Car help (Gauges won't work)

[Uladyne]

All of the gauges (tachometer, speedometer, temp gauge, odometer, etc) completely stopped working in my 2003 Toyota Matrix yesterday. I checked all of the fuses and they all look fine. Am I totally fucked or is there some secret way to get shit working again? I barely have enough money for bills and groceries, so I'm trying to avoid an expensive trip to the dealer at all costs. I'm hoping theres some sort of thing to look for that might not be mentioned in the manual, but I somehow get the feeling I'm going to have to shell out an assload of money that I don't have in the near future. Not knowing how much gas I have kinda sucks. I also like to be able to tell if I'm speeding or not. :Smug:

 

[Metaltastic]

Hmm, sorry man, no idea - all I can offer is my sympathy, and a suggestion to take it to a decent service station so you won't have to pay as much as if you went to a dealer!

 

[colonel kurtz]

probably some stupid electrical shit that'll cost you $200 to have fixed...

 

[Loren Littlejohn]

God electrical shit is the worse. My wife's car (soon to be mine) has a short in the turn signal so it only works when it feels like it. Of course the fucking thing won't fail when I take it in to be serviced.

BTW: I have fucked with the odometer (nothing illeagal) in an old ass F-100 and I can say, even as bar as that dash was, it was pure misery trying to work it.

 

[Uladyne]

 

[Loren Littlejohn]

Oh and my advise is to go to a napa, autozone, or parts plus (or whatever you got) and get the service manual for your car. Especially if you plan on trying to figure it out yourself. The manual will at the very least tell you how to pull shit apart to get at things.

 

[Uladyne]

Thats a good idea. I'm gonna look around some more online too and see what I can find. Theres quite a few places (online) that sell replacement "instrument clusters" for my car, so I'm sure someone has details on how to get the old one out, and by following that I figure I could have a good ole poke around with the wires and what not. A few people have suggested to others with the same problem that oxidization on the connections may be a factor, and seeing as I live about 75 yards from the Pacific Ocean, I wouldn't be surprised if theres a bit of that going on somewhere.