Hello everyone. I have this 99 Dodge Ram150 and last year I took it to mechanic. He didn’t work on it because it took him 7 days to diagnose the problem. When I picked the truck all gauges were going up and down very fast. I took it to a real mechanic who fixed the other problem but did nothing about the gauges. Well I bought a car but I really miss my truck and tried it again and same problem again. The gauges go so fast that it is not drive-able.
If anyone can give me a hint of what could that be I would appreciate it. If I don’t fix the problem I gotta take it to mechanic and they would probably charge more than I can afford right now. BTW I will mention that it has a new battery. Also alternator has been changed.
Before changing out the cluster I would pull out the one you have an unplug and re-plug in all the connections that go to the cluster to see if the making and breaking of those connections cleans the contacts a bit and maybe helps it with this issue… Otherwise I suppose you do need a new cluster… There are a ton of those trucks in my local U-Pull it truck yard.
Yes but the truck is not driveble since all gauges are moving, well I tried to reset the KM to zero by holding the reset button (pedometer?) for 5-6 seconds but even that is not working because those lights that show the distance are changing very fast even though that has “fixed the mph and speedometer” issue but I haven’t turned my truck on again to see if they move now mainly because the engine oil is so dark that it doesn’t even look as oil so I guess I need to change oil before I turn it on again. But even if those two don’t malfunction anymore still those gauges on oil, battery and gas plus the digital distance lights/numbers are screwed.
My biggest problem is if I do this by myself I am not good with wires and cables so I could make damage rather than unplug and plug the connections behind the cluster especially since the cluster is big inside.
I don’t see why your gauges going crazy makes your truck undriveable. As a trucker I used to regularly rurn off the dash lights in bad weather to improve night vision.
I don’t know what design is used for power to the gauges but there may be a regulator that is used to supply power to them and the regulator is causing the trouble. I would verify that power to the dash is stable at least.
@Cougar may be on to something. The alternator has been replaced, but it might have a bad diode in the rectifier bridge. That would cause a lot of ripple on the output of the alternator and that in turn could cause the gauges to fluctuate rapidly.
The first step I took today was inspecting the cluster. After this job the speedometer and the RPM gauge changed their positions from 0 to max and are just sitting there. Anyway, I saw nothing wrong inside. There is one wire going straight into dash board and 2 small “boxes” that IMO control most of the gauges and they seem to be connected well.
The alternator has never been replaced. I thought they did but I found the receipt and all they did was replacing the main alt. fuse. aside from non-related things like throttle body wash. But I know they inspected the alt. However they did say that I needed one and they changed their mind later. Back then (last year) I had a problem with starting the truck. When I picked it up the gauges went nuts.
Now I am in dilemma of whether I should get a used alternator and install it myself, or get someone to check the power generator (yes there is one) or take it to the shop for proper diagnosis. The problem is They charge between $90-120 per hour and a guy from there told me it may take a few hours and I don’t have the money right now to pay who knows how much, maybe $500 max.
What is the likelihood it could be alternator even though they said it’s fine.
One idea, ask your shop to disconnect the alternator for a short test drive. Can’t speak to the specific configuration of your Dodge, but on most vehicles the car will still start and run ok (for a short distance) with the alternator disconnected. But there will probably be dash warning lights. If the gauges stop dancing around with the alternator disconnected, that would be a major clue. If they continue to dance around anyway, most likely you are looking at needing a replacement or repaired cluster. This is a pretty common problem and there are probably shops who can repair your cluster. Google “repair gauge cluster on Dodge”, something like that.
I know for fact that Dodge Caravans from around that era suffered from a problem, on the printed circuit board on back of the cluster, as they aged. I know. I repaired one, rather easily and it worked fine.
Where little wire ends or “legs” of components (don’t know electronics technical terms) are inserted through the board from the front and stick out the back and are soldered to the printed circuit, take a magnifying lens and examine those little solder spots. With naked eye they looked fine, but through the lens I could see (dark colored) cracks going right around the solder on a couple of them.
I thought it was going to be difficult to “touch-up” the solder, but it wasn’t, so I did all the ones that were similar to the cracked ones, visible cracks or not. If I recall they were arranged in a couple of rows and were the larger connections. I had a fine electronics soldering iron from long ago and some pretty thin gauge solder that kept me from damaging the board with excessive heat/solder.
Voila! Everything worked and I was fart’n through silk!
For what it’s worth, you can examine your board with magnification and see if anything looks suspicious. CSA
P.S. Oh, I almost forgot! You could try striking the palm of your hand on the dashboard above the instruments. Prior to repairs I could sometimes get my gauges to jump to life temporarily. I guess in retrospect, that symptom fit with the defective soldered connections.
Do you know anything about dodge ram 1500 because that is my vehicle. I haven’t put back the dashboard yet and I it will easier now to get a more detailed . I was wearing my reading glasses when I took cluster out.
But I really don’t know what you guys mean by instruments and solder…
The trouble you are having could very well be due to poorly soldered connections mounted on the dash cluster. The leads that are soldered through the printed circuit board can show sings of a poor connection sometimes by seeing very fine cracks around the soldered leads. If you aren’t familiar with using a solder iron you should let someone else work on the panel who is familiar with using one if you want to work on the panel. It isn’t difficult to do but it is good to have a little practice before working on something like this. Overheating things is the biggest thing to guard against when re-soldering connections. Flex circuits are commonly used to solder components to and they can be damaged fairly easily with too much heat from a iron.
OK I will try to take it to a mechanic tomorrow. This guy charges only $60 ph. I spoke to another mechanic who says it has to be checked throughout where the wires go. Both manually and electrically. Yes this job it too hard for me. I believe the mechanic screwed my truck. They repaired it for not willing to turn on but caused another problem. When I picked it up from their garage this problem started. Too bad I didn’t go back but couldn’t.
Thanks for your help and suggestions fellas. I will post here what the problem was once I get it done.
The instrument panel is the part of the dashboard that contains the electronic display devices, speedometer, dash gauges, fuel gauge, warning lights, etc. This is an electronics module, and therefore contains printed circuit boards. The integrated circuits, resistors, capacitors of the module are connected to the printed circuit boards by the manufacturer using solder. The solder connection sometimes develops a crack, preventing the electronics from working correctly. Solder isn’t like steel, it has a low melting point , and can be easily re-heated to its melting point using a soldering iron, which will usually re-connect a cracked solder connection and fix the problem.
