I pumped gas at the local Chevron after noticing I was running just below a quarter tank this morning and immediately after turning the truck back on the instrument panel was dead. All other electric components worked fine (windows, headlights, signals, radio, etc.) Any thoughts?
Check the fuses
Tap the cluster; sometimes connections work their way out and soldering points get weak.
It cranked and started ok then? Even if it cranks ok, and if the fuses check ok, I think it would still make sense as the next step to clean the battery connections.
The reason I say this, is something like this happened w/my Corolla a few years ago. At a gas station actually. I had pumped gas into the tank, got back into the car, turned the key to start it, and the dash lights all went off. After trying a couple times to start it up again, it cranked, started and ran fine, and the dash lights were back on. That turned out to be corroded and loose battery connections. It happened the first unusually cold day of the winter season.
If the fuses are okay then check for a loose connection in the wiring going to the cluster.
Quite a few newer vehicles have electrical anomalies in them with instrument clusters and other items. A few are attributed to loose or faulty connections. Here’s a little info from a Chevy truck forum that may help :
On the 99-02 trucks the odometer/PRND123 display will go out intermittently and come back on if you hit a bump or bang on it with your hand - this is caused by a poor solder connection where the plug is soldered to the circuit board and it can be repaired. See here for a guide on how to do it - Silverado odometer problems
The fuel gauge problem on that generation of truck us normally caused by a bad fuel sending unit on the fuel pump assembly in the tank, requires replacement.
On the 03-06 trucks the gauge problems are typically caused by bad gauge motors which can also be fixed, here’s some info on how to fix them yourself - Silverado instrument cluster problems
That generation of truck also has fuel sending unit failure a lot which will cause the fuel gauge to read wrong, requires replacement.
The 03-06 trucks have another issue where the entire instrument cluster will quit all at once and sometimes come back on/off/on, chimes ringing, lights flashing,etc. This can be caused by a faulty ignition switch, requires switch replacement.
And finally, on the 03-06 trucks if you notice the 4 gauges on the right quit suddenly all at once along with lights coming/staying on it’s a failing IC chip on the circuit board - cluster replacement required.
Hope that sheds some light and can help some of ya.
Fred
@cdaquila
I think that last guy might be “spam” because it seems like he’s promoting his own website
After a couple days, the Yuon just died but shortly before that, the windows weren’t as responsive as usual (really slow). After being checked it was determined that the alternator was the problem. It had been running on battery alone for who knows how long. Thanks everyone.
Odd that the Battery light didn’t come on…warning you that the system was not charging normally.
Yosemite