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Electrical retard help. =D

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Old 04-11-08, 10:05 PM
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Arrow Electrical retard help. =D

I am sure few of you have followed my previous thread about what happened to my car, now the problem is fixed. The car has been running well except a few things on the cluster. Not sure if I fried anything but the gauges do work perfectly fine at IDLE, now... when I turn on my lights... it always goes onto high beam. I am sure it's something I did wrong when I put the turn signal handle back on, so I will look into that and see what's up.

So here are the problems while the car is moving,

The temperature would rise up when the car is moving, as long as the car is moving, the needle would go up. The car is not overheating, the temperature needle would sit around 2/5 of the entire gauge at idle, and shoot up to 4/7 or around the half way mark. When the car pulls to a fully stop, it'd goes back to the 2/5 spot. I changed the thermostat last year, should I look into replacing it? Also, the gas tank needle would drop alot when the car is moving, it'd rise when it's stopped. Those are the only problems that I have while the car is moving.

One more thing, this is not electical related. My brake fluid seem to go low out of nowhere, I've checked and couldn't realize any leak spots. Could it be because inproper brake bleeding and the bubble finally burst so the fluid dropped in?
Old 04-11-08, 10:12 PM
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You are sure your resevoir isnt leaking?

Does it keep disappearing or just did so once. Shouldnt be leaking if everything feels fine, unless its out of the resevoir.

How much does the gas tank level rise. Does it go up when you heavyish brake for a long time? Ive had that happen in my other cars just dependant on where the sensor is in the tank but im not sure if thats what you are describing here. (like id have 3/4 going right and 1/4 going left kinda deal)
Old 04-11-08, 10:27 PM
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The tank drops about half way down... I got a full tank and it'd go to around half when it's moving. Just moving... no braking hard or anything...

I'd have to check the resevoir again... I doubt that it is leaking there though. I will check for spots and the lines...
Old 04-13-08, 01:05 PM
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That actually kinda sounds like something along the lines of belt slipping, something blocking rad, bad connection on the temp sensor? Or possibly a short/ground fault.
Old 04-14-08, 12:20 AM
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brake fluid leak

The master cylinder may be leaking into the power brake booster.
It may not show up for a while, but eventually it will seep out and run dorn on the booster below the master cylinder or through the push rod hole into the inside of the car where the brake pedal linkage goes through the firewall.
Can't help on the wonky gauges.



Originally Posted by tigermack
I am sure few of you have followed my previous thread about what happened to my car, now the problem is fixed. The car has been running well except a few things on the cluster. Not sure if I fried anything but the gauges do work perfectly fine at IDLE, now... when I turn on my lights... it always goes onto high beam. I am sure it's something I did wrong when I put the turn signal handle back on, so I will look into that and see what's up.

So here are the problems while the car is moving,

The temperature would rise up when the car is moving, as long as the car is moving, the needle would go up. The car is not overheating, the temperature needle would sit around 2/5 of the entire gauge at idle, and shoot up to 4/7 or around the half way mark. When the car pulls to a fully stop, it'd goes back to the 2/5 spot. I changed the thermostat last year, should I look into replacing it? Also, the gas tank needle would drop alot when the car is moving, it'd rise when it's stopped. Those are the only problems that I have while the car is moving.

One more thing, this is not electical related. My brake fluid seem to go low out of nowhere, I've checked and couldn't realize any leak spots. Could it be because inproper brake bleeding and the bubble finally burst so the fluid dropped in?
Old 04-14-08, 11:48 AM
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I will look into that... that's weird cause the amount of brake fluid lost was the amount from max to min. It's a huge load but I don't see it go anywhere visible.

I gotta have time to check with the wirings I guess... maybe I fried it when I had the ground terminal of battery hitting on the hood when I was changing out buncha stuff few weeks ago.
Old 04-14-08, 02:50 PM
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Originally Posted by tigermack
I will look into that... that's weird cause the amount of brake fluid lost was the amount from max to min. It's a huge load but I don't see it go anywhere visible.

I gotta have time to check with the wirings I guess... maybe I fried it when I had the ground terminal of battery hitting on the hood when I was changing out buncha stuff few weeks ago.
No, a ground terminal hitting something is actually OK. its the positive you have to keep out of contact from everything else. If you removed the ground battery terminal (like you're supposed to first) then that breaks the circuit, and theres no current on the car. Did you say you did something with you gauge cluster at all? I had shorted parts on my gauge cluster circuit board and had to fix them, that was with a bunch of grounding problems.
Old 04-14-08, 05:14 PM
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That's what I meant, the positive terminal was touching, so my brake lines and e-brake lines got caught on fire and melted. I am not sure if that has to do with the cluster... I am thinking something might have happened there as well. I didn't touch the cluster at all, though. The only thing I did that was close to the area was replacing a steering box.
Old 04-14-08, 09:09 PM
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aww man, you're going to have to get a multimeter out... Thats what I do for a living... sorta
Old 04-15-08, 01:48 PM
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Sigh, more work to do.
Old 04-19-08, 10:24 PM
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Gah, I been lazy... I haven't had time to check it out yet.
Old 05-16-08, 08:59 PM
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i've got sorta the same type of problem except that my cluster lights went out, along with the "you have your key in and the door open" buzzer lol and the ac/heater lights.....all the warning lights in the cluster work, the ones that don't work are speedometer, tach, oil press., temp., gas, and volt., i have no clue were to begin
Old 05-17-08, 03:27 PM
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Run some temporary grounds from the body, and the engine, to the negative post on the battery. See if that helps with the gauges.

For the brakes, check the inside of the wheels for brake fluid. Or, if you have drums in back, check inside the drums. Probably blew a seal in one of the brakes...
Old 05-18-08, 12:49 AM
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HAHAHA I just found out I didn't tighten up the rear right brake line when I swapped the SS lines in. =X

I got a new cluster... same problem except the mileage is lower and gas tank needle no longer acting weird. (Doesn't move even when I am moving)

On the other hand, the temp needle raises up, I checked it with the temp gauge I have from RC cars, it read the same temp all over the place when it's warmed up or 'heat up' (where the temp needle goes all the way up for no reason) so I guess it's a bad ground somewhere. I will have to investigate into that more when the weather cools down. I will try out the grounding method.
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