intermittant gauges on chrysler minivan

[foresthawk]

The dashboard gauges (all) go on and off intermittantly, with no conditons or reasons I can associate with it.
Also, when they come on, the auto door lock will lock, but not when the gauges are out. This is on a 1998 Plymouth Grand Voyager minivan. The gauges are not out all the time, but a lot of it.
Is there anything to check before yanking out the dash panel to look at the soldered connections? Any advice appreciated.

 

[eljefino]

These have a known issue with (too much) power going through the HVAC controls and interrupting power to the body control module. It's apparently a central splicing port for all things inside.

Of course the BCMs themselves are pretty flaky too.

But look for char marks on back of the fan speed control switch and some others back there.

 

[Texan4Life]

I have also read that the soldered connections on the gauge pannel gets flaky and resoldering solves tons of problems. our 97 caravan love to run the wipers randomly especially after hitting a bump. also have lost power once.... hopefully it will last until the transmission goes out. its got 260k on it shouldn't be long

 

[eljefino]

Yeah these cars have a 2-wire data bus and if it's interrupted anywhere on any of a dozen modules including the cluster there are a lot of things that get screwy.

Inside the ECM and possibly the BCM is tons of yellow potting compound, so you can't resolder that. The back of the IP though it's a possibility.

 

[artificialist]

Would probably need a rebuilt cluster, and there may be some burnt up or corroded terminal that randomly connects due to bumps and the road and similar movements of the car.

 

[hypervish]

One of the many known issues with those vans.

The cheapest option is to pull the cluster, and re-do all of the solder joints.