mnml10387

My 98' Maxima SE is having some electrical problems. About a year ago I noticed that the Temp and Fuel Gauges were moving up and down while the car was off. About 3 months ago this activity started to drain the battery in about 2 days of no use and the odometer was off when i started the car and it turned on and off while i was driving.

I have recently had someone remove the alarm system and it has decreased the frequency of the gauges moving, and the battery has stopped draining, but the Temp gauge still moves while the car is off.

Also one of my headlights is less brighter than the other, I dont know if that is related, but its electrical so maybe it is.

Any Ideas? Thanks in advance

wirelessdude04

iTrader: (24)

Wow never heard that one before

eddie982

iTrader: (10)

rodents chomping wires somewhere maybe

J2songz

Its called a ghost code

mnml10387

Any idea on how to diagnose the problem or fix it?

DennisMik

iTrader: (2)

The alarm system installation may have messed up the wiring. The gauges don't move unless they have power. If they are moving, they are getting power when the car is shut off. There is some messed up wiring, but I don't know where to start looking.

The headlight problem should be easier. Check that you have 12 volts at the headlight. If you do, then check the ground wires for the headlights.

You need a new radiator fan motor.

tigersharkdude

iTrader: (20)

explain

J2songz

You need to put that alarm system back in and find out what is causin the power loss issue, I never figured it out on mines so I just bought an optima battery

mnml10387

I threw it away, it was a 10 year old alarm system.

Yesterday took out the gauges and reset the ECU. I didn't see anything wrong with the gauges or any of the wiring, from what i could tell. I checked the grounds and everything looked good.

Today I put everything back in and the odometer was still not working, still turning on and off intermittently. The gauges were not moving while the car was off, but sometimes it does it and sometimes it doesn't so it will take a couple of days to confirm if any changes were made. At least the car is running a little better now.

ajm8127

iTrader: (8)

Concerning the odometer, there is a known problem with the solder joints on the speedometer. If the power leads for the odometer are soldered to the flexible circuit board, that could be causing the intermittent power loss.

I notice you report the headlights being at different brightness levels. Are your bulbs both brand new? If so, your problem may be with the grounds. Behind each headlamp there is a body ground with multiple black wires going to a ring terminal that is bolted to the chassis. Make sure this area is corrosion free. You can also try to measure the resistance to the negative battery post through both headlight harness grounds. Unplug the bulbs and measure between the contact with the black wire and the negative post on each side. The reading should be the same, less than 1 ohm.

mnml10387

Thanks I'll try that with the headlights. But, the problem with the odometer isn't that it turns off. It stays on, but the numbers wont show for a while then they do. Or sometimes it shows these weird symbols.

Well, I'm pretty stupid. It looks like there is some corrosion on the odometer solder. I can't believe I didn't notice that when i took it out.

Here are some pics of the odometer.

DennisMik

iTrader: (2)

That's not corrosion. That stuff is the flux used in the soldering process. Looks like someone resoldered the cluster and didn't clean it off. It won't hurt anything, it just looks bad.

mnml10387

Ya you were right, I cleaned up those solder points and same **** happened. As soon as I connected the cable in the middle the Temp gauge started doing its thing.

ajm8127

iTrader: (8)

That substance is definitely rosin flux and it won't really hurt anything, as DennisMik said. However, bad solder joints are not always accompanied by corrosion. They are often caused by stress and can be difficult to see without magnification. They only way to fix a bad solder joint is to re-solder the joint with a soldering iron.

The fuel and water temp gauges are both controlled by variable ground signals. I think it's possible for one bad ground to cause all of your problems (including the headlight and maybe even the odometer). If there is impedence between one ground connection to the body, a voltage can develop across this connection. This voltage would cause a current to flow through the grounds which is known as a "ground loop".

mnml10387

I checked the ground behind the gauges, which the wires from the gauges lead to, and everything was fine. I don't know where the headlight ground goes to. Anyone know how to remove the gauge faces from the instrument cluster?