Faulty Clocks?

[Guest MATT]

Hi, first of all, I apologise for this not being a galaxy problem, but its giving people headaches.

 

My Vauxhall corsa (which has now done 90,000 miles) has developed an odd fault with its information display/clocks.

 

It first happened on my son, when he went telford 3 weeks ago.

 

All the display (speedo, rev counter, fuel gauge, engine temp, etc) all went off for about 2 seconds, and then came on again. Then a minute or so later, did it again, and a few more minutes later, did it again. - the last time it did it, it did it for about 6 seconds, my son was also on a round about, and he said his indicator stopped working when it happened.

 

Then for two weeks, its worked fine.

 

A week ago, it did it on me, only twice in succession.

Yesterday, it did it on my son again (I was also in the car this time) and it did it twice in succession.

 

Every time it does it, the hand brake ON light comes on, then goes off after a few seconds - even though the hand brake is OFF.

 

Being learners use this car for tests, it needs sorting, as it seems to be getting more regular.

 

Vauxhall say they cant do anything until it completely fails so they can test for it.

 

I have searched the forum, only suggestion is a bad earth and possible faulty clocks.

Does anyone know where the earth is, and how I can get to it?

Or what else it might be?

 

Car speed or Engine rev does not seem to make it do it - it just does it.

 

Vauxhall Corsa 52 reg, 1.7DI - basic model

 

Thanks again,

 

MATT ;)

[Gadgetoid]

No particular knowledge of Corsas

but

On general principles have you checked

Voltage regulator (on back of instrument panel)

The earth connection (usually a screw or similar)

[Guest neil_wiles]

Matt

 

The Corsa instrument block slides back into the housing and "fits" into the electrical connectors, a quick fix is to loosen the clocks unit by undoing the screws and litteraly woggle the clocks unit and then make sure it goes fully home.

 

The intermittent nature of the fault suggests its not quite home in the connector and therefor is getting corrosion on the connectors.

[Guest MATT]

Thank you both.

 

I don't know where the earth point is, or how to get to it.

 

With the clocks, i have tried removing the plastic surround, but looks like the steering wheel (or surrounding plastic) may have to come off?

 

I will have a look tomorrow.

 

Thanks again,

 

MATT

[Guest MATT jr]

lol - 1st time i have had such a fault on a car while i was driving.

 

was interesting! and worrying given i was 35 miles away from home...

 

MJR

[gregers]

had a similar thing on my zafy the speedo was bouncing(while stationary)ended up have a new cluster,luckly done under warrenty,dont know how old your corsa is?neils advice seems top notch,seems to me there a contact loose somewhere hth.

 

regards gregers