Dead Speedo?

HMHAMz

HMHAMz

Member
Hey everyone! I'm relatively new to the forums as I just got my license (woot! 900kms in 4 days anyone? in my 96 GLi -later model- for roughly 70$ of fuel I believe.)

Anyhow my lil 96 Lancer has been doing great, got motivated to set up my amp so much that I ended up making a custom rack for it with carpeting and all (for around 20$ btw!). Was working great till I took it out of the driveway to find the amp not switching on. Took it to Autobarn thinking the fuse in the power cable had blown only to find out I hadn't grounded it correctly. The bloke at the store is very impressed with the amp setup :p -"very clean" were his words- and he has taken a got prod around behind the head unit (mostly to amuse his own questions about the fact my head unit doesn't have RCA out for the speakers -only sub RCA-, it came with the car, not my fault.) So, thats fine, fix it there n then with a couple pliers and take off. Get down the road and the speedo is jumping about all over the place. Pull over and check the ground wire, still fine. Take off again and after not long the speedo drops out completely. Its been a day now and still nothing. The rest of the dash board is fine, all lights, dials and displays work correctly except the speedo AND the odo isn't moving from its current number...... AMP and speakers are running great. No problems at all.

Went to a mechanic a mate works at, cant help. Directs me to a car electric shop down the road which suggests that I leave the car for a couple of hours for them to take a look at and from my description of the problem they reckon it will cost between 100 to 400 to fix and that its not a simple job........

From what I can gather (I've had a little electronics experience and work with computers/tech as a job and study) the problem can either lie in the motor behind the speedo dial, a fuse (although the techie at the electronics tells me that all the dials/lights on the dash are on the same fuse), a disconnected wire (maybe from autobarn's prodding) or a problem in the sensor? I also found a black cable hanging loose behind the head unit that's quite thick and has about 8-9 pins (roughly from memory) on a flat black head, I do believe there's one of these connectors in the back of the car also though so I don't know. Could it also be I've damaged the ECU with my previously bad ground?

I'm happy to get my hands dirty to get this fixed without forking out too much cash (as I really don't have it at the moment).

Any help/suggestions/tips would be greatly appreciated and thanks to all those who take the time to read this and give the opinions.

Cheers,
HM
 
Judging by the year of the car it is not uncommon for the gauge cluster to stop working or work intermitently... Do not pay someone $100 - $400 to fix you need to go to Mitsubishi and see if they can get you a green panel board for the rear of your gauge cluster... or you can check out ebay and buy one on there or check the local wreckers and see what they have in the way of a full replacement.

I am guessing that the car or inside the cabin of the car it was warm? if this is the case then it is just a coincedence that at the same time you had done the stereo setup then this it is most likely not related - the gauge cluster go wierd when they get hot.
 
Ryans on it :) yeah 90% sure the above link will be your issue, i do them all the time, got one booked into work to do today actually, any questions feel free to ask
 
Joshy_morris said:
Ryans on it :) yeah 90% sure the above link will be your issue, i do them all the time, got one booked into work to do today actually, any questions feel free to ask
Click to expand...

i've got the same problem but i cant find my damn voltmeter to determine where the crack is, although when it drops out, it is both the speedo and tacho, so i assume its the main earth right?

but because i dont get much time to myself being in the RAAF, ill probs just end up getting a mechanic/autoelectrician to fix, what sort of cost am i looking at?
 
more than what you can pick up a cluster for... $200 for auto electrician vs $60 for speedo cluster
 
we charge $120 to fix them, if you take the time to find the crack, wich is usually at the bottom of the cluster along the top track (see the thread for location) you'll save heaps repairing it yourself, or you can swap clusters and wait for it to break again and just keep swapping them out. doesnt seem that logical to me though. the crack is tiny though, so you have to look hard.
 
Cheers Joshy, ill have a look when ive got a spare few hours, ive heard you can put a hair dryer on the back, let it heat up and use a volt meter to then find the crack? or is that not advised?
 
Lol well never heard of that, but if u look at the thread for the fix, theres a bent bit at the bottom where it always cracks that will be it.
 
Hey guys, thanks everyone for the replys.

Removal of the cluster proved to show no major cracks in the wiring, so next step thanks to lilandonaki's support I was able to test his cluster in my lancer. Unfortunately this proved the issue wasn't with the cluster as the speedo still did not work using his working cluster..

Sooo. What now guys? I take it the only remaining possibilities are fried sensor or chopped wiring? (also possible ecu damage!?!? or doesn't the ECU take this feed?) What wiring should I be looking at and how can I test the *sensor*? Any help would be greatly appreciated.

Cheers,
H

P.S. I just want to get this damn thing out of the way as I want my car screwed back together and the mods on the GO!!!!
 
Hey mate, pop your bonnet, look in fuse box at your relays, they should be shiny and copper wire should not be blued over, if there is any blue on them replace em.

If the relays are damaged your guages wont work. I had this problem, it was a combination of PCB broken wire, and dodgy relays that were all corroded. put new guage in and didnt work, replaced relays and put new guage in, worked immediately. (this was in the space of 3 minutes so I dont think it was coincidentally anything else apart from the relay change.)
 
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