[TauriJames]

So I just bought an elise yesterday and one of the problems the dealer said it has was the tachometer and cluster working off and on. Even if the car is on and running the tachometer and rpm Gauge will read 0 and the fuel will say empty. But if you tap the front of the cluster it jumps to where is suppose to as far as the speed your going and rpm, then drop down to 0 even going 75 on the freeway. Does anyone know how to fix this problem or have had a similar experience. The dealer said they called lotus about it and it's on order but it may take 2 months to get it in since Lotus doesn't troubleshoot it, they replace it. I'm not a wiring guru but if it's as easy as a fuse that would be awesome.

 

[tomrev]

Won't be a fuse, most likely wiring connection on the board / ground issue. Pretty labor intensive to find unless obvious visible issue, and the cluster has to be out to check, Thus the R&R Lotus does.

 

[Dr.Hess]

Sounds like a cold solder joint or broken trace on a circuit board to me.

 

[addertooth]

Double agreement with Hess. Cracked/cold soldered joints (especially at the connector of the cluster) is frequently the cause of this behavior. Remove the cluster, re-flow the solder joints, make sure the connecter is clean, re-install.

 

[bri3d]

I've been playing with instrument clusters lately... sounds like your CAN is disconnecting and reconnecting to the cluster.

If you have an 07- the CAN high and CAN low connections are on the "C" connector at the cluster. If you're comfortable taking apart your dash you can do that, check the connector and if it looks OK take the cluster out and re-solder the pins (huge pain in the ass but a known problem from what I've read).

If you have an '08+ the CAN high and CAN low connectors are just pins on the one main connector so you'll have to reflow everything. The '08+ cluster is even harder to take apart than the old one.

If Lotus R+Rs it get your old cluster and sell it, they're worth a bit.

 

[Bryker7]

What year is it? I believe the 05's had bad solder connections on the board itself, my 06 cluster was not the same, the white plug with the 3 wires on the back was faulty.i ended up soldering the wires right to the pins. Fixed it for me.

 

[jeroenvg]

same problem

I have the same problem on my 2005 111R
I chgecked all the connections but no luck

 

[indifferent]

What year is it? I believe the 05's had bad solder connections on the board itself, my 06 cluster was not the same, the white plug with the 3 wires on the back was faulty.i ended up soldering the wires right to the pins. Fixed it for me.

If 05 then definitely the solder connections on the circuit board. Easy fix.

 

[Mobius97]

I have an 05 and have been dealing with this on and off for months. The same symptoms as you; tach and speedo stop working, gas goes to zero and no temp reading. I knew it was the connector because if I pushed hard on the cluster face where the connectors are the gauges would start working. I was just being lazy and never took it apart as the doesn't get driven all the time but finally got annoyed at the randomness of it not working one day and decided to take it apart. It only takes 5 minutes to pull everything, its just a few screws.

For me it wasn't the board but a bad crimp at the connector pin (the blue wire in the pic I took of mine). If you wiggled it the gauges would come back to life. I did a ghetto fix for now because I didn't have a spool of solder. I had used my last bit repairing some LED's on my racing drone. So for the time being, I took a staple out of my staple gun, flattened it, cut it in half and wedged it into where the pin crimps to the wire so it made full contact and the crimp holds it firmly in place. It has been working great for weeks now with no issues. Typically it would come and go anytime I drove it.