bwindsor

I have no explanation for how this happened. I have a 98 CX 5 speed. I change the gage cluster out so I could get a tach. I unhooked the battery, changed the cluster (put my only speedo into thenew cluster), and it seemed to work fine. I noticed the gas gage seemed low, but it seemed to pick up. I turned the lights on and off, and then the battery light came on and went off. I then turned around a corner and the battery and oil lights came on and the car cut off. I got it started...went over some speed bumps and the battery light came on. I was turning into my drive (on a slope) and both oil and battery went off and the car cut off again. I restarted it and now I'm wondering how a different gage cluster could cause this? I'm going to clean the batter terminals and see if that has anything to do with it. Any ideas?

nealnanoHX

First check the simple things like make sure you dont have loose battery connections, check for any stored codes. You could put the old cluster back in and see if that fixes the problem but swapping cluster should have nothing to do with how the car runs.

Texas4door

Loose/dirty battery clamps...unless you have something crazy-assed grounding out behind your cluster. And that shouldn't make the car shut off anyway.
Yeah, I'm leaning towards battery clamps being nasty/loose.

grumblemarc

iTrader: (4)

Don't see how it's the cluster. I don't.

xile6

Check battery cable and fuel lever. You could be low on gas also.

bwindsor

I can't imagine it being the gage. I think disconnecting the battery caused a problem to rise. Fuel is also not an issue. I've driven it around and noticed that when I'm rolling to a stop and have the clutch in, the battery light will come on, then oil, then I lose all power. If I'm at a complete stop and the car isn't moving, the battery light will not come on. After I finally got the car back home, I noticed that if I revved the engine that it bogged down almost like it was going to stall and then settled out...not sure if that's normal. I was wondering if it may be the battery or the alternator. Thanks for all the help so far.

Checked battery and alternator...both seem to be fine. I've put in the old gage cluster and will try it once more.

Old gage cluster same results. Listened for fuel pump and it's working fine. Starting off, the idle seems OK, but after driving for a few minutes, if I have the clutch in and my foot off the gas, then the idle seems to get really rough. I think it may be an idle issue, but it seems to idle fine when I start it up, but after a few minutes, it has a crappy idle.

bwindsor

Found the problem...not really a problem at all. I just needed to drive it around until the computer was able to reset the idle to 700rpm. I've never had a car that would reset the computer and let the idle drop to a level that would turn the car off, but that seems to be the problem. I drove it around today....first time out I had it turn off a few times, but by the third time it was idling about 700 and rest and not bogging down.

los02

Glad it's running. But sounds like you had something else going on. Clusters don't control the RPM. They report it. Maybe from unplugging the battery?

bwindsor

I disconnected the battery, and it stayed that way for a while. I looked around at various videos/information sites about changing the clusters out, and a few mentioned disconnecting the battery to keep from accidentally tripping the airbag sensor. I'm not sure if that's really possible, but I'd rather not take the chance. The battery was probably disconnected for at least an hour while I got the original cluster out, disassembled it, and then chose the best looking parts between the two, dropped my old speedometer/odometer into the new cluster and got it back in.

I think that amount of time effectively made the computer go back to the defaults, I'm just not use to the defaults dropping the idle so low. I've had the battery disconnected many times in he past for radio installs and replacing O2 sensors. I'm thinking those other times, I probably ran the car on the road for a while and didn't do a lot of start and stop, but my current neighborhood has a lot of speed bumps and start and stops. It seems to be working fine now, although if it acts up again, I'm taking out the IACV and cleaning it and then heading into the more difficult to diagnose problems.