fuel gauge, odometer light, and ABS light dashboard issues
 

1999 silverado 4.3L 5spd manual ext cab 115k

ABS and PARKING BRAKE LIGHTS started acting up many years ago. The dashboard warning lights for ABS and Parking Brake will lite up simultaneously, at seemingly random times. This only happens after the engine has been running for a while, never at first-start. Generally speaking, they will stay on, but will not be lit when I I take my next trip. Also, if I'm rolling down the highway and they lite up, I can turn the ignition switch back one click, wait a few seconds, then start the engine and they usually will stay off for a long time (hours).

FUEL GAUGE Several months ago my fuel gauge started acting up. At seemingly random times, the needle drops to zero and the Low Fuel warning light will come on. These occurrences have been short lived -- seconds or a minute -- and the needle activates again and registers the correct fuel level.

ODOMETER DISPLAY Also with in the past 6 months, the LED lights of the odometer/trip-meter don't lite up. This has gotten worse, and now they are usually off when I start the engine and never come on. The odometer seems to still work because when the odometer does lite up, the mileage seems to have updated. A few times, I have gotten the lights to come back on by pressing the switch odometer-trip button.

Any suggestions on where to start troubleshooting?

found this:

http://www.2carpros.com/forum/1999-c...-vt186164.html

"I had the same problem with my 1999 2 Wheel Drive Silverado, lost the gear selector and odometer display light. I took the Instrument Cluster out of the dash and unplugged the wiring bundle. I used White Lithium Grease, and with my finger, smeared a thin layer of grease, forcing it down in the holes on the end of connector. Then wiped the surface of the connector clean, plugged it back into the cluster, put the cluster back in the dash, turned the key on and the odometer and gear selector lights came up. It's been working for the last 3 day's now with out a hitch. Keeping my fingers crossed. The fuel gauge even works better than before. It’s not erratic now but a little slow to show how much fuel is in the tank."

and found this fix with a photo-guide for removing the instrument cluster ... this guy fixed by re-soldering a bad connection:

http://mrfixit.webnode.com/step-by-step-instruction/

Hey, nice job on the research. So did you try them out?

it turns out that the bezel for the instrument cluster really does pop-off as shown in the photo-guide. so that was encouraging ... i'll get to work on it this week though.

anyone know if white lithium grease is electrically conductive ? or ... what is the idea behind using it ?

Unfortunately you are looking at 3 seperate problems...

The ABS and Parking Brake light is more than likely the ABS sensor. When they both come on together that is 99% of the time what it is. The other 1% is the ABS module under the hood. My ABS sensor has been doing that for over a year now. It doesn't affect braking, and it seems to come on more when the roads are wet.

The fuel guage is the sender that is in the tank. They pretty much all go bad. GM has an upgrade kit to put in when you replace it.

The odometer light could be a bad contact as listed or the cluster itself could be going bad.

White lithium grease is non-conductive and might be used as a high-temperature resistant sealer for connectors. I suppose it would keep water and corrosion off the contacts.

thanks RE 3 sep probs and RE non-conductive

I pressed the odometer button harder ... and the odometer now seems to be "on" nearly all the time. Fuel guage has not malfunctioned lately. So repairing those two dropped in priority and the ABS and Parking Light issue is on top.

I have some vague memory that the ABS-Parking issue might be due to a switch being out of adjustment ... as opposed to a bad sensor or a mal-adjusted sensor ... but do not remember any more than that.

thanks again for your helps

Odometer has been displaying correctly now for several months and several hundred miles ... the winning streak started when I pushed somewhat hard on the trip button.

Fuel Gauge still has same behavior

ABS and Brake indicator lights still have same issue, and damp weather or rain seem to make them come on (inappropriately) more often

I still stand behind my initial statement.