Nissan Repair: Nissan Pathfinder odometer and gage problems, nissan pathfinder, pencil eraser

Question
Hi Von,

I have a 98 Nissan Pathfinder (97k miles) that has an odd problem, sometimes when I start the vehicle the odometer gives a weird reading; instead of displaying the current miles (97700) it displays 3997700. At first it only occurred occasionally, like maybe once every 2 weeks, but lately it has gotten worst; now it's happening 2 or 3 times a day.

I have also noticed that every time this problem occurs, both the temp and gas gages display incorrect readings.

The first few times this problem occurred I would simply turn the vehicle off and then re-start it and everything would be working as it should be, but now I must repeat this procedure a few times before the gages and the odometer could go back to normal and display the correct information.

Any help would be greatly appreciated.

Thanking you in advance,


Answer
George,

Either the step transformer on the back of the cluster is going out or the connection to the cluster is not making good contact.  First, pull the cluster and clean the contacts with a number 2 pencil eraser by lightly rubbing the contacts and blowing off the eraser dust.  Then, reconnect and see if the problem is resolved.  If this does not work source one from a wrecking yard as rebuilding yours or the purchase of a rebuilt unit is somewhere in the neighborhood of $300 bucks.