gauges keep going dead

[freeze]

Hi All,

This is my first post so I hope I'm doing it right!

I have a 2000 Altima GXE. A couple of months ago the speedometer, Tach, and temp gauges and the LCD odometer went dead...just stopped working. The fuel gauge is fine. They eventually came back but have been going on and off now for the last couple of months. It might be worse when the car is hot but I have not proved that. The car runs fine....just the instruments act strange.

Has anyone else had this problem??? If so, how did you fix it?

Thanks for any help you can give.

Mark

[smalode]

Hi, I too have an 2000 Altima GXE. I too am having the same problem. i have taken it a couple of dealers and they have never been able to reproduce it.
Did you have any luck in getting it resolved?

Originally posted by freeze
Hi All,

This is my first post so I hope I'm doing it right!

I have a 2000 Altima GXE. A couple of months ago the speedometer, Tach, and temp gauges and the LCD odometer went dead...just stopped working. The fuel gauge is fine. They eventually came back but have been going on and off now for the last couple of months. It might be worse when the car is hot but I have not proved that. The car runs fine....just the instruments act strange.

Has anyone else had this problem??? If so, how did you fix it?

Thanks for any help you can give.

Mark

[freeze]

Hi smalode,

I have not found a fix for the gauge problem yet. My Altima has not show the problem for a while now.

I left out one point in the last post. You know when you start the car all the lights on the dash come on for a lamp test. One of these lights is "O/D OFF" light in the lower right. If the gauges are dead, when I turn off the car and then start it back up, this light blinks on and off several times. I have not counted the number of blinks yet. This must be some sort of error code. Have you noticed the same thing on your Altima?? The next time your gauges go dead try to count the number of blinks. I'll do the same.

Thanks and good luck!

[freeze]

Hi smalode again,

It was really hot here in NC the other day and I noticed my gauages and odometer were dead again. At a stoplight I turned off the engine and started the car again. I counted that the O/D OFF light blinks on 16 times after the initial bulb test. I don't know what that means yet but I'm thinking it has to tell us something.

I hope that helps some!

Originally Posted by freeze

Hi smalode,

I have not found a fix for the gauge problem yet. My Altima has not show the problem for a while now.

I left out one point in the last post. You know when you start the car all the lights on the dash come on for a lamp test. One of these lights is "O/D OFF" light in the lower right. If the gauges are dead, when I turn off the car and then start it back up, this light blinks on and off several times. I have not counted the number of blinks yet. This must be some sort of error code. Have you noticed the same thing on your Altima?? The next time your gauges go dead try to count the number of blinks. I'll do the same.

Thanks and good luck!

[98altima]

Get you a chilton or haynes manual to find out what the code means

[smalode]

Hi there,

I am having the problems more often now-a-days and i noticed that it happens while i am driving in the speed range of 20-30 mph. I too counted the number of O/D blinks to 16. I called up the NISSAN support and they asked me to take it to a dealer and have the diagnostics test done and leave the vehicle for a couple of days with them to try to reproduce the problem. I don't have time to leave the vehicle with them so am still going on as is.

Till then

Originally Posted by freeze

Hi smalode again,

It was really hot here in NC the other day and I noticed my gauages and odometer were dead again. At a stoplight I turned off the engine and started the car again. I counted that the O/D OFF light blinks on 16 times after the initial bulb test. I don't know what that means yet but I'm thinking it has to tell us something.

I hope that helps some!

[inkscarab]

Frontiers are also having this problem. My 2002 is doing the exact same thing and also the dealer can't reproduce it and is of no help otherwise. There's no consistent commonality between occurances that I can detect (eg. not raining everytime, not cold everytime). If anyone has made progress on this, would sure be glad to resolve this!

[freeze]

Originally Posted by inkscarab

Frontiers are also having this problem. My 2002 is doing the exact same thing and also the dealer can't reproduce it and is of no help otherwise. There's no consistent commonality between occurances that I can detect (eg. not raining everytime, not cold everytime). If anyone has made progress on this, would sure be glad to resolve this!

Hi all,

I have not checked on the forum in a while so sorry for the slow reply. It sounds like there are definitely several other vehicles out there with the problem. My problem seems worse when it is hot. I month or so ago my "service engine soon" light came on. The error code was from the "vehicle speed sensor". I had the code cleared and have not seen the "service engine soon" light come on again yet. However, I still have the dead guage problem. I have a friend of mine who owns a car service garage looking into it also but he has been unable to find out what 16 blinks on the "O/D OFF" light means. Gosh! It looks like that info should be somewhere!

I'll keep at it and post info if I find out anything else. Since it does not really affect the operation of the car it tends to be a low priority. It is just annoying....sometime I really would like to know how fast I'm going.

Thanks,
Mark

[inkscarab]

Originally Posted by freeze

Hi all,

I have not checked on the forum in a while so sorry for the slow reply. It sounds like there are definitely several other vehicles out there with the problem. My problem seems worse when it is hot. I month or so ago my "service engine soon" light came on. The error code was from the "vehicle speed sensor". I had the code cleared and have not seen the "service engine soon" light come on again yet. However, I still have the dead guage problem. I have a friend of mine who owns a car service garage looking into it also but he has been unable to find out what 16 blinks on the "O/D OFF" light means. Gosh! It looks like that info should be somewhere!

I'll keep at it and post info if I find out anything else. Since it does not really affect the operation of the car it tends to be a low priority. It is just annoying....sometime I really would like to know how fast I'm going.

Thanks,
Mark

Sorry for the late follow up... my instrument cluster was eventually replaced and the problem has not returned. I had also had the check engine light come on with the "vehicle speed sensor" code as well right before replacing the instrument cluster.

[freeze]

Originally Posted by inkscarab

Sorry for the late follow up... my instrument cluster was eventually replaced and the problem has not returned. I had also had the check engine light come on with the "vehicle speed sensor" code as well right before replacing the instrument cluster.

Thanks for the update. It is getting warmer here in NC and it has been acting up more often. I have gotten the "vehicle speed sensor" code again also. It is good to know that the instrument cluster fixed your problem but I was afraid that would end up being the problem. I'm afraid to ask but I'll ask anyway.....how much did that operation cost? I think you have a pathfinder..right?

Thanks again!

[00altima]

I've got a 2000 Altima GXE that has been having this same problem. After finding this thread I called the parts counter at the local dealer, and they told me the problem was a thermal failure in one of the ICs (they didnt know which one) on the circuit board on the back of the cluster and could sell me just the board for about $120(cant remimber exactly what the price was but not as bad as I expected). I took my cluster apart and tried to get the board to fail using a heat gun and a can of freezit and could not, then put it all back together and it hasn't failed again in about 2 weeks. It was a few times a day before that. Best guess at this time is connectoritis on the back of the cluster.

Anyway, hope this info helps someone and I'm keeping my fingers crossed that mine stays working. I'm tired of using my GPS as a backup speedometer.

[freeze]

Thanks for the update 00altima. As you probably read, I had the "vehicle speed sensor" code a few months ago and I turned it off. I expected the gauges to really start failing once the hot weather got here. In the past the gauges seemed to fail more in hot weather. To my surprise they have been working fine so far and it has been pretty hot here is NC. I wondered myself if it was a connection problem but I have not had the time to take out the cluster like you did. From your experience it does seem like a connection problem. Maybe I just finally jigged my connection enough to fix it for now. I hope you got yours fixed for good. Thanks!

Originally Posted by 00altima

I've got a 2000 Altima GXE that has been having this same problem. After finding this thread I called the parts counter at the local dealer, and they told me the problem was a thermal failure in one of the ICs (they didnt know which one) on the circuit board on the back of the cluster and could sell me just the board for about $120(cant remimber exactly what the price was but not as bad as I expected). I took my cluster apart and tried to get the board to fail using a heat gun and a can of freezit and could not, then put it all back together and it hasn't failed again in about 2 weeks. It was a few times a day before that. Best guess at this time is connectoritis on the back of the cluster.

Anyway, hope this info helps someone and I'm keeping my fingers crossed that mine stays working. I'm tired of using my GPS as a backup speedometer.

[Ainge]

I also have a 2000 Altima experiencing the exact same problem. In addition, when the cruise control is on, it will die and one of the green lights will blink non-stop until the gauges pop back to life.

I've had my car at the dealer for two days and they are unable to re-create the problem. In addition, my Altima will hesitate during acceleration as if has lost electrical power, and then pop back on. It will also shut off without warning, usually at idle or going slowly around corners in city traffic. It never fails to restart. I'm thinking it must be electrical and not fuel related, but don't know for sure. My dealer/service techs must think I'm nuts because they can't get it to do anything wrong, but it happens all the time.

Anyone else??

Ainge

[vermas]

Same problem here. I got pictures of the dead gauges while driving. It shows fuel is max, speed is max, rpm is zero, and temp is minimum. I can e-mail if someone needs, since I cannot post attachments.

[DebbieJRT]

My 2000 Altima just had this occur yesterday evening. Everything on the dash is out - speedometer, odometer, tachometer. Didn't notice any blinking light. I assumed it was a fuse out and was planning on checking them today. Now I'm worried it's something more serious. I had a Honda that had one of these mysterious electrical 'gremlins' and I eventually got rid of it because of it.