Was driving my 88 tII and all the sudden I loose my gauges; oil pressure, boost gauge, water temp, and fuel level, but car is still running fine. I check all my fuses and everything is good. I removed the gauge cluster and checked connection and its connected good. Any1 have any idea what would cause the gauges to just get lost?

 

Which fuses did you check?

 

All fuses on drivers foot board, and the fuse box on front side of drivers side strut tower in engine bay

 

Ok well rechecked fuses and the meter fuse was blown... Put a new fuse in and it just blew it agin... Any spot in particular the meters ground to, or spot where they have know to short?

 

Anyone's input is needed, I pulled the instrument panel put a new fuse in and keyed the car up, it still popped the fuse...

 

You've got a short. If no other fuses have popped then I would say that your problem lies on that circuit. If it were me I'd look at probable pinch points or areas that you were behind the dash last. If I couldn't find it there I would grab a wiring diagram and trace what is fed through that fuse and start looking. Nobody can tell you where it is, you've just go to find it... Good luck!

 

Page 50-40 here:


http://wright-here.net/files/manuals...ng_diagram.pdf

 

appreciated for the diagram, and i already pulled the dash off and there arent any pinching points in it all all... just the two plugs, but even with all the plugs off and only the main harness it still flips the fuse...Why did mazda have to use so mane wires!!!!!!!

 

..

 

y would it be my main power wire, if everything else besides the gauges works fine?

 

When I posted, I thought you were referring to
Autometer Phantom gauges since you capitalized
Phantom . Disregard .

 

oh ok, nope just my regular gauges stopped working and now the meter fuse keeps blowing...

 

Well found bare spot on the oil pressure wire, required it and it worked fine for a day. During a little drive lost them again, as well as the warning cluster this time. I'm at a complete loss again...

 

I know you were given this info before, but you might want to addess each circuit that the Meter fuse feeds this time around.

METER: Gauges, alternator warning, cooling fan control, cruise control, reverse lights, HVAC, warning lights, reminders, AAS, alarm

 

Ok well last time, I retired the oil pressure wires, I don't run the stock cooling fans anymore, don't have cruise control, I unplugged my warning bezel and no change in that, as far as the hvac it is unplugged and removed, and I don't have ***. So just want to double check here but all left to check on the circuit is; alternator wire, water temp, boost gauge, fuel lol sending unit, reverse lights. And the alarm correct?

 

you probably missed the wire that was rubbing through behind the instrument cluster, moving it during the dash removal helped alleviate the problem temporarily.

sounds as if you still have a wire grounding out behind the dash, specifically the one feeding power to the gauges.

most all points on the opposite side of the cluster are grounds or low voltage inputs which have no relevance in the fuse, they would only affect the particular gauge that was shorting out.

the meter fuse should only feed the cluster and only ties between the cluster itself and the fuse box, so your area of concern is behind the dash directly in front of the driver down to his left foot.

 

Ok well as far as the wiring to the cluster, it goes from the two round plugs into the one main harness plug just behind the air vent, from there it goes into the main harness and then down to the area of the fuse box. So can u give me more insight or even a picture of the area/wire that u are talking about? Sorry I'm just trying to comprehend which exact wire your talking about, because to my knowledge the wires coming from the cluster are in with the rest of the harness, I haven't seen it come out of the harness on its own. Thanks

 

Have you unplugged the gauge unit to see if the fuse still blew intead of going through all the wires running to the individual gauges? It would be easier to do this.

And unplugging the largest CPU plug unplugs the B/Y wire running to the alternator warning light. This plug also disconnects the beeping reminder function that is powered by the B/Y wire.

Lastly, just because you don't have or use some of the items powered by the Meter fuse (B/Y wire) doesn't necessarily mean the B/Y wire running to these items is not shorting to ground even if the wire is not plugged in to anything. Using the ohm meter function of a multimeter will tell you if a wire is grounding out. Low ohms means no problem while a rather high reading indicates a grounded out wire.

 

Unplugging any of these would tell you if you've narrowed down the problem or not. You could unplug the round plug behind the gauge unit which houses the B/Y wire. or you could unplug the connector further down the line which would be FME-01 which mates the Meter harness w/the Front harness.

 

he stated early on that it blows even with the gauge hood removed from the car, there should be a junction connector by the ECU(emission control unit) behind the driver kick panel.

 

Ok well I unplugged the the warning bezel, and the dash cluster, at the main connection just not at the two round plugs at the actual harness plug and it still popped it. Still open to ideas, I'm about to take the car to a master electrician mechanic... I'm getting way to much of a headache from this...

 

Where exactly is this emissions connector ur speaking of at?

 

pull off the driver kick panel beside the dead pedal, there's about 6 connectors back there. the easy way of eliminating them outside of reading through and deciphering the harness diagram to see where everything leads is to simply disconnect ALL of them that you can see and install a new fuse. if it still pops then the problem should be in that thick bundle of wires between there and the fuse box.

if after that the fuse is intact you can start plugging the connectors in one by one until the fuse pops and you will have narrowed it down to a single harness to the dash.

 

Ok so unplug everything down by the fuse and key car up with a new fuse, it if pops its in the fuse box to the connectors, if not plug in one at a time and key up each time until it blows and that is the connector on which its blowing the fuse right?

 

that's what i said, yep.