cause my gauges to stop working?


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on Monday my car died.

thinking it was my main relay that went out, i went to work on trying to re-solder joints that i noticed a hairline crack in. i noticed two cracked (dry) joints and attempted to fix them. thinking that i did a well enough job, i put the main relay back in, tried starting the car, and nothing. i gave up.

just today a mechanic came to my house while i was at work and fixed her all up in a matter of hours. when he called me, he said it was my ignition coil that went out so he went and got a new one, replaced it and now she runs.

now to my problem: my speedometer, tachometer, odometer and temp. gauge do not work. also, when i was driving earlier tonight i parked at a gas station, got out but left the engine and headlights running. when i opened the door, my headlight warning started to chime! i was like WTF?! my car thinks its OFF. but its ON and running. that chime isn't supposed to be sounding.

is the tach, speedo, odom., temp, and headlight warning all running through the main relay? since i messed with the relay, i'm thinking this may be the problem, in which case i'll go to the dealership tomorrow to get a new one.

can anyone confirm that it was my dumbass messing with the relay that caused my gauges to stop working?

THANKS!

UPDATE: <FONT COLOR="red">turns out it was my BACK-UP LIGHT 10A fuse that caused all of my gauges to stop working. so if anyone in the future finds this thread looking to figure out why everything in their car works BUT the gauges, check this fuse!</FONT>


Modified by hgz at 5:01 PM 5/27/2005

 

sorry, sometimes i'm not as smart as i look.


anyone...........? anyone...........?

 

Bueller............................ Bueller...........

 

afaik, the main relay does not have any control over the gauges. check your fuses and make sure your gauges didn't come unplugged somehow.

 

ok well the mechanic had to replace the ignition coil. does anyone think my gauges stopped working because he didn't wire up my distributor correctly???

or is it my main relay?

someone please help. its one or the other. i don't want to go pay $50 for a new relay if my current relay isn't even whats causing my gauges to stop working.

 

main relay has nothing to do with your gauges and especially not your speedometer. Distributor has nothing to do with it either. Check your fuses under the dash as well as under the hood little black box on passanger side.. Check the big fuses they can cause big problems.. Maybe main relay is bad and cause fuses to blow when you tried to fix it .. Check fuses first then try buying new parts.

 

yeah... your "mechanic" probably replaced the coil with the battery still connected and prolly blew a fuse... check all your fuses.

 

ok. as i mentioned before, i was messing with the main relay before my mechanic replaced the coil. yesterday she started up fine after he replaced the coil, but the gauges didn't work.

so this morning, thinking that the main relay was the culprit for the gauges, i tried wiggling around one of the joints that i tried fixing. it sparked, then the battery light went out in my cluster. now NONE of my dummy lights work. and now i dont hear the fuel pump priming anymore.

after cursing for a minute or two, i said 'F*ck it. my main relay is all messed up now anyway. might as well buy a new one.' so i just got back from the dealership with a new relay, popped her in, and still, no dummy lights, no clicking, no fuel pump priming.

i checked all the fuses in the fuse box under the dash, and all the fuses in the box by the battery under the hood look fine as well. all the grounds are fine.

now i'm completely stumped.

now i don't know WHERE to look since i bought a new relay and my fuel pump still isn't priming. the new relay doesn't even click!

crap.

thanks for the replies guys. if you have anymore ideas, please let me know.

 

omg.... you should NEVER mess with wiring or anything electrical in your car without disconnecting the battery... i would double check fuses.. then try swapping ecu's with someone

 

do you think there is any fuse in particular that i should be looking for? any certain fuse that might be related to the main relay somehow?

i'll go and pull fuses out one by one right now, but i'm positive they are all still good.

swapping ECU's?! i only have one friend with teg and its a '99 LS. plus he's the type to be a bitch about something like borrowing his ECU for 30 minutes..

dammat. why me.

 

<FONT SIZE="5">SUCCESS.</FONT>

boy do i feel like a <u>complete</u> idiot.

turns out my battery light went out because the ACG(IG) 15A fuse blew. replaced that and my fuel pump primed and she started up! me.

other dummy lights still didn't work, so the very next fuse i pulled was the infamous BACK-UP LIGHT 10A fuse.. sure enough, it went to ****. reached for one of the spare 10A's, popped that sucker in, and now ALL my dummy lights work!! started her up and the TACH worked!!!!!! me again.

thanks for pushing the double-checking of fuses. see what i was doing was just taking a light tester to the top of the fuses like a dumbass, instead of actually taking them out.

THANKS GUYS! next time i will try not to be so stupid.

 

im not sure about fuse location... in fact i dont even have the cover that tells me where mine are... i would just pull each one and check them... check the ones under the hood too.. and i dont know why your so worried about the main relay.. if you had a dry socket it would have probably not started. if you resoldered the joints then it should work... it DOES however sound like a fuse.. and hopefully so because electrical problems are a BITCH to troubleshoot.