gq speedo problems

[Kai]

my speedo started playing up about a year ago after a day off road.
sender working, wiring to gauge cluster seemed fine. all signes pointed to the speedo itself.
it would occasionally work, sometimes do nothing and other times move erratically at idle.

last rego it was working for the inspection/.
but this rego it was playing up.

I've sent it off to an instrument specialist to get it sorted.

it seems its a very common problem, and most people just get by as i was.
But has anyone else actually spent money on getting it fixed, was it successful, and what did it cost you?

hopefully i can get some info out of the guy who fixes it for future reference.

[Wine_maker]

I have the same problem with tachometer's arrow and no one auto electrician wants to try to fix it.

[Kai]

If you google instrument cluster repair and your capital city. You should find someone.

[Kai]

For future reference, the repairer said it was a fault on the speedo board. They have repaired a few before and once repaired they have not had any returned. Cost $150

[GQ TANK]

I fixed my speedo.

Mine developed a fault where the needle would swing all the way around intermmitantly, if I taped the top of the dah it would start working.

I would a couple od dry solder joints - but these where not the casue.

I found the legs of the reference crystal had corroded - resulting in intermittent contact. The crystal was 4.19mhz not common value, I was lucking in finding a 4.097 crystal from work - this worked -.

[ctaylor58]

GQ Tank - where abouts is the reference crystal? Got a pic by any chance? Mines doing the same thing.

[chrisc2306]

I had the same problem and only managed to get it fixed tonight, I originally tried to take it out and clean it all and that didn't work so I tried resoldering all the connections on the motherboard for the speedo and still had no luck either so I eventually had to get another cluster for it and just took the old speedo out of that one and fitted it into my own cluster that saved having to worry about changing the odometer. I would definitely give the above steps a try before purchasing a new one have a look on the back of the motherboard and see if any of the solder connections look a bit tired and try to resolder it first

[GQ TANK]

From the back of the PCB - it was near the top right corner - I pretty certain the board was labels on the component side.

[angelo_f]

These sound to me like a dry joint. When you go off road, the components put a lot of stress on the actual solder joints, and a dry joint will finally crack. This is also something that is affected by temperature.

[GQ TANK]

In my case it wasn't a dry joint - I did find a couple and soldered them. The legs of the coil had corroded though (no sign of moisture) and was making intermittent contact. (Im a radio tech and know what dry joints are)

[GRobson]

Is there anyone in Darwin that can fix instrument cluster in a GQ 1997 patrol?

[mudnut]

Welcome to the forum. http://www.nissanpatrol.com.au/forums/forumdisplay.php?2-Introductions

A few years ago, there was a bloke online that would fix Patrol clusters on a swap over basis. You'll have to search to see if he's still going.

[GRobson]

Found this site, none currently in stock. Cheers for the welcome.

[mudnut]

What is the problem with the unit?

[The Survivalists]

Exactly what GQ TANK has said 👌🏼Had the same issue and repaired by a gauge specialist for about $200 approx.

[The Survivalists]

Banging the top of the dash “usually” fixes the issue...BUT...mine got gradually worse and driving around with no speedo was stressful (speed cameras everywhere lmao). I ended up finding a gauge specialist and was a relatively cheap and easy fix. Also banging the dash so many times i broke one of the mounting brackets so just a caution.