The gauges on my 94 Caravan have finall fully quit working (apparently)

It was an intermittent problem at first, and would usually fix itself with a few miles of driving. No fuel, temp, speedometer, odometer, nothing would work. Then it would seemingly randomly come back on. I know the 3rd gen Caravans have a solder issue, but this one is 2nd gen and I dont think it applies.

I did discover that if I try to turn on the dome light with the dimmer switch with the ignition off, the seatbelt lamp will blink rapidly and a clicking sound comes from the lower dash to the right of the steering column. The dome light does not come on no matter if the ignition is on or off, doors open or not, switch on or not.

Ive tried disconnecting the battery twice, then popping out the IOD fuse in the engine compartment twice too...once for about 10 min then for 1/2 hour. Still nothing.

Check gauges light IS on, and when I turn on the key the gas gauge moves a tiny bit but thats all I get.

I am led to believe that there is a short in the dimmer, but the question is, can that cause the gauges to not work? I am not keen on the idea of the BCM being replaced since the repair would cost more than the van is worth, so I am hoping that is not the case.

 

Additional info:

It seems I have a short somewhere. The fan fuse under the hood has blown twice now. Since I ran out of fuses I stuffed a small piece of foil (yes i know thats BAD) inside the fuse to make the connection...and it started melting the fuse. I removed it of course. I also had a blown airbag fuse in the fuse block (inside the van) and a blown ac clutch relay fuse under the hood. I replaced the airbag fuse and it seems ok. I havent replaced the ac clutch fuse yet as I ran out. I also disconnected the dimmer switch and it didnt help, but it did stop the clicking and seatlbelt indicator flashing.

I am going to check the battery voltage with an ohmeter, but its only a couple months old. I suppose if I wire it so the fan is on when they key is on I can drive it, assuming the low fuel light will still work when its low even though the gauges dont work. I dont really want to get into this sort of thing though; I would rather keep things right with the van.

Any other ideas?

Edit: fan is good, hard-wired it and it spins fine, no noise, spins freely by hand so thats not the cause.

Edit x2: Now, the wipers work on low or high speed but no delay. Previously, they worked on delay but would stop in the middle of the windshield. They used to be hard to get to stop at the base of the windshield; I had to click them off just at the right time. Now they stop there (the right place) every time no matter when I shut them off. Very strange.

Edit x3: I disconnected the temp sensor to force the PCM to run the fan since it wont come on by itself anymore - Im guessing related to the gauges problem. *poof* blew the fuse instantly. Fan itself is fine.

Edit x4: I have removed the cluster, checked the wiring and connectors. Everything looks good, the connectors are still shiny new looking and jiggling the wires did nothing. The wires also seemed tight. Checked the body ground, its good. Added an extra one from the battery temporarily to confirm, and its good. Initial inspection of circuit boad in cluster doesnt reveal any bad solders, but I have to take a closer look as I just peeked through the back plastic so far.

With the fan fuse in the engine comparment blowing repeatedly, I am back to my initial thought: a short somewhere. The multimeter I was going to use to check the battery needs a battery in it, but Im 99% sure the battery is fine since it might as well be brand new.

 

Well. Assumption is that it was the BCM.

It is located in the center console, beneath the ashtray/heat conrols, behind the plastic duct. (For anyone else who should find this thread)

I barely jiggled the plug (actually just pushed on it a little) and everything was working the next time I turned the key on. I am hoping it was just a bad connection in the BCM and I wont have to mess with anything again...unless its cleaning and checking the BCM connections.

My wipers have even gone back to working properly, though they didnt for about a year or so.

Hopefully it isnt just one of those weird coincidences that throws you off when diagnosing problems!

 

Kevin
Take a look at the wire harness around the heater hose on the back of the intake manifold. The throttle body would be above the heater hose. It was a common problem with the harness just hitting the exhaust crossover tube and cause the wires to short out. Also remember you have fuseable links in your van too.If the fuse keeps blowing for the fan, you may have a fan module drawing too much amps for the fuse.

 

Thank you. I will have a look tomorrow after work. I had no idea about those wires back there! I have to check out the EGR system anyway since I have 2 code 32s popping up; amd see whats up with the coolant temp sensor with a code 22. Im guessing the code 22 may have been generated when I unplugged the sensor to force the fan to run though.