QuestionQUESTION: Roland, my dash including speedometer and gauges has quit.
Car has 3.8 V-6. Speedometer reads out in digital numbers.
Gauges have sweep hands that sweep face of gauge on startup but then go out. I reviewed your previous answers and did the check. The first # was 900 then every few seconds more #s showed up: 905,920,940,then 999 for the last one. The theft alarm light to the left of the steering column is on. The overhead console/message center quit a couple of years ago. I am grateful for any help you can give me. Also
please copy to my personal e-mail:jandsdaniel@netscape.com.
I live in central Oklahoma and car has not been wet or flooded. I will be in the office today in case you need more specifics. Thanks so much for your help, James
ANSWER: Hi James,
Those codes all add up to there being no digital data bus signals reaching the dash. You could check that the solder joints of pins 9 and 10 to the circuit board of the cluster are solid and not cracked in which case you could reheat the joints with a soldering pencil. Then verify that the twisted-pair wires are patent to pins 20 and 7, respectively, at the black 21 pin plug of the body computer which is located on the cowl panel just to the right of the passenger's right leg, and to pins 8 and 7 of the message center. If the vehicle is shifting OK then the bus system between the trans controller and the engine is not affected. Please let me know what you learn.
Roland
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QUESTION: Roland, Thanks for your reply. Over the weekend I checked out what I could. I don't have a way to know what # the pins are on the connectors. All the connections seem tight. The body computer has 2 connectors, front one is black with a black plug-in on the wires and back one is red with an orange plug-in on the wires. I took both of these out and inspected them. Now the car starts for a couple of seconds then dies. Sounds like to me the theft alarm has it shut down. Am I right? Also the #5 fuse (4 amp) has no voltage, but some of the things the owner's manuel says work off that fuse still work. Such as ash tray light. I ran into a problem with this car before concerning getting parts and had to back up to 1991 model to get parts to match so I am sending the VIN to you. It is:1C3XV66L4ND859536. Whatever I tried did not improve the situation about the dash working. You had mentioned the vehicle shifting. It was running and shifting fine. Once again thanks for your help. James
ANSWER: Hi James,
N in the 10th place means it is a '92. On the shut down after a few seconds, that is sounding like the theft system alright. I would try to lock then unlock either/both front doors with the key to see if that clears it. If not, then disconnect the battery for a few minutes, do the door key routine again after reconnecting the battery. It probably did that as the result of pulling the plugs on the body computer module. The plugs will often have a small etched number by each wire socket, but if not, the bus wires are twisted together and are colored violet/brown and white/black so just look for those wires on the various plugs to find the pin numbers that I mentioned. Fuse #5 is the variable lighting level source fuse and you may have the rheostat set at too low a level to read the voltage, or the headlamp switch needs to be in the park or driving lamp position.
So to check out the digital dash problem you will need to remove it and check whether the soldered connectors for the data bus wires at the board are both soldered to the circuit board reliably. According to the codes the data is not getting to the board on the twisted wire pair with the colors listed above, and if so then check that the wires are patent to the black plug at the body computer and message center. The fact that running and shifting are fine shows that the data bus wires between the powertrain and transmission controller are OK. So it should be something with the rest of the bus to and from the body computer to the message center and digital dash, if we are to believe the codes.
Roland
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QUESTION: Roland, I disconnected the battery and and unlocked door with key several times and it did not take the theft alarm out of shut down mode. Is a dealer the only option now?
Thanks, James
AnswerHi James,
No, there are two things to try:
Do the door lock/unlock with the key now, after having giving the system at least an hour since the battery was reconnected. Try both doors as one (or both) could be faulty in the wire that goes from the door lock to the theft module.
If it still doesn't clear, then you can go to the theft module itself and accomplish the same thing. You have to remove the lower knee bolster from under the dash, below the glove box. Then remove the screws from around the glove box door opening and allow the box to drop down. Then above the glove box opening you will see a cross member upon which one to several modules are mounted. The theft module is the only one with a 21-pin plug of "natural color". To get to the plug you may have to remove the mounting bracket or remove the module from the bracket. In any case, do not pull the plug out of the module (because that also will cause a failure to start). Rather locate the dark green/orange wire on pin 4 of the plug, and the black/light green wire on pin 11. Then take straight pins and poke them thru the insulation of the wires so they touch the center conductive wire inside. Then touch the two pins together and then separate the pins. That is replicating the lock/unlock function that is usually done by the door key. Try to start it again. If it still won't start, do the pin touch/release touch again.
If that doesn't clear you to get the engine going then it means a tow to the dealer. But if the engine is starting but dieing in a few seconds it surely sounds like the theft module is the issue.
Roland
PS There is one more diagnostic test for the entire theft system but I would need to type that in, and it won't likely clear the system in any case.
