lost my dash gear lights and temp gauge

Brake job done .... Traction Contol light is off today.. no weird gear indicator issues..
Air Bag light is on now (buyers remorse settles in )...covered it with a piece of black cardboard.. fixed for now.

Dragnet wrote:

Brake job done .... Traction Contol light is off today.. no weird gear indicator issues..
Air Bag light is on now (buyers remorse settles in )...covered it with a piece of black cardboard.. fixed for now.

I had a pesky airbag light problem with my Riv, try cleaning the contacts of the yellow airbag plug behind the passenger kick panel, sometimes all you need to do is unplug and re-plug it in a few times to clean it off but I used lots of electrical cleaner on mine. You could also try the driver's side plug as well. Just make sure to disconnect the battery and wait a while after driving the car to operate on the airbag system!

L67 wrote:

Dragnet wrote:

Brake job done .... Traction Contol light is off today.. no weird gear indicator issues..
Air Bag light is on now (buyers remorse settles in )...covered it with a piece of black cardboard.. fixed for now.

I had a pesky airbag light problem with my Riv, try cleaning the contacts of the yellow airbag plug behind the passenger kick panel, sometimes all you need to do is unplug and re-plug it in a few times to clean it off but I used lots of electrical cleaner on mine. You could also try the driver's side plug as well. Just make sure to disconnect the battery and wait a while after driving the car to operate on the airbag system!

Thanks, I'll try that and post results.

Dragnet wrote:

L67 wrote:

Dragnet wrote:

Brake job done .... Traction Contol light is off today.. no weird gear indicator issues..
Air Bag light is on now (buyers remorse settles in )...covered it with a piece of black cardboard.. fixed for now.

I had a pesky airbag light problem with my Riv, try cleaning the contacts of the yellow airbag plug behind the passenger kick panel, sometimes all you need to do is unplug and re-plug it in a few times to clean it off but I used lots of electrical cleaner on mine. You could also try the driver's side plug as well. Just make sure to disconnect the battery and wait a while after driving the car to operate on the airbag system!

Thanks, I'll try that and post results.

Yeah, about half an hour should do it. On some cars you can immediately defuse it by disconnecting the battery then taping the positive cable to the negative. This discharges systems -- however I have never tried this on the Riv and do not recommend it... Works fine on my Ford though, have done it.

Albertj

*disclaimer-not responsible if air bag deploys*

If you can't get the light off, you can just pull the damn bulb out of the instrument cluster.

Most times the air bag won't pop out on ya but it's probably most prudent to chase the culprit down.

I had this happen while driving my car home for the first time last night. The shift gate on the cluster blinks occasionally and won't display what gear the car is in even if I change it.

I believe it's related to the NSS (neutral safety switch) but I'm not sure.

Also, forgot to mention that it would work intermittently but then sometimes it would freeze up and blink as well.

Mine has also been doing this for awhile. I'd like to find out why myself. But I think you are correct on the NSS as I was leaning that way also.

Yeah, I'm gonna try and replace it when I get a chance and will let you know.

Thanks, I'll be watching.

Holy hell it's a 90 dollar part. Lol

Might be a bit before I jump to replace that. Might try taking the existing one out and seeing what's up with it.

I have the same thing going on with my 95 Riv.I have to replace the entire dash cluster.

Sounds accurate, I was reading the same thing in reference to the instrument panel for Cadillacs of that generation -> ( The PRND321 blinking lights are indicating the IPC is loosing the data communication with the rest of the modules (again voltage related).

Sounds to me like possibly a bad connection in the wire bundle or cold solder joint(s) somewhere on the cluster.

sniperdude wrote:

Sounds accurate, I was reading the same thing in reference to the instrument panel for Cadillacs of that generation -> ( The PRND321 blinking lights are indicating the IPC is loosing the data communication with the rest of the modules (again voltage related).

Sounds to me like possibly a bad connection in the wire bundle or cold solder joint(s) somewhere on the cluster.

If you are having a "voltage related" problem please check your battery. If you have not already done so this year, flip up the rear seat and check the battery voltage (do not disconnect the battery). If voltage is below ~12.2 or so you probably have either a battery issue or a partial short somewhere draining the thing.

The Riv does not like low voltage - when voltages get lower, the sensors and other electronics that depend on voltage levels for signals start acting weird.

Yeah, battery is brand new and the thermistor works properly. Perhaps bad grounds..

sniperdude wrote:

Yeah, battery is brand new and the thermistor works properly. Perhaps bad grounds..

Just to be sure, test oltage on the battery anyway. I had a car I overhauled for my son, had an issue the PO thought was an alternator but a new alt did not fix it, turned out he was installing dirt rip parts and the battery (from WalMart) was bad new (dead cell) and the alternator (from NAPA) was bad new (loose internal voltage regulator).

I know it's a pain but seriously you might want to test that battery. It will not take long, and I am probably wrong... but what if I am right?

albertj wrote:

sniperdude wrote:

Yeah, battery is brand new and the thermistor works properly. Perhaps bad grounds..

Just to be sure, test oltage on the battery anyway. I had a car I overhauled for my son, had an issue the PO thought was an alternator but a new alt did not fix it, turned out he was installing dirt rip parts and the battery (from WalMart) was bad new (dead cell) and the alternator (from NAPA) was bad new (loose internal voltage regulator).

I know it's a pain but seriously you might want to test that battery. It will not take long, and I am probably wrong... but what if I am right?

This is a good idea. I'll have to do that tonight or tomorrow. The car has been sitting now for a couple of weeks but the voltage shouldn't have dropped too much.

What you really want is a load test on the battery to see how many CCAs it actually is generating. You also want to test alternator. Checking batt voltage is a quick and dirty way to get some insight into what might be wrong.

That said, if the voltage on the battery is low that points to problems. If the voltage is OK the problem probably lies elsewhere.

Here's a pic of what I had going on when I mentioned this.

I think I was in neutral, but when this craps out all the indicators are lit and the gear indicator stays on whatever gear was lit when it decided to crap out - so it stayed on D.

me too!

It's so freaking annoying, esp when it blinks.

I am thinking there is something wrong in the cluster. Cold solder joints or surface mounted ICs maybe.

I have the last edition FSM (tan covers) and I didn't see anything about this issue in there. Makes me think it's a problem that comes with age. (i.e. cold solder joints)

Edit: Just figured I'd mention that age doesn't necessarily mean that you will get cold solder joints. However - chassis vibration, movement over time in addition to age will cause it.

hey guys, i have same problem has anybody solved this issue yet or came up with an answer it worries me come summer not knowing temp

Has anyone successfully gotten rid of the issue where the all the gear indicators are lit up?



reposting pic.

mine is still acting up. i dont know what to do besids modding the cluster to accept individual gauges or finding a nos or junked cluster.
im guessing its probably something stupid like a dumb little sensor or wire somewhere.i tore the dash apart looking for bad connections or frayed wires.nothing.