Intermittent Gauge Needles

[Devil-V]

Has anyone ever experienced problems with the tacho/speedo needles moving with some 'lag' effect? (i.e. moving, but not smooth).

I got a garage professional to install a set of glow gauges into my CG4 dashboard, but he encountered so many problems trying to get the needles to run smoothly. The needle centre is not rubbing on the pad, as it appears to move freely, and he is suspecting that there is some sort of inductive sensor which determines the position of the needle. I've gone back to this guy several times (considering that he offers 12 months support on the repair work), but now I'm thinking he's not as capable as I hoped, and has grown a little impatient with me (even the Manager regreted offering the installation job). Didn't particularly want to install it myself, since I didn't wanted to risk any damage to the dash.

Also, does anyone know if the fuel gauge works in the same way? Unless I'm doing amazingly good mileage, the needle doesn't appear to be moving. Again, there is a small gap between the gauge pad and the needle, where you can manipulate it freely with a finger.

 

[kn0x47]

my speedo doenst move smoothly. hasnt sense i bought it. i can hit the gas a lil bit and the needle doenst move much but then i hit a bump and it jumps up a lil bit. i assume thats normally. ive heard ford made some of the gauge clusters so i'm assume thats why it doest that. ...if you can move your gas needle with your finger then i'd guess its not in correctly

 

[nexTOme]

my speedo doesn't move smoothly. hasnt since i bought it. i can hit the gas a little bit and the needle doesn't move much but then i hit a bump and it jumps up a little bit. i assume thats normal. ive heard ford made some of the gauge clusters so i'm assuming thats why it does that. ...if you can move your gas needle with your finger then i'd guess its not in correctly

sorry i had to.

 

[kn0x47]

sorry i had to.

HAH! the "doesn't" i dont really car about. this is a forum, not english class. the rest of it is pretty sad tho... I'm ADD and dyslexic and i didnt reread what i wrote. i wasnt paying attention

 

[Devil-V]

Just having a drive today, and tbh I'm probably more concerned about the fuel needle. Despite ripping the local motorway at 80-90mph with aggressive 4000-5000 revs in the lower gears for about 10-20 minutes (something I normally never do), along with a bit of city driving around 30-40mph, the needle still reads at roughly the same spot. I'm quite certain it hasn't moved down a titch, unless I'm not looking carefully.

Is it safe to move the needle to zero, then switch on the engine to see if the needle moves to the actual fuel reading?

 

[shenaniganz08]

you have to take apart your gauge and lift the needle out a bit

its basically sticking to the back

Mine use to do this. after i took apart my gauges and put it back together it fixed the problem

 

[shenaniganz08]

Just having a drive today, and tbh I'm probably more concerned about the fuel needle. Despite ripping the local motorway at 80-90mph with aggressive 4000-5000 revs in the lower gears for about 10-20 minutes (something I normally never do), along with a bit of city driving around 30-40mph, the needle still reads at roughly the same spot. I'm quite certain it hasn't moved down a titch, unless I'm not looking carefully.

Is it safe to move the needle to zero, then switch on the engine to see if the needle moves to the actual fuel reading?

the correct way to calibrate your fuel gauge is to get a full tank of gas, then put the needle at the highest point of Full

 

[Devil-V]

The guy looked at the cluster again. He confirmed that the needle was not sticking to the back, and he attempted to 're-gauge' the fuel needle (whatever that means, but I ended up waiting over 4 hours). The tank was borderlining empty, according to the mileage I was doing. Got the car back, and the needle had dropped to a more sensible point.

Refilling the tank, and driving around, the needle appears to fall quicker than before. At this point, I thought the problem had gone, but up to today, I'm 20 miles away from the point I would normally see the fuel light go up, and it's still reading 1/4

I had a dispute with the company boss (who is claimed as an electronics engineer), and he believes that the stepper motor that drives the needle is receiving electrical interference by the glow gauges, causing the needle to believe the zero point is higher than normal.

Is he talking rubbish?

 

[f23accord2000]

yeah hes talking rubbish sorry to tell yeah but he broke your gauges bro ,that happened to me and they bought me a new cluster they where not happy with what happened seeing they had to dish out a lot of money for a new cluster because of them glow gauges thats why ill never get them done again

get them out and go with LED's bro

 

[Devil-V]

Here's something that's been bugging my mind recently.

Could you cause problems with the Instrument cluster by wiring the inverter to the terminals that power up the LED lights at the top?

The general recommendation when wiring up glow gauges is to wire it directly to the brake light in the fuse box, but apparently the guys who installed it didn't do this.....

EDIT: How much work needs to be done with a 2nd hand instrument cluster bought off ebay? There are no native MT clusters available, as they're all AT. Would it still work? This might be my last resort