bull4u2me

When I purchased the car (a year ago, late 85 944 automatic) the speedometer and odometer weren't working, everything else (tacho, fuel gauge, temp gauge, oil pressure and lights) worked. I could roughly judge my speed based on the tacho reading (approx speed = twice tacho reading)

I had a few weird moments in between. Around 3 weeks ago the speedo & odo magically came back to life, but they would clock only AT STANDSTILL. This problem disappeared after a day. I assumed there was a short circuit or something.

Now, nothing works. The tacho stopped working, fuel gauge, oil pressure, etc.... nothing works. Is there a fuse for the instrument cluster, or perhaps a relay or something? What could have gone wrong? I hate to make another expensive trip to the mechanic.

ckathens

I'm no expert, but the first thing i'd do is check the grounds... Then check the fuses. You might also have a problem with the speedometer cable.

Spock 951

Check the fuses, and then the grounds. If neither the speedometer or odometer work, it is probably a bad connection. If only the odometer doesn't function, it is probably a broken odometer gear.

If you have a late '85, there isn't any speedometer cable. The speedometer is driven from a signal from the transaxle. At least on the manual trannys.

In any case, you can easily remove the instrument cluster to clean the connections, if the fuses and grounds are OK. Do a search of the forums to find the procedure. You may also want to look into fixing the light reflectors while you have it out, especially if your display is very dim at night. The reflective coating on the reflectors breaks down after several years, leaving you with a display that you can hardly read at night. There are several aftermarket repairs for this, many of them replacing the light bulbs with LEDs.

Keith

ckathens

Oops good call Keith, i forgot that the late style 944's dont' have the speedometer cable anymore.