Anyone else have this electrical problem?

[94blackgt 1621]

I've noticed for the past few months my gauges will randomly flutter and just randomly move around (Temp, Oil pressure, electrical gauge, and tach). It also causes a drain on my battery when my car is off and i'll have to push start my car to get it running (jumping doesn't do it for some reason when this happens). I've checked the actual gauge cluster and it seems to not have any shorts or problems, so it must be the wiring going to the gauges right? This has already caused a blown head gasket because i didn't trust my temp gauge when my car was actually over heating. So if anyone has any ideas or answers if it has happened to them then they would be greatly appreciated.

Thanks
Chad

 

[Chythar]

Fluttering gauges makes me think you have a bad engine ground.

 

[Venom351R]

I had a bad engine ground once and all my gauges were reading wrong.

 

[HISSIN50]

You are a candidate for mechanical aftermarket gauges. The stock gauges are simply inaccurate anyhow.

Put a DMM in series between the neg battery terminal and the cable and note the parasitic draw reading. Pull the fuses to the instrument cluster and you should see the reading drop if your hypothesis is correct.

Good luck.

 

[toyman]

This has already caused a blown head gasket because i didn't trust my temp gauge when my car was actually over heating.
Thanks
Chad

Is that actually possible? Not that I'm doubting you but would like to see what others think. I would think that once the pressure exceeds the cap pressure of 16 psi you would be aware of lots of steam as coolant spashes back over the engine. I just can't see where a head gasket would fail under this condition. I can see a failed head gasket causing the engine to overheat but that's not what the OP said.

Just curious.

 

[blksn955.o]

I would say engine ground...more specificly the block to chassis ground going from the drivers side motor mount to the drivers side frame rail under the car (around the oil filter). It has the most contact with road junk and probably the first to age/fail due to worst conditions.

I had the exact same issue. Guages going nuts, fan not turning on and overheating, slow starts, and eventually no start.

Replaced the ground and 100% back to normal.

The only other time I have had a "guage" issue is when my stock water temp wire got a little "bare" spot right by the boot. It would vibrate and the temp guage would jump/bounce. I found it was the issue as it got a long enough contact to short and pop the fuse. I put some electrical tape on it and it fixed it. I now have a autometer elec. guage so its totaly out of the picture now.

 

[94blackgt 1621]

thanks for the replies everyone but I still can't figure it out. I did some searching on here and tried fixing what others had some success with. So far i'm on my 2nd alternator, 3rd starter, i've replaced the wire going from the alternator to the fuse box, the battery to starter wire, the battery to fuse box wire, i've replaced the terminals, and even tried taking the terminals off my battery and hooking it up to jumper cables (not even touching the battery in my car eliminating the bad battery question) I've replaced the ground wire from the battery to block, and the ground wire from the block to the frame.

Afrter doing all this i was able to start my car once after jumping it, the gauges didn't flicker although they always did it randomly so that doesn't mean its fixed. But for some reason after the car was running i removed the jumper cables from the other car and my car would immedaitely die. And afterwards I now get nothing but a click(even when I jump it or take out my battery), and my battery is dead even after it was running and charging for 15 min.
If anyone has any ideas please let me know I really need to get this thing fixed for school and work

thanks
Chad

 

[TrueBlue95GT]

Take the negative off of the battery while the car is off and check the amperage if you put one side of the multimeter to the negative cable and one side to the battery negative. See if you have a parasitic drain. I've also seen batteries that get so bad that jumping a car without the battery connected will start the car because the battery requires so much juice to recharge.

 

[Pokageek]

Don't forget coil...Several peeps have had this problem from a bad coil. Dont ask me why.