[codingparadox]

Starting today, on the way into work, with no forewarning, I'm having electrical issues.

First thing I noticed was that my tach stopped working right. With the car off, it sits at about 1800 rpms. Idling it shows about 2800. Rev limit is about 9300 on the tach and VVT engagement is at about 6700 (so it's now nonlinear as well as as nonzeroed). Then, later in the drive, the speedo/odo stopped working and stayed at zero. Later on, after some hard cornering, the speedo started working again but the tach stayed broke.

Then, later on in the drive, it died on me twice at lights. Started back up again, but twice the engine turned off twice idling at a light. It's never done this before. Sometimes the idle drops to like 4-500 when stopping at a light but then it pops up again. It's never died before a single time, much less twice in one drive.

So, obviously some fun electrical issue. I don't know how the systems on these things work - I assume the dash is entirely electrical, so it's pulling a speed sensor line from somewhere, same with the tach/etc., and so some connector is loose. Any idea where I should start?

 

[Tracktimeplz]

Check your fuses, there 2 little boxes right behind the engine, on the firewall.

Up top, easy to get it, oh and DONT DROP ONE rotfl

 

[charliex]

If the power is removed when the needles aren't at 0 it usually causes them to go out of calibration ( which you can fix with the cluster reset procedure )

but if your engine is also dying, that might mean you've got a loose connection at the battery, or a poor ground, have you changed or added anything electrical ?

 

[codingparadox]

Electrical changes: ipod cable plugged into the back of the head unit and the xenon conversion kit by the guy on the forums here. I wouldn't think either has anything to do with it, but who knows.

Engine dying shouldn't have anything to do with the battery - the alternator provides all the current necessary while the engine is running.

 

[charliex]

So the alternator puts out the required voltage at idle even if its dropping very low in RPM ?

HID's have been known to mess with the cluster, so that might be part of the problem, the engine shutting off might be elsewhere, but if the battery has been out, you might want to recheck the connections are secure at least.

 

[codingparadox]

I haven't been home yet, so I can't test voltage yet. It happened on the way to work today. I'm gonna try to reset the cluster before I head home, and I'll go from there. I'm sure there's a loose connection in the dash or something as well, but hopefully this can get me home. (20 mile commute)

 

[charliex]

if the engine shuts down, its not the cluster connections loose.

good luck with the drive.

 

[codingparadox]

Yeah, it seems like this is multiple problems.

Or, possibly, power blipped somewhere, which caused a fuse to blow, which is causing my engine to die sometimes, as well as reset my dash cluster. So, one problem then CAUSED multiple problems.

 

[charliex]

yeah loose power connection, battery issues would be my guess.

however if the xenons were spiking the cluster they might spike the ecu which will also shut the engine down .

 

[codingparadox]

I cleared the dash and drove home and haven't had a hint of problems since. I wonder if possibly I was doing something stupid like not realizing my RPMs were getting low in a higher gear slowing down for a stop light (because it said like 3k) and just letting the engine brake itself off basically. I'd like to think I drive more by sound than that, but who knows. I notice little visual cues that I didn't think I was paying attention to more and more often these days.

 

[charliex]

That shouldn't cause the cluster to have non zero needles though.