Here's what happen:

1987 TII Body
1991 GXL Dash
Idiot light removed in favor of 3 52mm gauges

I swapped the dash from my 1991 to my 1987… then realized I needed to change the dash harness (duh!). I still drove it around like this, just could not use my headlights/turn signals/wipers/AC

When I swapped the dash harness from the S4 dash to the S5 dash there was a missing ground location (two grounds bolted with an 8mm). I decided to use a spare ground cable I had from an old engine harness. It was one loop with two wires coming off of it. I grounded it off of the dash by the shifter. I don't know if this matters or has anything to do with it.

Once I put everything back together I turned the key and the buzzer was screaming non stop and the Shift Up light was on constant. I turned on the car, checked the headlights, drove it around and everything seemed to be fine, but the buzzer would not stop and the shift up light stayed on the whole time. Tachometer and speedo worked fine as well.

I thought the only thing different was the ground so I pulled it off and the sound lessened and the lights for the logicon dimmed. pressed it back and it was louder again. I tried just pressing it against a strong ground point on the actual dash, nothing.

What did I do wrong? What am I missing? I have a feeling that it is something very stupid….


I tried searching, but all I could come up with was coolant/oil buzzer posts

Thanks for any help anyone can provide.

 

someone correct me if im wrong but im pretty sure a bunch of the dash electronics are NOT compatible between s4 and s5 models. i remember having a few electrical problems when i tried using some s4 switches i had as spares with my s5

 

You are correct. When I first swapped the dash I didn't think about that so the harness on the left side didn't match up to the plugs so my headlights and turn signals didn't work, but I still rode around like that during the day. Just didn't drive around at night.

I took the dash out again, removed the dash harness that originally came on the car from the original dash, created a longer ground for the two that didn't have a mounting point on the S5 dash, and put it back in using the original gauge cluster. Everything plugged up fine. Head lights, turn signals, hazards, wipers, everything works around the cluster. Haven't tried the AC yet....didn't want to stay in the car that long with the buzzer going off lol.

I have a feeling I fried something

 

The ground is for the ac. Once it is connected the AC works. When I disconnect it and turn the AC up the door lights brighten up, when I turn it down they dim with the switch…..pretty nifty actually lol….but I digress.

Any help please?

 

Somebody has to know what's going on. No one has had this problem?

I thought it might have been the cluster itself so I just repinned my S5 NA cluster…..same thing happening.

 

It might have been that during the dash transfer the settings for the buzzer were messed with.

Have a look at the buzzer controls it might be set set wrong

 

Have you looked at the wiring diagram for any assistance? Any?

Have you used the advanced search feature to do a "cluster swap" search?

 

I have not seen anything about this.....maybe you can elaborate.


Both actually. I'm not very good with wiring diagrams though, so not sure how much that helped me. I've used advanced search, google search, asked friends. I wouldn't post this thread asking for help if I didn't reach the limits of searching. I figured since I didn't change anything major that it might have been a common problem.

Let me go over what I did again because maybe there is some confusion.

1)Stock dash, stock dash harness, stock cluster, stock cluster harness: Works fine

2) S5 dash, S5 dash Harness, stock cluster, stock cluster harness: Lights/Signals don't work. Everything else works fine

3) S5 dash, stock dash harness with modified ground, stock cluster, stock cluster harness: Buzzer and Shift Up Light stuck on, door lights don't work.

4) S5 dash, stock dash harness with modified ground, S5 NA cluster, modified stock cluster harness to work with S5 NA harness: Buzzer stuck on, no shift light because S5 NA cluster doesn't have it, door lights don't work. Everything else works.

I'm confused because I didn't think switching the dash harness would affect the cluster since it is apart of the interior harness. And everything worked fine with the S5 dash harness, but once I put everything back together how it was when I got it **** hits the fan.

 

The S4 front harness and the S5 front harness (this is the name of the harness which runs under the dash, are different and herein lies your problem. Did you think switching things out would be just a simple plug and play? Some of the electrical circuits are identical between series while others are completely different. I know your problems have been addressed before so the answers can be found by continued searching.

 

One of us is confused about whats going on. Could be me misunderstanding you, or you not understanding what I've done.

When things went wrong I was using everything electrical from the car how it came form the factory. The ONLY difference was the dash skin. I removed the front harness (thanks for informing me of it's name) from the original dash that was in the car from factory and attached it to the S5 dash.

There is nothing else electrical about the dash itself, correct? only the harness that is used within. Why would everything go wrong once I used the stock harness? It even worked fine when I was using the S5 front harness and nothing was plugged in.

If this has been answered before and YOU can find it and it fixes my problem I will PayPal you $50, how about that?

 

So, all the electrical components in the S4 are still S4? Correct?

Only item now in the S4 that is S5 is the dash skin, which came from an S5? Correct?

 

Yes that's correct.

 

I only repinned the cluster harness to fit my NA S5 cluster to see if it had to do with the cluster itself. I would much rather use the original cluster.

 

So, your problem w/the buzzer occured and you then tried putting in an S5 cluster to see if that was the issue and you found out that it wasn't the issue? Correct?

 

The buzzer/shift light started after I put in all of the original electrical equipment into the dash.

I put in the S5 cluster last night to see if it would fix the problem. I repinned it by referencing S4 FSM Wiring Section, S5 FSM Body Electrical and IceMark's thread with pin/color list. Just wanted to make that clear before you think that I just plugged it in thinking it was the same. Like I said, I know how to search. This is the first time I've been stumped in a long time.

Edit: I didn't read your post right, but yes you are correct.

 

Could you place the S4 cluster back for it would be easier to fix. And the buzzer is activated by three items; tach redlining, oil level sensor and the coolant sensor. The Brown wire at the cluster harness (know as the meter harness) should have a ground on that wire or the buzzer will sound. And the coolant light should light up if this was the cause though. The Red/White wire coming from the oil sensor should not have a ground or it would activate the buzzer. There are two R/W wires though in the front harness which leads to the meter harness at connetor FME-01. The other R/W wire is for the dimmer relay to activate the high beam indicator light. This wire would have voltage on it to turn the high beam indicator light on (obviously done by turning on the high beams).

 

Ok......just to make sure:

I will repin the Meter harness to factory spec to put the stock cluster back in.

Check the Coolant BR wire is grounded and if the coolant light is on?

Make sure the Oil R/W wire is not grounded? (I thought this wire was Y/R?)

Check to make sure the High Beam R/W wire has voltage when the high beam switch is activated?

Thank you for your help so far, I appreciate it greatly.

 

The Y/R wire you speak of is for the oil pressure gauge (not responsible for activating the buzzer) and not the oil level sensor (that wire is R/W).

The shift indicator light would turn on if the Yellow/Black wire of the meter harness which connects to the Black/Red wire of the front harness (S4 wiring here) has a ground signal on it.

And I don't think it's a player but there are two Y/L wires in the meter harness, one is from the trailing coil and the other comes from something else. They would need to be mated w/the proper wires but in the S4 wiring setup you started w/should not cause this to be an issue though.

 

Ok just going off memory here from last night swapping the pins. One R/W wire is the High Beams and the other only said Buzzer, so I guess that is the oil one?

I'm at work right now, but I when I get home I will check everything.

Thanks again for everything.

 

I believe so as they're the only two R/W wires involved.

 

Hey mate if what is already said doesent fix your issues but the car runs fine otherwise might be easier just to remove the buzzer

Unfortunatley the buzzer adjustment I'm talking about I saw a picture of someone showing where and how to adjust it but even after checking my service manual and some googling I cant find it, sorry mate, probably long lost in a forum archive somewhere.

But if you do straight up remove it.

This video says where it is and shows what i looks like so you know your taking the right thing out

 

So I figured it out and it's almost too embarrassing to post what I did wrong lol

But I will just in case anyone is as stupid and careless as I am.

Apparently the warning light plug female end fits into a random male plug on the front harness (apart of the A/C I assume).

Before I tackled checking the wires satch had said to check, I thought I would plug in the warning lights again to see if any of them are on. I had removed it originally to fit 3 52mm gauges. when I removed the dash I noticed I had plugged it into another plug…..stupid.

Before I started I guess when I repinned the harness I had done something wrong (surprise) and there was a draw so the battery was dead. When I put it back to factory everything works now, no buzzer, shift light comes on when it is supposed to, and even the stock boost gauge works better than it did before lol. Drove it around for a little while and parked up. Now the battery won't hold a charge. Alternator works with out a battery, checked for a draw on the battery with a multimeter and even the test light trick. There's no radio or clock so it showed 0.00.

Driving around and reading the SAFCII it says 12.3v with lights on, turned them off sitting still 12.8v, turned off the car drop to 11.7v, come back an hour later 8.1v.

 

Did you use the meter set to milliamps to test for the amperage draw? And perhaps the battery is problematic.

 

I'm really bad at electrical stuff but I'm pretty good at google and YouTube lol. I looked it up and followed the directions. It's weird because the battery was perfect before I drained it. I'm guessing since I drained it that's what messed it up. Taking it to autozone tonight to check it out.

 

Took it to autozone, battery won't hold a charge.

Used the battery out of my daily. Doesn't seem to have a draw.

Just need a new battery I guess.