No BUS error and all dash gauges dead
 

Help...

Truck in sig has 81,500 miles on it and everything was normal as I parked it last night for 2 hours. Reasonably warm temps. Came out and started it back up, all sounds normal, but the dash is completely dead. It backlights just fine, but none of the actual gauges (tach, speedo, pressure, fuel, temp, volts) the needle stays all the way to the left.

The check engine idiot light, ABS, low fuel, and something else stay lit. The PCM flashes "No BUS" and then stays on as "No BUS".

Truck runs completely normal. Lights, everything else works. My a-pillar gauges work, radio works, lights work, power is there, everything.

What in the world should I look at?

Thanks!

First thing to check is your IOD fuse.

Checked the IOD fuse just now (10amp) and it looked just fine. I even replaced it with another and no difference. I checked all the fuses (except for the two airbag ones) in the cab and none were problems. I also checked the fuses under the hood and they all looked good too.

One thing I forgot to mention that may have created this issue... I played with the panic button on my remote and the horn and lights went off as desired. I had to hit it a couple times to get it to stop about 4 seconds later, but they did and I was able to unlock the cab with the keyless remote as I walked up to the truck. (I haven't hit the panic button on my truck in years before that).

Could that indicate a place to look?

there is a procedure for testing the instrument panel....if i remember right, while holding the odometer button in turn the ignition on and the word "chec" will appear release the button , it should test each guage. when it's done the guages should return to normal

Check the battery's when i was installing my turnbuckel i pulled the neg. cable off my battery.Wife to the truck to the store called me she said the same lights as u were on.went down found the neg. cable off put it back on.all lights went away on next start up.

OK, I did as you say and got the "chec" message. Then it displayed about 5-6 numbers... like 900, 920, 921, 940, 999 and then it just stayed on 999 until I turned the ignition off.

I've currently removed both negative connections and emptied the capacitor by turning it over. Will leave it unhooked for awhile and hook it back up and see.

Still hoping for other ideas.

Here's one... could it be related to my Summit light wiring I have in place? You know the kit designed to pull power directly to make the lights brighter? Obviously, hitting the panic button turned the lights on... although again, all the lights continued to work on the way home.

Check the instrument panel harness below the dash. It should be just to the left of the clutch pedal. You can disconnect and reseat this plug to see if it clears it up.

I had this problem with mine and it ended up being a bad instrument cluster. I was able to make it work by reseating the plug, but it eventually started happening so frequently that I had to have the cluster replaced.

Interesting... I need to ask you to confirm exactly which plug this is. To the left of the clutch pedal is a massive set of plugs and wires. I took a couple pics and hopefully from them you can point me in the right direction.

Thanks!!

Also, how much was a new cluster... and does it loose your "actual mileage" settings if you get a new cluster?

I'll have to run outside and check which plug it is. I'll see if I can grab a picture of it.

You don't lose your mileage, they make sure of that. When my truck went in, clusters were on back-order and I had to wait for almost 3 weeks. They wouldn't release my truck while I was waiting because the cluster had to be programmed with the mileage to make sure it matched the value in the ECM. I was NOT HAPPY, but couldn't get Dodge to budge a bit on it.

OK, digital camera battery is dead so I couldn't get a shot from under my dash. But the plug is directly below (toward the floorboard) the white plastic cover in your second picture. It's a fairly big plug with the locking lever on it.

RESOLVED: :D :D :D [coffee]

I did some internet searches and found on wiki.answers.com that it's a dirty connection under the hood. I had already tried wiggling the connections under the dash and disconnecting and leaving the batteries for 1-2 hours and other things.

But cleaning the main connection to the fuse box under the hood did it. I took it off, blew it out with compressed air, and re-attached. Some said you could put dialectric grease in there, but I didn't do that. See pic.

Thanks for everyone's input. Funny how for 7 years, all is well, then one day... poof!

Just to add to this for anyone else who experiences this. I've had it happen a couple times on my truck. Mine was a bad connection right at the guage cluster. Pulled the guage cluster out, cleaned the connections and it fixed the problem.

Thanks search button. I am having this issue right now, and hope I can add to this thread.

My issues

Ok, cruising home when I intermittently start losing the speedo, tach and dash lights; airbag, abs, service engine soon come on. Truck never misses a beat, just keep losing gauges and getting lights on and off. Odometer will read "no bus" if they stay off long enough.

Codes (ones that apply not usual p0500 etc.)

So Crazydave... did you try the above possible solutions?

Yes. I started out by chasing all the ground connections, checked the ECM ground, checked the PCM ground and all the grounds from both battery's. They all checked out.

I went through every possible fuse that I thought could be related, and in some cases switched some around encase they looked good but were not.

I then went through the plugs you posted pictures of that could be problematic. I took them apart, and in each case they looked clean and gave me no reason to think they were the issue, but I hit them with dielectric grease.

After I went through these, I did not find a spot I found to be the problem. I have since drove the truck over 100 miles on multiple trips and it has not acted up once. So it seems to be fine and i have no idea what the problem was, or if it will come back. But the truck has done a couple of strange things that have happened once and never again in the 5 years I have owned it.

Thanks for giving me more places to look, hope I'm done.