Same problem (more or less with 98 Voyager. First time it happened w/i 5 miles of Dealership oil change. Car attempted to start 3 times and then (i found out later) the anti-theft system had shut down the computer because it thought I was trying to steal the car. At their direction I pulled ground batt cable and cleaned. It started. One month later experienced same thing. Had it towed in. They could not duplicate problem. Again, about 2 weeks later the instrument cluster started going crazy like yours. The dealership service manager came out and found high buss voltage (7v) and got it started by disconnecting each module until the abnormal buss voltage returned to 2v. The voltage cleared when the tech started to remove the instrument cluster. He had it loose in the dash and just jiggled it a bit and the car was able to be started. So...I took it back to them the next day and after FOUR weeks of them driving it, I picked it up. The problem had never reoccurred. The svc mgr told me one sure way to get it started was to disconnect the negative battery cable and hold it against the positive battery post. It sounds DANGEROUS but what it does is allow all computer circuitry to zeroize and the lockout goes away. He is 99 percent sure the PC board in the instrument cluster is bad, however, as I was taking it in the last time, all gauges went to zero except the speedometer, which went to 120!. When I set the cruise control all the guages came back on. go figure!
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Originally Posted by Meguma
I have a 1998 dodge caravan. Last year around this time the dash instruments disappeared while driving. No speedo, no gagues, nothing. If the car was turned off for a period of time the dash came back. This happened off and on for a period until the engine light came on and the ABS light as well. Everything else, gone. Went to the dealer and they said that they could not tell what was wrong because the scan tool was not showing any errors. They reset the computer and things cames back. This happened again and again. They finally said it was the body controller computer and replaced that at a cost of ~1000 cdn. Away we went and things were rosy for about a week. The dash went out again and because my wife was so angry she smacked the dash above the ABS light. Low and behold the dash came back. From then until now everytime the dash went out a good smack brought it back. Now the dash is gone again and the engine light comes on again. The dealer resets the computer and sends us on our way. They can not or wil not address this problem. Any Ideas or similar experiences out there.
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08-02-2005, 02:59 PM
