while i was driving back from college on the highway my fasten seatbelt light started goin on and off. then it seemed i started losing power to my gauge panel as they would drop down to resting positions then back to where they should. But my tach and stero still had power. both are aftermarket. so i turned my stero off figuring my batter had just died. and kept my revs up till i got home. any ideas? ive been in alot of cars with low batters workin at the dealership but have never seen this happen.

 

i let my car sit for 20 min and it still starts with no hesitation. i have no idea whats up with it. HELP!

 

fasten seatbelt light in a 1st gen? i dont think ive ever seen 1

 

ha. i had the same exact thing happen in my 95 neon. it is the wire connectors on the back of the cluster. easy fix. take the top piece of your dash off. and unscrew your cluster, and pull it out. next you need to slide the connectors out of their spot and you need to attach them to the cluster. i cut out the slots that hold the connectors in place. then i attached the connectors to my cluster. works perfectly fine. if some knows a better fix great. that is what i did unless you tore the dash apart you would not know the dif. it probably does not have a battery issue.

btw my 95 also has a seat belt light. sohc sport

 

your connections on the back of the cluster might be getting loose. next time hit the top of the dash and see if it fixes. you would have lost all lights if it was the batt

 

could it be the alternator? and if it was wouldnt that have affected the tach? even more wierd my batter light came on and off to. and how do you take the top piece off?

 

when i first started noticing things going on with my cluster. my speedo would just shot off all by itself nothing else, i would smack dash and sometimes that would work sometimes not. then i tore my dash apart to install tweeters and for custom paint job and i noticed the connector issue. then i talked to a buddy of mine who many years worked at a dodge dealership as mechanic, and he said that he had seen that many time and he told me to cut out the clips that mount the connectors to the frame and straight plug them in to cluster. it may need pushed back in periodically since nothing holds it in. no clips. but that was 10,000 miles ago and no problems since. definately worth a try and it is free to do.

 

so how do i get to my cluster what comes off and how do i get it off?

 

gently pick up on the plastic piece that is attached to your dash around your clust and lift of there are i believe four snap like things that come out in the front very easy. lift up and then when the whole front of that piece is up in the front it slides out of the back. there is a piece of foam stripping that needs to be torn if you want to move the dash out of the way otherwise you can just prop the dash up and work around it.

 

cluster is easy to take out.

Lift up right in front of it and lift the whole top dash piece off (its all clipped in so just lifting will get it off.
Then take the 4 screws off that hold the cluster in
then just pull straight (towards you) and it will come off. installation is reverse...