Mr Phil

As title says it faintly flickers at the same time my tach gauge and speedo jump around. Voltage meter is where it's always at so it's not lower than normal. Just curious what could be causing this
Someone else said the cluster might be bad? Would this affect the car at all? Other than not knowing speed fuel etc

JRENIGAR

iTrader: (37)

Bad battery will cause this. Have it checked at parts store. they will put a load on it and it should show weak but still proper volts.

Mr Phil

I did he said battery was good.

M4N14C

iTrader: (3)

Had same problem and a new battery fixed it...

Mr Phil

I think the alternator might be dead :/

JRENIGAR

iTrader: (37)

If alt was dead the volt guage would go down quickly when driving. I still say bad battery. Have it checked somewhere else.

Daniel Richards

iTrader: (1)

Sweeping gauges is almost always bad battery, but usually when it's the battery they do the sweep once right after you crank and you don't usually see a check gauges light with them when they do that, so if it happens repeatedly your problem is likely somewhere else.

Mr Phil

I got it on a trickle charge now, and I replaced the tail lamp fuse as it was melted beyond all hell. Someone told me the tail lamps fuse is linked to the gauge cluster so maybe if that's true the bad tail lamp fuse could have been causing the sweeping? Idk I'm just being hopeful at this point lol

Mr Phil

Well took it off the charger and about 2 minutes into the drive, bouncing needles again. But it's only tach and speedo, everything else is fine

JRENIGAR

iTrader: (37)

as soon as you started to drive it was fine until about 2 min into the drive, right?

Mr Phil

Well I can't say exactly 2 minutes but basically once I hit the first stop light

1 FMF

iTrader: (1)

i know for my 2006 gmc truck i've driven that without the gauge cluster installed, so i assume you could do the same for about any car. the dash cluster gets a data feed from the PCM, so that volt gauge in the cluster is not measuring actual system voltage it's only reporting what the pcm is telling it to. The pcm relies on adequate voltage to operate, if system voltage gets too low then the pcm will operate erratically, along with sending an erratic signal to dash cluster.

my recommendation is get a volt meter and connect it to the electrical system somewhere and monitor actual system voltage in real time, while driving if you can. don't rely on the volt gauge in the dash. your battery voltage when engine off should be 12.4 volts or higher. when engine running it should be above 13 volts, up to 14.5 volts. after getting that info you'll be in a better position to determine if you need a new battery, new alternator, or both. other common possibilities are bad battery cables going to the battery, or a bad 4-pin connector that plugs into the alternator which will cause the alternator not to output. if the engine starter always cranked the engine over fast and strong then i would be inclined to believe you don't have a weak battery, and guess the problem is more likely a bad alternator not charging or bad wire connections causing the alt. not to charge or the battery becoming intermittently disconnected while driving.
don't forget to put an obd2 reader on there before doing anything and see what DTC's are present.

Mr Phil

That connector on the alt is actually in pretty rough shape now that u reminded me. Is there an easy way to replace that? The wire in there is pretty short and kinda cramped for hand space as well lol

JRENIGAR

iTrader: (37)

Store that checked the batt should have checked the alt also.