Talk Morgan Forums Morgan Sports Cars Maintenance & Servicing GDI Gauges Intermittent Fault

Hi,

Just asking the collective if anyone has experienced this and for any advice.

Just back from a 16 day trip across Europe, but on about 5 occasions, the following all went to Zero.

Speedometer
Rev counter
Coolant Temp
Fuel Gauge

On most occasions they returned to normal almost immediately, but on one occasion did not come back for a few minutes. The engine was fine. On 2 occasions the fault occurred while on the Motorway and it didn't occur while driving through a Downpour.

I had a new Battery fitted before the trip.

I'm thinking the dials may have a common earth, that needs attention, or there's some electronics that may be on its way out.

All is OK at the moment.

Thanks in advance.
Mark

It could be a common earth issue Mark, but the one for gauges is shared by six other black chassis earth leads, and you only have the one fault area. I would be looking initially at the VDO master gauge connector behind dash. This is a long 26 way plug and socket although carrying only eight wires, fed by a 500mm long sub loom breaking out from main chassis loom. The black wire within is the common earth. Maybe break and remake connector as a start.

I disconnected my battery recently, for about 20 minutes, and then had problems with the fuel gauge reading full all the time, the mpg showing 1.4 mpg and the fue tank having a range of over 4000 miles! I had to take into my local Morgan dealer so they could connect to their laptop, and the official Morgan software, and reset everything. Fitting a new battery may have caused your problems?

I would have been tempted to temporarily take out the 80 amp main battery fuse Les whilst changing battery. This to avoid intermittent contact power pulses as you re-connect the main battery terminals.

I'll bear that in mind when I next need to disconnect the battery - thanks.

Thanks Richard, I'll start with the VDO Master Connector.

I spent some time poring over the Harness Diagram and figured out the following are earthed with the VDO Gauge. There's nothing else that I'd have noticed wasn't working so will also check the earth. Either way, unless it fails completely, it's just trying things.

Listed in case it helps anyone else.

B 230 - Diagnostics
B 231 - VDO Master Gauge
B 232 - Power Socket
B 234 - Heated Screen
B 235 - Rear Harness / No Plate Light?.
B 236 - Power Steering
B 237 - Heated Seats

I agree its unlikely to be the gauge earth connection Mark as its common with so many other unaffected circuits hence my suggestion of breaking then re-making the VDO connector which carries CANBUS high and low lines among others. Fingers crossed that fixes issue.

Hi, I hope it´s OK to open this thread again. Having the same problem, except that all gauges, except the clock are stone dead. The integral light and LCD is working though. When ignition is turned on, the arms make a small jump and then nothing. Does anyone have any ideas?


Thanks in advance.

Morgan

FYI, I did remake the VDO connection a few times, as per Richards advice, when I last had the Dashboard off but haven't done many miles over the winter and so cannot say if it worked or not. I mentioned it to the dealer when it went in for an MOT & Service but without the fault being apparent then diagnosis is not easy.

So hope you find the solution soon and please post it here.

Regards

Thank you Mark. I checked the connector and wiggled it without success. Last summer the fault was intermittent but now it’s constant. It’s hard to troubleshoot without a wiring diagram and even harder when it’s canbus. Tried to connect my OBD reader but it didn’t connect.