Odd guage reaction.

[J.Post]

I started my truck last night to go shut my generator down in my RV. When I turned the key to the "on" position to wait for the heat cycle. While waiting and shortly after turning the key to the "on" postion all of the gauge needles jumped to about half or three quarters of their postion and returned to normal. I thought to myself that it was a self check that I could get my 01' Jeep Wrangler to do if I followed a certain procedure. I was unable to duplicate this. My question is how did I manage to do this. Thanks.

 

[Rob_r]

Interesting. My gauges did the exact same thing last night. This was the first time in 3 months of ownership that I noticed this. I normally keep a pretty sharp eye on the "wait to start" light. Somehow I may have missed this gauge behavior earlier. Is this gauge needle jumping considered normal under a particular set of circumstances?



Robert

 

[swexlin]

While waiting and shortly after turning the key to the "on" postion all of the gauge needles jumped to about half or three quarters of their postion and returned to norma

OK, Twilight Zone here. MINE did the EXACT same thing yesterday; the first (and only)time on almost 2 years of ownership. I was going to post something, but you two beat me to it.



Is this weird, or what?

 

[JVolpe]

Could it be the grid heater pulling voltage down while cycling to cause voltage to gauges to drop enough to do this??

 

[bpenrod]

J Post, was that on the 05 or the 01? Looks like two 04. 5's and 1 05 did this. My 03 never has but there is a procedure to test the instument panel. Something like holding down the trip meter and cycling the key but I can't remeber exactly.

 

[PScheren]

gauge neddle jumping

Mine did it yesterday also. The first time I ever noticed it. I live in Fl. and it was about 78 degrees, so the heater is a nonplayer. I did have the battery disconnected for a while in the afternoon and this was the first startup after reconnecting. That's what I attributed it too, anyways.

 

[swexlin]

All these did it on the same day. Like I said, very "Twilight Zone".

 

[PScheren]

It wouldn't surprise me if it was some outsourced, displaced programmer that worked on the ECM. Put in yesterdays date as a random practical joke. . HA.

 

[diesel_driver]

My truck did this tonight also (11-20-05). First time I have ever noticed the guages "jump" at startup. My truck is a 2004 3500 short bed.

 

[J.Post]

It was my 05'. If I remember correctly you did have to push the odometer/tripmeter on my Jeep to perform the gauge check. I think that I was also checking the tripmeter as well and could have been the secrect hand shake to cause the guage check.

 

[swexlin]

It wouldn't surprise me if it was some outsourced, displaced programmer that worked on the ECM. Put in yesterdays date as a random practical joke

It is VERY odd that all of these happened on the same date.

 

[J.Post]

I tried pushing the odometer/tripmeter button and turning the key to the "on" position and it did go through the gauge check. It then flashed a bunch of odd numbers on the odometer. None seemed related to P codes.