2nd Gen Non-Engine/Transmission Overhead Compass stuck on North

[ROADWARRIOR]

Anybody else experience this? Mine has been like this for a couple of years now. I've tried calibrating it per the service manual and I also demagnitized my roof. Anybody have any other ideas?



TIA,

Dan

 

[n7gxz]

Mine is the same way. Seemed to happen after I took a trip up north near the Artic Circle a few years back. I have not been able to get it to correct itself.



Kevin

 

[Fireman Dave]

Dan,



Try turning around and heading in another direction. :-laf

 

[n7gxz]

Dan,



Try turning around and heading in another direction. :-laf

Does not help. I can be heading do south and it still says I'm heading north.



Kevin

 

[Gary - K7GLD]

I'd have to check my owner manual - but is there a Reset function for these?



If not, perhaps removing power/disconnecting batteries for an hour or so will cause it to re-initialize?

 

[ROADWARRIOR]

Thanks for the advice Dave.



Gary,



I've tried that stuff and also demagnitizing the roof per the service manual with no luck. One thing I found strange in both my truck and car is that when I put my el-cheapo $2 suction cup compass on the windshield, I'd get goofy readings. I had to move the compasses to the rearview mirror on both vehicles to get them to work correctly.



Dan

 

[ScottLewis]

Dan:



The fact that your "cheapo" compass also acts strangely suggests some sort of magnetic anomoly. Do you have aftermarket speakers, stereo, or other electronics that would impact the compass? What about light bars or other high demand electrical equipment?

Curious.



Dan

 

[ROADWARRIOR]

I guess my last post was a question about why two different compasses would act abnormal on the windshields of two different vehicles, but act normal when stuck on the rearview mirror. I'm curious as to what is affecting the compasses on the windshield. I don't think this anomaly is part of my truck compass problem, since the cheapo one is sitting just under the truck one and working correctly. BTW, I haven't changed anything speaker wise or electrical wise before or after the compass decided to always indicate North.



Dan

 

[Gary - K7GLD]

Have you tried taking a small magnet and moving it around the display to determine it will actually display other directions under ANY circumstances?



Can you describe how and what you used to demagnetize the roof of your truck?



What do you suppose the odds are that the small mounting block for the mirror that is glued to the windshield has itself become magnetized?



Try removing the mirror from that mount, and move it as far away from it as possible to see if anything changes - might try rotating the mirror as you do that too, to see if the display changes...

 

[Matt42]

Here's a last-resort electric system fix I've used on GM products in the last few years, when they started acting funky.

1. Disconnect both battery cables, or all four in the Dodge situation

2. Hold them apart for about a minute.

3. Reconnect and see if that exorcised the gremlins.

4. if it didn't disconnect the battery cables again.

5. Touch the negative and positive cables together for about 30 seconds. (Make sure that all battery cables have first been disconnected to avoid traumatic welding. )

6. Reconnect and check on the gremlins.

7. If that didn't work, call tow truck.



I've used this method to give the Chevy automatic four wheel drive a sort of an electronic dope slap after it got confused and decided I wanted to be in 4 Low on the freeway. It also reboots the memory on the adaptive automatic transmission on my daughter's Saturn.



Disclaimer: I've never done this on a Dodge because I never needed to. You might want a second opinion.

 

[pwknapp]

Whenever the compass gremlins get ahold of mine on my '03 work truck I just drive in a very tight circle a few laps and it resets itself.

 

[ROADWARRIOR]

Gary,



Those are two good ideas that I haven't tried. I will try these when I get my batteries back in my truck. (It is apart for winter modifications)

The demagnitizer was a small bench top demagnitzer from a machine shop that is used to demagnitize metal after surface grinding. I swept the roof with it per the service manual's instructions.



I tried the 3 consecutive circles many different times with no change.



Thanks,

Dan

 

[ROADWARRIOR]

Well I thought things might be different this year. I hooked up the batteries and it went to the CCD display. But once the truck started, it went to North again. I swept a small strong magnet all around the unit and nothing changed. The cheap compass went crazy when I got near it with the magnet.



Dan