Used Flash To Pass and my dashboard shut off this morning
 

As odd as the title sounds thats the best way I can describe it.

I was driving down the highway this morning and everything was fine. Car has been running normal nothing out of the ordinary.


I go to use the "flash to pass" where you pull the left stick towards you behind the wheel and when I did this morning the whole guage cluster as well as the radio died in unision when I pulled the lever back and they came back on when I released the lever.

Now I know for sure the interior electronics died and I tried it one more time (kind of in disbelief of what had just occured) while coasting again and I am not sure but I think whatever short there is also may have temporarily interrupted the engine firing (I'll need to test it again). I would imagine, if that were the case I would pull some codes and no egine code lights came one but a "check A/T" light flashed for a couple seconds after the electrical short.

I got into the parking lot and tried it again and instead of the dashboard shutting down it just flickered in unison with use of the flash to pass.



Usually I dont worry about car issues.. elctrical issues like this though are serious unless someone has some general ideas. I couldent begin to think of what might be causing it.

Anyone had an issue like this?

Flashed your brights?...I'm assuming.

I have never heard of this happening but my guess is to check the wiring into the headlights (brights) first.

Nothing else out of the norm? No recent changes made?

Check your headlight wiring and check your headlight fuses/relays.

Yeah my lights were on, everything was good and no modifications or anything made to the car.

Pulled the lever back to flash the brights and the dash shut off and the guages moved erratically in relation to pulling that lever back and activating the brights. The radio also died at the same time and all of it came back on when I let go of that lever to go back to low beams.

Can't say I've had this happen though I have had my stereo turn off when I turn my brights on.

Check you voltage and check your charging system it sounds like a serious voltage drop from turning the highbeams on.try the same thing but turn on the a/c and some other high draw accessory in place of the highbeams.

I dont know about the voltage drop although I'll give it a try. I had my seat heat, steering wheel heat, rear defrost, heat, radio and low beams on when I started the car and there was no problemo whatsoever.

I dont know what those things pull in terms of amps but usually anything with a heating element pulls a decent amount of amps

Love using all the heating gizmos in the I35. I am sure I wont have a heated steering wheel in the next car and its very useful.

What happens when you turn the bright lights on for highway driving? The headlight high beam is a type 9005 bulb and is rated at 35 watts. This is approximately 3 amps, you have an electrical draw of about 6 amps for both bulbs.

So wierdly enough I was able to operate high draw things like several heating units and the ac system regardless.

But I noticed the headlight issue only really effected the car when I was revving the motor, I actually got the car to completely stall testing it later (glad that didnt happen on the highway) So I'm confused but decide to take a look under the hood and see if any wiring is obvious. I grab the battery terminal first and notice its slightly loose but nothing serious. I move it around a bit so it gets a better connection with the post and the problem is gone. Tighten the terminal and all seems good.

Talk about a relief, but I was kinda getting excited about the thought of a new car