A problem with a new acquisition

I acquired another XJ this weekend, and I have a question:

98 XJ Classic: Today, I took it in to get new tires put on (as confirmed by many of you here, 255/70-15's work fine and look really good - would look better with a lift and 31+'s, but for my son's first car, I thought I better not right now) Anyway, when I went to pick it up, none of the gauges worked.

Now, it was pretty cold today - this morning, it was 22F, which is cold for the deep south - and I noticed the airbag light was on first thing this morning. However, all of the other gauges were working fine. After about a minute or so, the airbag light went off, and I didn't think any more about it. Well, when I picked it up at the tire store, nothing except the airbag light and the low fuel light were on. Just as sort of a hunch, I popped the dash on the upper right side a couple of times with the palm of my hand, and voila!, everything came to life, with the airbag and low fuel lights going off as they should.

My question is: is this one of those characteristic issues with the new body style XJ's? I think I have read where others have had problems with their dashes, but I wanted to confirm it with you........if this is a common problem, what's the fix? Loose connection? Faulty circuit board? Total gauge pod replacement?

Please advise.

Thanks,

dnp

to fix that problem I Took my dash appart, pulled out the cluster, cleaned the connector, reseated the cluster and also cleaned and re connected the connector below.... 60 K miles later it's still working fine

The problem is with the connectors to the pod.

There is a TSB on how to fix it. I just took mine apart and cleaned them and used some dielectric grease on them. Works so far so good for the last few years.

BTW you can try and push in on the pod and see if they make better contact then you'll know for sure, but it doesn't always work until you clean them.

mark

How did you clean the connectors?

My airbag light is on, and I'd like to try this before taking it into a dealer.

Remove the center bezel and start taking out screws That big ring around the dash will eventually be freed up and you can remove it. The piece around the steering wheel has to come out also and it is a tight fit but it will come off just be gentile with it. Reattach the rubber tube on the bottom of it when reassembling, it just slides together. Then it is just a matter of removing more screws and pulling the cluster out. Clean it with alcohol on a qtip or use the higher tech spray cleaner, just make sure it's plastic friendly. I 'tweaked' the pins just a tad to make them not seat quite so straight but be careful doing that as this is a self docking type plug, too much and you will bed the pins. You should almost not even be able to see how much you bent them. Put some dielectric grease on them and plug it back in.
Remember to disconnect the battery and wait 10 minutes or so, you will be fooling around with the airbag ckt and would be embarrasing, not to mention expensive, if it popped while you were in there....
I have had mine apart a few times, first to fix the same problem on an idiot light panel then last month when I put in a gauge panel. It is really nice to have gauges.
Seeing as how this is his first XJ why not throw in a Factory service manual for $100. It will show what I just described in much more detail w/pictures and will pay for itself the first time he or you use it... I figure mine has saved me about TWO GRAND so far by allowing me to do repairs instead of paying someone else. :wow:

my buddy had this happen to him in his 98 TJ. as posted above, cleaning the connectors will fix the problem

but if they go dead while driving, just give it one firm whack to the top of the dash and the will kick back in :cheers:

NCSUcherokee said:

my buddy had this happen to him in his 98 TJ. as posted above, cleaning the connectors will fix the problem

but if they go dead while driving, just give it one firm whack to the top of the dash and the will kick back in :cheers:

Click to expand...

Or aim for a BIG pothole or two

Thats odd because I also have a 98 classic and I have never had any thing go wrong with anything, or even a burp.. Is this a common thing or somthing