1998 Dodge Caravan

[mzvalva]

I bought it used and in the beginning the guages would go on and off. The speedometer, gas gauge, etc you could tap on the top of everything and it would come up now its not working at all. Does anyone have any ideas? Some have said it could be fuses. Help please. Thanks

[RIP]

Welcome to the forum. You have a fairly common problem found on many posts throughout the forum. Because you can beat on the dash (a common tool) and get the gauges to come to life you probably have a bad solder joint on the circuit board in the instrument cluster or a bad connection at the cluster connector. A less likely possiblity is a faulty body control module better known as the BCM. You can try resetting it by pulling the IOD fuse located in the fuse/relay panel next to the battery. Leave it out for a minute or so then reinstall it. Use the search function at upper right above the advert for more info.

[bjaymo3]

Definitely, take out the instrument cluster circuit board and check the solder joints before doing any purchasing. I re-soldered one joint and it fixed my problem which was exactly as you described. Pounding on the dashboard to fix is the first indicator of a bad joint. Free beats $$$ any day. (The Dodge shop suggested a replacement for about $700.)

[RIP]

A guy on another forum said he can get a cluster for $120 off the net and $40 at a local junkyard.