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90 Trooper LS Center Gauge Cluster Not Working

2K views 1 reply 2 participants last post by  takemehome4LOroads 
#1 ·
Oil pressure, coolant temp and fuel gauge are all not registering on my Troop. When I bought it, the PO had both swapped in a 2.8 from an S10 and said he and his father had replaced the fuel pump along with some other bits and pieces. I have been slowly going back through their work since I got it and have been fixing the issues.

I have already checked all the fuses in the engine bay, everything is good there now. Pulled the cluster out and checked to make sure they plugged it in since they removed the lower dash section / glove box. Confirmed it was plugged in and tried swapping with another unit to make sure the gauges aren't just dead. Backlighting works on both clusters so it's getting power, ground has continuity so it's getting ground.

The fuel gauge could just be a stuck sending unit from lack of fuel for a while, or they forgot to plug it back in when they had it out (very possible). I have not had a chance to take it to the gas station as I recently fixed a coolant leak. I put a couple gallons in from a can to see if it would register, but of course no. I still drive it around the neighborhood to see if it'll randomly pop on. Oh well, I can figure that out later; my main concern is the oil pressure and coolant temp gauges since they're the most important gauges entirely. The only thing I can come up with is that they're not registering because the sensors are from an S10? I would expect them to work within the same resistance or at least register something, since the motor is technically the same. The sensors are cheap enough that I don't have a problem replacing them with "Trooper specific" units (even though I'd bet a nickel they're the same p/n), but I'm never a fan of throwing parts at a problem before exhausting other options. There's also the possibility that the sensors are just dead.

Thoughts? Anything I might be missing? I did try slapping it already as that's the fix in my BMW's lol.

Thanks guys.
 
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#2 ·
I'm not sure about oil pressure, but I just fixed the fuel and temp gauges on my 2.6. The temp gauge controls power for both it and the fuel gauge. If you take out the temp gauge you'll see what looks like a single relay contact point. Get some fine grit sandpaper in between both points and clean them up. Spray with electrical contact cleaner too if you have it.

Hopefully the 2.6 is similar to the 2.8. You could also try measuring the resistance of the sensors from the plug in the dash to make sure you're getting the right value. Also, if you unplug the temp sensor wire on the engine and ground it, that should peg you temp gauge at max value.

Nice to see another bimmer bum around here. I had an M50 swapped E30 myself until I lent it to my little brother and he got rearended. :cry:
 
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