2000 Frontier gauges failing....anyone know?

lestat964 · Jan 12th, 2005, 08:10 PM

My 2000 Nissian Frontier Crew Cab V6 2WD AUTO, is at the nissan dealership right now. During evening drives 5-7pm or so i hit the freeway for about 20miles, then I get off and go up and road that had a nice size incline. about 30 yards into the incline the gauges go out on the dash. gas gage freezes were its at, evn though im burning gas, speedomiter goes to 0, rpm's go to zero, but the dash is still lit. the last few times when this happens the truck started to serge when i felt like i was going about 15 - 20 mph. Nissian cant get it to do it for them but there not taking it up any hills or trying it at night, there stumped. When it happens is I stop the truck and turn it off for about 5 min, turn it back on, it all works fine, and dosnt happen again for the rest of the drive. Any know what could be wrong? thankyou in advance for any help you can give.

jerryp58 · Jan 13th, 2005, 05:32 AM

I've only had my '04 Frontier for a couple of weeks now and it's got the 4-cyl engine, but I thought I noticed (it's outside in the dark right now or I'd look at it) a ground strap screwed into the hood and attaching somewhere on the firewall. I tried to make a mental note to check out that strap someday because a friend of mine pulled his Jeep up into my driveway (a fair incline), shut the vehicle off, and we proceeded to put a trailer hitch & wiring on. Well, he starts the car up, and everything electrical is screwed up; gauges, lights, all of it. So we shut it down and start looking at the work we've done, we don't see anything wrong, so just for the heck of it, we look under the hood and see a ground strap (same type I noticed in my Frontier -- open braided wire) cutting through his main wiring harness! It had cut through the insulation and was making contact with the wires because of the incline, but my guess is that it would also do it as he went over bumps and such.

Sorry for the long story, but that's the story I thought of when I heard your incline electrical problems. I'd start by looking for a wiring problem in the engine compartment.

Good luck, I hate electrical problems!