On my wife’s car, the speedometer, fuel gauge, etc. all have intermittent connections. They’re not directly connected; sometimes the fuel gauge works but the speedometer doesn’t, other times everything’s dead.
The car guy had previously checked out the speed sensor on the wheel and everything was a-ok down there, so it’s clearly the gauges at fault.
What needs doing here? Will we probably need a whole console replacement? Fuses are fine, and a blown fuse wouldn’t cause an intermittent issue anyway, methinks…
(Oh, it’s a 1996 Plymouth Neon, with an unknown but high number of miles)
I have a car that had a similar problem. Purchased used, from the first owner, who took very good care of it by never taking it out of his barn, for like three years. This is how I found out about “garage rot”… Check your wiring for critter nests.
Had a VW Passat doing the same thing…problem was a very small voltage regulator in the circuit board (which was the back of the instrument cluster. Try searching a “Dodge Neon” website and asking in the forum there…thats how i found out mine was a minor quick fix if you like takeing dashboards apart …
When it happened with my trusty old Dodge van it turned out there was a short in my cruise control. Whenever I turned on the cruise, all the instruments died.
I had a Mercury Comet one time with a balky electical system. It you pushed one place on the instrument panel the horn would honk. Another place made the lights go on (or off) and so on. It turned out that the whole panel was wired by a flexible circuit board which had a bad connection to the common ground.
My dad miswired a stereo years ago in an old econoline. As soon as he did somehting (don’t remember what) the dash light fuse blew and from then on even with the van off and the keys out you could still get power to the radio by turning the headlights on.
