2002 c4s 996 - voltage gauge bouncing

[silver-surfer]

had the car for a month - and everything is fine,e except this morning driving to work, the voltage gauge was bouncing around 14 not steady like it had been...

thoughts please

[Rockster]

silver-surfer said:

had the car for a month - and everything is fine,e except this morning driving to work, the voltage gauge was bouncing around 14 not steady like it had been...

thoughts please

Marginal connection would be my WAG. My 996 Turbo's oil pressure gage needle jumps around a bit, has done this for as long as I can remember, and I suspect a marginal connection of some kind but I have not bothered to track it down. The jumping around comes and goes. Sometimes the needle is rock solid other times it jumps and falls again. Trouble is while the marginal connection could be at say the oil pressure gage sender connector it might be in the dash in the gage cluster. I'm not about to remove that thing and go poking around.

(Might mention that occasionally the coolant temp on my Boxster jumps to the max reading. This spike in temperature is not reflected at the dash gage but caught by engine telemetry collection device attached to the car's OBD2 connector. The root problem I suspect is a brief interruption in the connection in a sharp turn on rough road.)

'course, you can check whatever connectors you want.

Also, is the battery charged up? In good condition? I have seen some "weird" behavior from my Turbo with a weak battery. While the battery has enough oomph to start the engine it is down on charge and the radio can act up and the cabin air circulation fan can rattle. More frequent driving -- every other day around 30 miles to work then back home again -- seems to improve the battery's condition and the odd behavior goes away.

[silver-surfer]

Thanks, funny today that the needle has been rock solid... going to keep an eye on it...no panic just yet

Rockster said:

Marginal connection would be my WAG. My 996 Turbo's oil pressure gage needle jumps around a bit, has done this for as long as I can remember, and I suspect a marginal connection of some kind but I have not bothered to track it down. The jumping around comes and goes. Sometimes the needle is rock solid other times it jumps and falls again. Trouble is while the marginal connection could be at say the oil pressure gage sender connector it might be in the dash in the gage cluster. I'm not about to remove that thing and go poking around.

(Might mention that occasionally the coolant temp on my Boxster jumps to the max reading. This spike in temperature is not reflected at the dash gage but caught by engine telemetry collection device attached to the car's OBD2 connector. The root problem I suspect is a brief interruption in the connection in a sharp turn on rough road.)

'course, you can check whatever connectors you want.

Also, is the battery charged up? In good condition? I have seen some "weird" behavior from my Turbo with a weak battery. While the battery has enough oomph to start the engine it is down on charge and the radio can act up and the cabin air circulation fan can rattle. More frequent driving -- every other day around 30 miles to work then back home again -- seems to improve the battery's condition and the odd behavior goes away.