3

I have a 2005 Toyota Camry. The gauges (fuel gauge, temp gauge, odometer, speedometer, tachometer) just stopped working yesterday. The instrument panel lights all work -- gear indicator, blinker/headlight indicators, airbag, door open, etc. -- it's only the gauges that don't come up.

The related fuses -- #30, #38, and #39 in the fuse box under the steering wheel -- are all fine. I've tested and swapped them all around with no changes. Pulling fuse 30 and 38 (the two "gauge" fuses) results in other symptoms, but pulling fuse 39 (instrument panel) does not change anything. The fuse receptacle gets 5V, as does fuse 40 next to it.

I've also tried resetting the instrument panel connectors (both with the car off and on). I haven't tried resetting the battery but the connectors are tight and the terminals look good. Battery voltage is good: 12.6V resting, 13.7V with the engine running.

I'm leaning toward the instrument panel circuit board as the problem. The board has four test points on the back: UIN, UOUT, TEST1, and TEST2. UIN, TEST1, and TEST2 all show 5V but UOUT shows 0 or 0.1. Googling for a pinout or wiring diagram hasn't turned up any results yet.

Has anyone else had a similar problem? Any insight is appreciated.

UPDATE: It took two days, but our local Toyota dealership figured out the problem. A mouse had made itself a home above the gas tank, and had chewed through the fuel sensor wire, shorting out the gauges.

freginold
  • 175
  • 1
  • 9

1 Answers1

2

It sounds like you've checked the electrical supply thoroughly, the one thing I'd say is check the battery voltage, some cars disable components if the battery voltage drops below tolerance. Not likely, but worth the 30 seconds with the multimeter.

Instrument clusters on modern cars are generally have all the dials and readouts on a common circuit board, and circuit boards can fail just like any other component. If you know your way around a soldering iron you might be able to fix it yourself if it's something obvious like a blown solder joint, short of that you'll need to send it off to a specialist for a repair, how much depends on make and model, but somewhere around $150 is a reasonable estimate give or take.

You could replace it, but you need to be aware that many have the odometer readings set mechanically or electrically in the cluster itself so if you replace you'll have to get it set to the right mileage. That's why it's usually cheaper to get it repaired.

GdD
  • 18,048
  • 3
  • 38
  • 67