98 CARAVAN- no guages? possible solution here
jawss
01-16-2005, 01:31 PM
Im new to this forum but I'm quite impressed...and depressed. heheheh Im kinda thinkin this wasnt the best van to buy. Anyway, I have a 98 Caravan I recently bought for a good price because it was used as a taxi, so the mileage is VERY high ( 500 000 kms) but it runs very well. I have been replacing many items to replace the worn, abused and broken pieces, as any taxi is going to have. Just a month or so ago, I lost all the guages in the dash. I have stripped my whole dash out practically to see if I could find the problem. I had tried the tips that I found in here but to no avail. I was thinking about one suggestion about removing certain relays one at a time until the guages came back, thus telling me which relay was giving me the grief.
Then I wondered about all the pieces I had replaced, with used parts of course, so I started to remove them one at a time. And what do ya know!!!... when I removed my heater/rear wiper control unit, my dash came back!!! I had replaced this unit because my rear wiper wouldnt work, so I went to the junk yard, and took one off of a low mileage, newer caravan. I got my rear wiper to work no problem, but then ended up with my guages going out. There are two wire harnesses going into the back of this unit, one is black, the other white(on mine anyway). The black one is for the fan only and goes in vertically. It was the white one that was the problem. It runs everything else on that control panel; hot/cold, wiper etc. It mounts in horizontally. This was the one that , when unhooked, caused my spedometer and guages to come back. I hooked in back up three times to make sure and it did it every time.
Im not saying this will fix everyones guage problems, but its a start for those at a loss of what to do. It could be your radio, fan, wiper etc. I would just suggest you start with the heater control unit, as it is a weakness in these vans. If any accesory is shorted out, it can screw up everything else. I have replaced my heater unit with the old one that was in it and my guages are fine, just no rear wiper, but I could care less at this time. heheheh Let me know if this tip helps any of you. Good luck!
Then I wondered about all the pieces I had replaced, with used parts of course, so I started to remove them one at a time. And what do ya know!!!... when I removed my heater/rear wiper control unit, my dash came back!!! I had replaced this unit because my rear wiper wouldnt work, so I went to the junk yard, and took one off of a low mileage, newer caravan. I got my rear wiper to work no problem, but then ended up with my guages going out. There are two wire harnesses going into the back of this unit, one is black, the other white(on mine anyway). The black one is for the fan only and goes in vertically. It was the white one that was the problem. It runs everything else on that control panel; hot/cold, wiper etc. It mounts in horizontally. This was the one that , when unhooked, caused my spedometer and guages to come back. I hooked in back up three times to make sure and it did it every time.
Im not saying this will fix everyones guage problems, but its a start for those at a loss of what to do. It could be your radio, fan, wiper etc. I would just suggest you start with the heater control unit, as it is a weakness in these vans. If any accesory is shorted out, it can screw up everything else. I have replaced my heater unit with the old one that was in it and my guages are fine, just no rear wiper, but I could care less at this time. heheheh Let me know if this tip helps any of you. Good luck!
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