantly come to life and started reading correctly. Yes, I know -- bad ground is the fairly obvious cause in both cases. But while I expect it (and plenty of other electrical gremlins) on my old Mopar, I was surprised this happened on the GT. The good news is that I flipped the headlights back off after 10 seconds or so and the gauges continued to work fine for the last 43 miles of my 47-mile commute (which took over an hour and covered pretty much every driving condition). I haven't driven the car since, but I'll be watching my gauges more closely than usual next time I do.
Anyone else ever have this problem, or just heard of someone having it?
I keep forgetting to post about this (was traveling and working too long/hard all this week), but last Friday (the 18th) I was driving my GT home from work up PCH. I was about 5 minutes into my commute when I scanned the gas gauge. It was on empty and I was like, "What the F&*%! I just had 1/4 tank on the way in." Before I could fully explore this mystery I glanced at the oil pressure and saw it at "0". I was just about to freak out when I noticed the tach and speedo also at "0" even though the engine was running and I was going about 30 mph.
At this point I knew the gauge cluster had died, but the car was running fine and with traffic congestion I couldn't easily pull over. This went on for about two minutes and I kept scanning the gauges looking for activity. They stayed dead but everything else seemed fine -- radio was working and all that. Then I got inspired by what my old 1970 Plymouth GTX does on occasion. The gauges will suddenly all start to peg out, with everything going to maxium and beyond. Obviously this can damage them if they stay this way for long, but if I flip on the headlights, or even the parking lights, it almost always settles them back down. I had trouble believing this would work on my 2005 Ford exotic car, but I tried it.
BAM! All gauges instantly come to life and started reading correctly. Yes, I know -- bad ground is the fairly obvious cause in both cases. But while I expect it (and plenty of other electrical gremlins) on my old Mopar, I was surprised this happened on the GT. The good news is that I flipped the headlights back off after 10 seconds or so and the gauges continued to work fine for the last 43 miles of my 47-mile commute (which took over an hour and covered pretty much every driving condition). I haven't driven the car since, but I'll be watching my gauges more closely than usual next time I do.
Anyone else ever have this problem, or just heard of someone having it?
