I have had an electrical problem with this car for quite some time. Intermittently when you start it up, the dash gauges are dead and some of the idiot lights illuminate (not the same ones every time, it's random.) No gear selector or odometer either. The car will run fine and unless you really need to know how fast you are going, it's not a problem. I've driven it for a couple of weeks in this condition and up to a hundred miles. Anyway, to clear it, you disconnect the battery cable for about twenty seconds. Everything is back to normal again, for a day or maybe a month. Disconnecting the battery works every single time the problem comes up. BTW the check engine light works but it doesn't light up for this problem.

I suspect the clock spring is toast because 1) the horn relay (I had already disconnected the horns) was chattering so badly I had to remove it, and 2) there have been some other steering column related oddities happening lately. Such as... the windshield wipers don't always work the way they are supposed to, the cruise control sometimes disengages itself, and the headlights went out on me one night when I flipped the turn signal on.

Any ideas out there? Thanks.

 

sounds like cluster ckt board issue smack the dash next times it does it.

 

Either that's not the issue or I didn't smack the dash hard enough or in the correct spot. After beating the dash on top, bottom, and both sides I disconnected the battery which cleared it immediately.