navvet

Hey need a bit of help. The wife is traveling in her 2000 oldsmobile siloette. She has called me saying the speedometer, gas guage and tech have all gone dead. Engine is not racing or running poorly.
Horn, lights, radio, directionals and all other equipment is running fine.
Any ideas what is wrong and should she plan on a breakdown! She is 300 miles from home.
Thanks for any ideas

jaunty75

I had an '02 Silhouette, and we had a situation where we lost our dash lights and headlights after the vehicle had only about 1500 miles on it. They ended up replacing the headlamp switch and something called the "body control module."

My guess is that something similar has happened to your wife's car. This had no effect on the driveability of the vehicle, but, as I said, we lost dash lights and headlights, so the car could not be driven at night. Assuming something like that doesn't go out on her car, she is likely to not have a problem driving it home. Of course, if she loses the headlights, she'll have to drive home in the daytime!

toms vista

I could be the gauges fuse or even an ignition switch . Try to have her turn the key a bit each way with it running (not too far) and see if the gauges come back. Good luck !

NorTown Olds

Hey NavVet that's what I would've suggested too! I DON'T think she'll have a breakdown....just proceed w/ caution and be extra "tuned into" ANY strange engine noises/"bad sounding squeals etc. etc. (do you have AAA?? just in case?? OR maybe there's a helpful soul by luck in the State/city area she's traveling through??? I usually travel w/ my OCA Club Directory for those times I get STUCK in a strange place where I dont know the area nor any mechanics/shops etc.) BEST of luck to her and let us know what happens.

OldsCutlass

Navvet my shop is in South Massachussetts if she happens to be out this way I can check it out. If it is a Ignition switch on its way out it could very well cause a breakdown since all your major power feeds usually run thru it such as a possible pathway to a fuse block which powers your fuel pump or maybe a ignition module.

Higgins

Navvet, did she get back home yet? Find out the problem? My 08 GMC did that one day, I have a long drive-way so when I got to the road I turned off the ignition and restarted the truck and everything has been fine since. All the gauges were dead till I restarted it. That was about 4 months ago.
Higgins

Redog

My Alero did that.

Turns out is was an Alternator, and I was driving straight off the battery. Parked in front of my house, put the car in park, and it died and would NOT restart.

A replacement Alternator was $100.99 (I remember cause it's a weird price) and was easy to do on my 3400, but with a minivan, IDK

navvet

Hey everyone the misses made it home Ok. I took it out for a spin and aside from a darkened dash it was running ok. I disconnected the battery for an hour and reconnected but dash is still dead. I put it on a scanner and it shows no fault codes. There is a fuse that
does have command of the dash and I will have that replaced. While I was looking over the engine I noticed a serpenteen (spelling failure!!) belt that was a hair away from breaking. So it is the shop for some repairs.
A few notes: Thanks to all of your for your quick help and advice much appreciated!
and "OLDSCUTLAS" what part of southern ma are you from? I was born and raised in Waltham but spent every summer in Humarock (part of scituate) Spent 15 years in Plymouth raising my sons.
Again Thanks to all.