My 2004 Honda Civic gauges have started failing in an intermittent way. When this happens, all the gauges (speedometer, tachometer, fuel, temp, LCD odometer) all read zero. When the gauges are in this state, the odometer is also not counting any mileage that I drive.
As far as I can tell, the car is driving fine and when the gauges come on, there are no warning lights (e.g. CEL) on.
One interesting thing that I have noticed is that when the gauges come on (possibly long after the car was started), the cluster goes through the normal startup sequence. For example, the light that flashes a few times if you are due for service does its few flashes when the gauges come on. This makes me think that the problem is with whatever component manages things like the time since last service.
Is it possible that this is a loose wire, or is it likely that there is a component that needs replacing.