Instruments intermittant...

[cn90]

Electrical portion of the ignition switch?

1+,

The average lifespan of the electrical portion of the ignition switch is about 12yr/120K miles.
So it is not a bad idea to replace the ignition switch anyway.
Symptoms are consistent with this.

[jblackburn]

If you have 2 cars anyway, switch out the ignition switch from the s70 and see if it makes a difference. It's so easy and will at least eliminate or confirm that as a possibility before you go chasing electrical gremlins.

[rspi]

FCP shows that they have 2 different part numbers. Also, the S70 is 150 miles away @ college so I'll go visit the 850R at the local junk yard and pull the switch from it.

I drove 4 trips today, a total of 16.7 miles. It didn't act up today but they were short trips. I suspect that it's a ground problem but may be way off. The ignition is most likely the problem. If that isn't it, may be a bad wire in the cluster. I'd hate to change the cluster for nothing. The cluster at the yard has a broken gear and is stuck at whatever (176,000 or something like that).

[rspi]

Well, I got a used ignition switch yesterday and thought it may have been newer than mine but it felt weak compared to mine once I installed it. Maybe mine had already been changed somewhere along the line.

Drove 2 miles to my PO box, left the car running, and when I got back in it, the temp gauge was down to low. When I started driving it went back up so I'm guessing it's not the ignition switch.

My next move is to clean ground wires in the engine compartment.

[cmblackburn]

Have you tested your voltage at your battery? And with the engine running? It seems low electrical system voltage might cause some of the gremlins you're talking about. How easily does your car start?

[rspi]

I haven't really monitored that closely. As explained, I did replace the battery a few months age. The battery before this one had bad cell(s). The car fires right up quickly.

I do have the ScanGauge II that allows me to monitor 4 OBD-II meters at the same time. That's how I know the temp sensor is telling the ECU the proper temp. I'll have the display show the volts and see if they fall at all next time I have bad readings.

[rspi]

I'm still chasing this problem and was trying to make sure my instrument cluster was getting good power but none of my fuses power it. Does anyone know what fuse or relay powers the instrument cluster?

I pulled ever fuse out of the fuse box and the cluster still works.

[rspi]

Finally broke down and ordered a temp sensor. The same day I pulled the cluster to swap out the trip computer to see if that would solve my problem with the ambiant temp reading problem and may have found both problems.

Over the years it appears that the weight of the wire harness has pulled on the wires at the connector and damaged a few wires. When I adjusted the harness in an attempt to help the wires make a better connection (a couple of the small wires look like they may have broken inside wires, inside the coating), my coolant temp gauge problem has totally gone away and my ambiet temp is now reading within 5 to 10 degrees.

So, I'm trying to figure out what I'm going to do about that harness. There are about 16 wires going into it and I don't like the thought of splicing 16 small wires. My guess is that those wires are like 22 gauge or smaller. My first thought this morning was hook up a few RJ45 connectors and do 8 per pair, 2 connectors. Any other thoughts?

I did cut a harness out of a car at the junkyard yesterday.

[rspi]

Shared my delima with my wife and she said there has to be an end to this plug. So I called the stealer and they said that it is a branch off of a bigger tree, part of the "behind the dash harness", $748. So the wife goes... "How much did you pay for that car again?" (Very funny!)

So, I'm back to my last question, what would be the best way to splice 22 wires?

[BEJinFbk]

Why buy new? Just get a replacement from a donor car.