Recently aquired a MAxima 1989 GXE with a digital dash. The dash works when the weather outside is hot and the inside of the car is warm, however it does not work when it is not sunny and the weather is cold. I opened the dash today and checked out the brain located right above the driver's right knee and checked for loose connections etc. Turns out it is nothing. Now my question to the list is as follows:
How do I know what part is messed up, if it is the brain pulse generator, the speedo unit itself. Please

Sohaib Bukhari
89 Maxima GXE

 

How cold does it have to be for it to not work?? This may be the weirdest thing I have heard.

 

Well for example it never works at night (~55degrees), however whenever it works it works at daytime when there is plenty of sunlight (greenhouse effect may warm up the inside of the car more than the outside recorded temperature). I thought it may be a bad connection somewhere which causes the expanded metal connections to form a connection when warm (expand) and not to form the connection when it is colder (contracting metal). But this is merely my hypothesis, and I have no clue whether it is the brain (as it is called) or the speedometer/Tach unit itself that is the problem. Any help would be greatly appreciated!

Thanks

Sohaib

 

Well it doesnt make sense, if it is a matter of metal expanding then it should work when it is cloudy and cold out once the car gets warmed up. Deamons maybe??

 

my automatic window switch only works when the inside of the car is warm so i can see this happening.

 

I have a '90 with a digital dash and have the same problem. In addition, I have now lost the speedometer and odometer function. The tach works and the gas gage,etc. But when it is cold, the entire dash is black until the car warms up. Frustrating. Please let me know what you find out.

 

if your speedo and odo aren't working check out your speed sensor. mine stopped working and i thought it was the guages so i replaced them ($25) but found out that wasn't the problem and looked at my speed sensor and found out the wires had touched the rear exhaust manifold and melted through the plastic making the wires touch. I took it out, cut the wires, then crimped on some new wires and it worked perfectly ($0 ).

 

Some of the solder traces on the brain are probably burnt. take a look at the one I had
digital brain
I ended up swapping with a SE cluster but it was time consuming and in the end I should have just resoldered those traces.

If the speedo and odo stop working it's either the speed sensor or the speed sensor wiring that is bad.

 

Can someone please tell (picture perhaps) of where the speed sensor and the speed sensor wiring is?
BTW my speedo and tach have completely stopped working now, (no light) just pitch black.
Thanks
Sohaib

 

My 90 GXe does the same exact thing. No dash untill it warms up and also my speedo always displays "0" and my odometer stopped at 75000 miles.. I have figured out what my tach has to display to be at 70mph )