Gas gauge and thermostat question (1 Viewer)

[rowdy raven]

Hey, another question on this FJ62. This FJ's gas gauge and temp gauge will on regular occasion both peg out showing a full gas tank (when its not) and a red hot temp ( when its just been started). After a short period they calm back down to normal, then a few minutes later they go up again(together). Kind of strange...

Thanks,
Keith

 

[lovetoski]

It's a known quirk on the 60 series. Both guages share ground. When it fails, the guages spike. Although I haven't done it yet, apparently it's pretty easy to fix the ground. It's on the back of the guage cluster I think.

 

[Waggoner5]

It is the grounds on the back of the cluster. Both gauges use the same ground.
Gary

 

[rowdy raven]

Thanks guys, now next step, taking out the instrument cluster. Suggestions.....
Merry Christmas,
Keith

 

[euclid]

Join the 3FE List and read through the Leasons Learned and Fix tips under the files section. You will find a wealth of info in there about all of these goofy quirks. There is a folder called Crazy Guages that has all the info you need to fix the problem you are describing.

None of the above links will work untill after you join the 3FE list.

Here's the crazy guages fix:

=====================================================================

-----Original Message-----
From: mikeg_90265
To: 3FE@y...
Sent: 11/10/02 12:57 AM
Subject: [3FE] my gauges are crazed! Acting kookie and need guidence!

So I'm cruising along up the coast to Santa Barbara and being
relatively new to owning the greatest car in the world I take a look
at my gauges quite a bit to get to know them. I'm looking at my fuel
gaueg go from 3/4 up to full and then back down and the same time the
temp gauge climbs a little and then comes down too!.The kicker is
that this was on flat highway! So any geniuses want to tell what
happened? Also I have only heard the electric cooler come on once and
I could have sworn someone said that they should come on all the time
after you turn your car off. malibumike
======================================================================

--- In 3FE@y..., K ...wrote:
Yeah, this is a very common affliction on FJ62's, many of them do
this. Very scary, I about freaked out the first time mine did it.
The fix is very easy, costs nothing. I had my dash apart this summer
to fix a wiring issue, so I pulled the gauge apart and took some pics.
First, remove the main dash panel, where the gauges are. Be careful on
the thin section around the radio, 14 year old plastic gets very brittle.
I find this is MUCH easier to get off if you remove the steering wheel first,
mine pops off very easily now, although you might need a puller.

Once you get the big panel out, lay it flat on a bench, remove the
left cluster that has the has the gauges in it. Turn this over, remove the
small screws that hold the clear plastic lens, take this stuff off:

http://www.yankeetoys.org/KLF/Clifford/TempGauge/ClusterOpen.jpg

Flip the cluster back over, remove the four very small nuts that hold
in the fuel gauge (not the temp gauge).

http://www.yankeetoys.org/KLF/Clifford/TempGauge/GaugeRemove.jpg

GENTLY pull the fuel gauge out of the cluster. If you look carefully
inside, you'll find a set of contacts, this is actually a voltage regulator,
presumably to keep a constant voltage supplied to the gauges. Well,
after many millions of off-and-on cycles, these contacts get oxidized, and
don't work correctly. They are in the center of this picture:

http://www.yankeetoys.org/KLF/Clifford/TempGauge/GaugeOpen.jpg

Take a sliver of fine grit sand paper, I used 400-grit wet/dry paper,
and skip it thru the contacts, clean them off. Don't take a lot off, or
you'll throw off the calibration for the regulator. Once clean, put it all
back together. I used a can of compressed air to blow all the dust out of
the cluster so none got trapped behind the lens. Mine works fine now,
haven't had a recurrance of the spikes since.

Incidently, now that the dash is apart, this is a good time to replace
all the bulbs. It's only a few bucks, but you'll be surprised how much
brighter your gauges are with fresh bulbs behind them. I had to get them from
the dealer, although honestly I didn't look very hard. Just get them ahead
of time so they're on hand when you do the job.

HTH...

-KLF

 

[chitown40]

Thanks guys, now next step, taking out the instrument cluster. Suggestions.....
Merry Christmas,
Keith

Remove the four screws, disconnect the speedo cable, disconnect a few electrical plugs and voila. Cluster out.

 

[rowdy raven]

Thanks guys, this sounds a good rainy day project.
Keith