QuestionQUESTION: I have a 1998 chrysler Town and Country Van. Something is wrong with the gauges. Sometimes they work (not often), I can start the van, and be driving down the road, and all of a sudden the speedometer, temp guage, and gas gauge goes to 0. Also all the warning lights come on and the odometer light and gear indicator light is gone. Have tried new fuse. Also, my son can beat on the top of the dash and occaisionally that was working to get the gauges and stuff back. But now that is not working. Someone told me it could be the body control module, but I have no problmes getting the van to start or go anywhere. Runs just fine, just nothing on the instrument panel. Any ideas of what could be causing this?
ANSWER: Hi Deldana,
My suspicion is that there is a 'cold' solder joint at the place where the multi-wire plug socket on the back of the cluster attacheds to the printed circuit board of the cluster, most likely at pin #9 or 10 which are the wires that carry the digital signals for all the gauges, and the absence of which will also cause the other things you observe. If your son has a soldering pencil and some electronic solder he can try to reheat those connections between the socket pins and the board. I can list the steps for removing the cluster to do this job when you write back that he is interested in trying this repair. It is fairly common for such joints to fatigue with the passage of time.
Roland
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QUESTION: Please send me the steps to do this as either my son or my husband will fix this for me. Hopefully my son as soon as we get your response as hubby is a truck driver and won't be home til Christmas.
ANSWER: Here are the steps to remove the cluster:Remove the steering column cover (I believe this is the upper 'shroud' which is held im place from underneath the column by 3 screws in the lower shroud).
Remove the cluster bezel:
remove the left end-cap of the dash
remove screw at left end of bezel and remove headlamp switch
remove screw holding bezel to instrument panel on each side of steering column
remove screws on the underside of the bezel just above the cluster
disconnect clip that holds cluster bezel to panel from above right vent louver
Separate bezel from instrument panel.
Disconnect wires from back of bezel
Remove screws holding the cluster to the panel
Rotate top of cluster rearward
Remove cluster, disconnect wires from rear
Then remove screws holding back cover to cluster. Finally, identify pins 9 and 10 of the plug socket and reheat those wire joints to the circuit board with the soldering pencil. You might also touch the other ones as well just in case. Then put the plug in the socket and go for a test ride before reassembly to assure that the connection is re-established
Reverse procedure to install
Please 'rate' my answer. Thank you
be careful not to stress the vent louvers when installing clips
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QUESTION: Followed the above steps and it didn't work, not only are my gauges not working but now I can't disarm the anti theft system and the van won't even start now. Body Control Module?
AnswerHi Deldana,
I am sorry to learn that it just made things worse to try that soldering. I assume that you don't have a sentry key immobilizem system (where the key has a bulge in the grip), correct?
If it ia just a straight forward theft system, and all you did was to try the pin 10 and 11 resoldering, then I would suspect that the soldering may have shorted together the traces or pins at the circuit board of those socket pins. I say this because those 2 pins are indeed the digital data bus twisted pair of wires utilized by the body computer and the engine controller. One is biased with -2.5V and the other with +2.5V. And if they are now touching on the circuit board that would indeed shut down the body computer communication. My suggestion would be to pull the cluster plug and see if that solves the no start situation. If it does then take a closer look at the soldering job to see if you can isolate those two pins electrically from one another (use an ohmmeter to check the resistance between the two pins. I believe it should be infinite ohms.
Roland
PS If the no start was caused by the soldering, then disconnecting the cluster plug would take that issue out of the picture as the communication on the digital data bus is one-way to the cluster EXCEPT ir the bus pair of wires is being short-circuited by the cluster then unplugging it would end that issue. The cluster doesn't send any data back to the body conputer so unplugging it will only mean that it doesn't display the gauges, etc. I assume that no soldering was done at the plug itself. So try that and let me know. If that restores the starting, then possibly the next attempt to deal with the original problem would be to buy a used cluster at a junk yard. But take a look/measure for a short between the socket 10 and 11 pins.
