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I have a 2005 Toyota Camry. The gauges (fuel gauge, temp gauge, odometer, speedometer, tachometer) just stopped working yesterday. The instrument panel lights all work -- gear indicator, blinker/headlight indicators, airbag, door open, etc. -- it's only the gauges that don't come up.

The related fuses -- #30, #38, and #39 in the fuse box under the steering wheel -- are all fine. I've tested and swapped them all around with no changes. Pulling fuse 30 and 38 (the two "gauge" fuses) results in other symptoms, but pulling fuse 39 (instrument panel) does not change anything. The fuse receptacle gets 5V, as does fuse 40 next to it.

I've also tried resetting the instrument panel connectors (both with the car off and on). I haven't tried resetting the battery but the connectors are tight and the terminals look good. Battery voltage is good: 12.6V resting, 13.7V with the engine running.

I'm leaning toward the instrument panel circuit board as the problem. The board has four test points on the back: UIN, UOUT, TEST1, and TEST2. UIN, TEST1, and TEST2 all show 5V but UOUT shows 0 or 0.1. Googling for a pinout or wiring diagram hasn't turned up any results yet.

Has anyone else had a similar problem? Any insight is appreciated.

UPDATE: It took two days, but our local Toyota dealership figured out the problem. A mouse had made itself a home above the gas tank, and had chewed through the fuel sensor wire, shorting out the gauges.

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  • How about power at the cluster? Fuses can be good but it doesn’t mean that the cluster is getting power on the correct circuit.
    – Ben
    Sep 17, 2018 at 17:29
  • @Ben I don't have a wiring diagram so I don't know what each pin should read, but the cluster is getting power. The indicator lights all come on, and 3 of the 4 test points on the back of the cluster board read 5V.
    – freginold
    Sep 17, 2018 at 22:49
  • 5v doesn’t sound right. I can’t think of anything on the I/P that takes a 5v ref. If you’re getting 5v at the gauge fuses somethings wrong. Check the ig1 relay pins 87 and 30 for 12v. Does anything else not work correctly?
    – Ben
    Sep 17, 2018 at 22:59
  • @Ben thanks, I'll check those. I didn't think 5V sounded right at the fuse but I tested another receptacle and it also read 5V. Everything else works fine -- all lights, power windows, wipers, clock, radio, etc.
    – freginold
    Sep 18, 2018 at 9:50

1 Answer 1

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It sounds like you've checked the electrical supply thoroughly, the one thing I'd say is check the battery voltage, some cars disable components if the battery voltage drops below tolerance. Not likely, but worth the 30 seconds with the multimeter.

Instrument clusters on modern cars are generally have all the dials and readouts on a common circuit board, and circuit boards can fail just like any other component. If you know your way around a soldering iron you might be able to fix it yourself if it's something obvious like a blown solder joint, short of that you'll need to send it off to a specialist for a repair, how much depends on make and model, but somewhere around $150 is a reasonable estimate give or take.

You could replace it, but you need to be aware that many have the odometer readings set mechanically or electrically in the cluster itself so if you replace you'll have to get it set to the right mileage. That's why it's usually cheaper to get it repaired.

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  • Good idea to check the battery voltage, I'll do that in the morning. I didn't pull the circuit board out yet -- it looks like a lot of parts sit on top of it and I didn't have a lot of time when I pulled it out. Sounds like that board is the likely problem, though, barring an abnormal battery voltage. $150 doesn't seem too bad to get it repaired.
    – freginold
    Sep 16, 2018 at 22:04
  • Battery seems good. 12.6V resting, 13.7V with engine running.
    – freginold
    Sep 16, 2018 at 22:39

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