Messing with MFA and Eco gauge

My MFA on my new car reads 99.9, BUT i have reste the gauges and occationally I will get a reading but it climbs its way back up to 99.9, although I did reset it once and the next time i drove the car a few hours later to the petrol station and back I got a proper reading of 27.2mpg!

is there any easy things to check as it seems my problem maybe intermitant, and my needle gauge works fine going off the scale when i boot it etc, but my shift light doesnt come on.

Cheers

Karl.

I think a lot of problems are down to that dreaded copper tracked blue plastic on the back of the clocks. With age and vibration the connectors easily break off and make things malfunction. So I can't see the point of using mk2 stuff, as it is still aged. I've noticed that the new cars of today don't use that plastic sheet, they have reverted back to the sold PCB.

I'm going to make up a prototype loom using big round eyed connectors for the bulbs to sit in, small connectors for the brass bolts, wire and connector blocks. I can't see it being a big task, but it takes time to figure it all out.

Should be good the out come of this

I hope so.

Here is a picture of the lcd panel, which was looked at:

Here is a picture of that dreaded blue printed circuit:

Here is the motormeter clocks I repaired. All you have to do is carefully cut off the blue plastic and put a blob of solder over the area. I had to repair the 3 connectors that go into the plug for the vaccum as well as the connector for the oil light.

Oil light repair:



Vaccum sensor repair:

Oil light now comes on

IMG]http://i4.photobucket.com/albums/y138/lhasa/011_11.jpg

This is a rare sight:
Urban

On the motorway:

Outside temp:

That reminds me to polish out the scratches on the perspex tomorrow.

my mpg seems to work so long as you do not reset the trip 2, when that is reset it causes both gauges to show 99.9. i cant work that one out but there you go

Sounds like you have a fault in the 2nd circuit on the lcd panel, the switch or the blue printed circuit. I would check the blue printed circuit carefully for any faults and go from there.

By the way did you notice I changed something in the clocks?

I added an extra red led in the middle.

Oh yes.  Does it do anything or is it there to fill the blank…

On a more vital issue, are you of the view that the soldering of the three vacuum unit pins is a "fix" that may be generally applied or do you think you happened to get luck in your particular circumstance - guess its a bit of a hard one to answer…

MP

lhasa said

That reminds me to polish out the scratches on the perspex tomorrow.

How do you polish out the scratches?

Is there a magic technique?

Its rather easy to polish out the scratches from the perspex, all you need to do is get some brasso or silver wadding (its comes in a tin and looks like cotton wool) and take a small piece and just rub the plastic until the scratch comes out. It is very easy to do and comes up like new. I've even done it to an old watch of mine.

Michael said

Oh yes.  Does it do anything or is it there to fill the blank…

On a more vital issue, are you of the view that the soldering of the three vacuum unit pins is a "fix" that may be generally applied or do you think you happened to get luck in your particular circumstance - guess its a bit of a hard one to answer…

MP

That middle red led is just a blank space and there are no pins that connect to the blue plastic, but I've connected mine to the alarm so flashes when I activate the alarm.

The 3 pins soldered to the vaccum is a good fix as the pins just came away from the blue plastic sheet, but I only did this repair because the connectors just came away from the blue plastic sheet.

IMO- I still think a lot of malfunction issues with the clocks are down to that plastic sheet, because the connectors appear to be crimped on rather than soldered and the copper tracks are very brittle from old age and corrosion. It would, I suppose be a good idea to solder all the connectors to prevent them breaking away. The best solution in the long run would be to a create a fresh loom. I'm in the process of doing this and I'll let you know if it works. I'm looking at modifing XJS connectors so it can go into the old connectors.

i took all my clocks out last night to mess with the oddometer as it had got a bit stuck, but now ive put everything back the avg mh and mpg dont work (used to) am i likely to have done some serious damage or just a loose wire as it was a pita to remove them all etc so if its going to be a broken track ill leave it, but if its just a case or re pluging in the ones on the back of the speedo ill give it another shot.

Remove the blue plastic backing and refit it carefully making sure all the connectors go into the pins. If it still doesnt work you could of damaged the copper tracks or the connectors where it crimps onto the blue plastic backing.

took it all out, checked it all and put it back and it was worse... my rev counter stopped, so all out again and was extra carefull plugging all back in and i now have everything on the MFA 8O

My '84 Cabby has been parked up for a couple of months (owing to me forgetting about the MOT) and when I've got it back on the road again the economy light has started to work full time. Previously it had been intermittent but it seems to be fine now (for 2 full days at least). I had the binnacle out trying to get the MFA bulb to stay illuminated yesterday so may be I've nudged something in the right direction.

Any views?

I don't know whats more annoying now, a flashing light on the dash that makes me concerned or a light that should work but rarely does!!

oh and the MFA bulb worked briefly until I went over a speed bump and it went out….. dash out time again!!!

Ta, Dan

Someone in the know has told me the gremlins is down to the blue plastic PCB behind the clocks?