WTF! Voltmeter screwy?

[XfireZ51]

So I just finished installing my appradio 4 and it works great. Nice day out, so thought I would take car out for a bit of a shakedown run. Everything working well. Just about coming to the end of the ride and I notice my voltmeter looking like the first pic. However, NO BAT light. Then I shut motor down once in the garage and the voltmeter is in the position of the second picture. The radio works fine. Everything works including Siri, Maps, CarPlay etc. I am getting a staticy noise coming from the passenger side front. It even did a series of clicks which got progressively quieter then apparently stopped.

[XfireZ51]

I'm posting second pic here because for some reason, I can't post more than one pic per post.

[XfireZ51]

Just went out and checked digital readout and it shows normal voltage. NOW w Motor running the meter is reading correctly. W Key Off, its still off the scale.
Bad Voltmeter?

[nelson007]

Just went out and checked digital readout and it shows normal voltage. NOW w Motor running the meter is reading correctly. W Key Off, its still off the scale.
Bad Voltmeter?

It might be a dropping resistor in series with the volt meter. They sometime use them for calibration.
Nelson

[Jagdpanzer]

According to FSM page 8A-82-0 the instrument cluster voltmeter reads fuse #27 voltage directly across the line to ground. If a poor connection is not involved then the gauge is probably suspect.

[GOLDCYLON]

Dom if the voltmeter turns out to be the problem I highly recommend Batee.com for the repair. GC

[Paul Workman]

Good to know, Daryl! I saved the link.

Dom, the large connector at the back of the cluster sometimes gets oxidized (frosted), resulting a host of weird chit starts happening with the cluster - or so it did with mine.

I was able to "fix" it by cleaning the pins and spraying them with electronic cleaner/lube (and that goes for any connections between the gauge, ground, and "B+".

Just a thought.

P.

[XfireZ51]

Good to know, Daryl! I saved the link.

Dom, the large connector at the back of the cluster sometimes gets oxidized (frosted), resulting a host of weird chit starts happening with the cluster - or so it did with mine.

I was able to "fix" it by cleaning the pins and spraying them with electronic cleaner/lube (and that goes for any connections between the gauge, ground, and "B+".

Just a thought.

P.

Thanks Paul. I just put the center stack back together after installing the appradio4. And now take the cluster apart??? I may leave till after BG. It also seems like I have a bad front amp. Its making all kinds of fuzz and clicking noises. Sounds a bit like a pod of dolphins. My main concern was that I was having another issue w the charging system and apparently I don't.

[Jagdpanzer]

The + feed is common to all the analog gauges so if you had a voltage issue the other gauges would also beacting up.

[XfireZ51]

The + feed is common to all the analog gauges so if you had a voltage issue the other gauges would also beacting up.


So Phil, you are confirming its the volt gauge itself. And oddly now, the gauge is reading correctly when the motor is running whereas it was not when I drove the car yesterday.

[Paul Workman]

The + feed is common to all the analog gauges so if you had a voltage issue the other gauges would also beacting up.

True IF the connector supplying the + was at fault. However, there is a mechanical connection between the PC board and the individual gauges.

Dom, Just for you, :p I pulled my cluster PC board out to take some pix that show what I mean.

The fact that ONLY the volt meter is being intermittent, suggests a connection issue, either external (which might be either external or internal to the meter). Both the common connection (run) can be seen, as well as the mechanical contacts for the individual gauges. (I suggest you might consider pulling the board too and service all the mechanical connections and spray on some electrical cleaner. Just a thought.)


http://i185.photobucket.com/albums/x220/6PPC_bucket/600408d2-dc99-4918-b3dd-45b650993aa8_zpsm7wnk7xr.jpg (http://s185.photobucket.com/user/6PPC_bucket/media/600408d2-dc99-4918-b3dd-45b650993aa8_zpsm7wnk7xr.jpg.html)

http://i185.photobucket.com/albums/x220/6PPC_bucket/76ba0b01-aff5-4d3b-b59d-98581464f7b3_zpstuzqu1o2.jpg (http://s185.photobucket.com/user/6PPC_bucket/media/76ba0b01-aff5-4d3b-b59d-98581464f7b3_zpstuzqu1o2.jpg.html)