as is mine, I just did what the forum post suggested and it worked , possibly moving the steering column moves cabling etc I'm not sure but sure beats spending $$

 

Interesting. I’ll give it a whirl tomorrow.

 

Note that this is a 1st gen sedan sub-forum. Sedans have the entry/exit auto steering wheel adjust feature/(option?). Coupes don't.

But maybe the manual adjusting can have an effect in some cases.

 

I suspect the fault has something to do with the gear position display on the dash as adjusting the wheel moves the whole console up and down most likely moving the wiring around and adjusting loose connections

 

I actually have an intermittent parking brake light. When I set the parking brake, sometimes it will illuminate and sometimes it wont. But if I give my cluster the slightest tap then it will come back on.

I actually have mine apart at the moment while Im still working on it. I can investigate further tomorrow if I have time.

 

Finally getting around to fixing the two remaining issues on my car, the common erratic fuel gauge and the intermittent manumatic mode not working.

Very frustrating that there isn't a 100% known fix for the manumatic. The fuel gauge for example, we know the specific points in the cluster board that need resoldering (after checking the resistance on the fuel sending units). I do not consider getting your instrument cluster replaced as a fix... of course replacing a large component with 1/1000 parts not working will fix that 1/1000 part. That's wasting money IMO.

Is there a known set of points on the cluster board to resolder for the manumatic issue? Otherwise I'll take an afternoon and just re-solder every single point.

 

My plan was to re-solder all the joints as well but when I opened it up I was surprised to see how many micro sized resistors and other chips there are. Theyre just way too small to hit with a soldering iron, even with the super fine tip that I have. I just ended up hitting whatever I could and then went over the whole board with a heat gun. It ran perfectly for about a week but then started givin me the same issues little by little. Now the MM
works maybe 10% of the time, and its only for a short while until it starts missing shifts and gets disabled completely.

 

Have you tried the self-diagnostic for the transmission just to verify that everything it sees is functional? The steps are in the FSM section AT - Automatic Transmission and it's under something like "trouble diagnosis diagnostics without Consult-II". It is one of those "makes the light blink" self-diagnostics.

I wonder if you could do something like take the MM switches and rewire them to another vehicles instrument cluster that uses the RE5R05A with manumatic (not another G), then hide that instrument cluster back in the trunk or something and it would basically be used just for MM shifting. I don't think the 350Z clusters had the same issues with the MM failure, theirs seemed like more of an MM switch problem so that might be a good donor.

Also, have you tried logging your transmission fluid temp data to verify it's not getting MM lockout because of a temp issue? It might have a REALLY tight threshold for transmission temp in MM mode. Keep in mind that the instrument cluster just takes the information and sends it via CANBUS to the TCM, at the end of the day it's the TCM logic that is controlling the shift and actually determining whether or not the system can even go into MM mode. If it falls out of manumatic mode while driving without any user input I can almost guarantee that's a TCM cutoff because there wouldn't even be a signal sent over CANBUS to do anything.

Also, be aware that the CANBUS connection and instrument cluster is still talking when the car is in normal drive mode. It sends a normal drive mode signal AND a manual drive mode signal.

You should be able to trace out some of the circuitry for those pins 26, 27, 30. If it falls out of MM mode without doing any manual shift then focus on tracing out circuit 30. I find it helps to use a colored highlighter on the printed circuit board to help trace out circuits, literally just draw on the thing.

Someone needs to just make a standalone CANBUS converter for these MM switches so it doesn't require the instrument cluster. I think the only other option for controlling the RE5 is a Compushift standalone TCM but that's like $1500.

 

I have swapped clusters just to test this out. I had my old cluster in and when the MM got locked out, I unplugged it and plugged in the new cluster and it worked fine again. I swapped them back and forth multiple times. So the transmission and TCM are fine, its the cluster that is the issue.

So I left the new cluster on the car and it was perfect for about a week. Then it slowly started developing the same issues as the old one. Now its been almost 2 months and its gotten just as bad as my old one. The MM wont even engage 90% of the time.
My theories are:
1: Something inside the gauge cluster is breaking down from the heat over time.
2: Something in the gauge cluster is getting more voltage than its supposed to, causing it to burn up and fail.

 

Or something in the gauge cluster has a bad ground. Have you cleaned up the instrument cluster ground that's sort of between the ignition switch and the cluster? Maybe even just pull a new grounding wire back to the battery for that one.

 

I have done the self diagnostics Eric. Everything checks out. I refuse to spend money on a new cluster that may not actually fix the problem 100% so I guess I'll resolder every little point I can get the fine tip on, and clean up all grounds on the vehicle.

 

I have inspected the bundle of ground wires attached to the frame behind the cluster. They are all clean and pressed on there pretty good. I would say theyre grounded pretty good. I guess I can run a temporary ground wire from there straight to the battery just for testing, since my cluster isnt bolted down at the moment.

I am pretty sure its something inside the gauge cluster. Could be a cracked solder, or a bad chip….I really dont know. I did hit a LOT of the joints with my soldering iron but there are just too many tiny ones that are impossible to get without shorting to the one next to it.

The new cluster I had installed was good for a while until the same symptoms started showing up little by little. It slowly got worse and is now behaving exactly like my old cluster.

 

That's the part that's got me scratching my head, why did it work but then get progressively worse RAPIDLY. That makes me think the root issue lies somewhere in the rest of the car.

Strongly doubt it's in the TCM since the only communication between it and the dash is over CANBUS.

I don't think it would be the MM switches either.

The entire chassis is pretty known for it's grounding issues though, and since SO MUCH STUFF is grounded through that same ground for the instrument cluster I suspect it's something like "something else plugged into the cigarette lighter causing a bunch of interference on the ground" which is in turn causing electronics to misbehave.

Grounding kitting the 3 main ground lugs in the cabin (instrument cluster one right above the ignition key switch, one behind the stereo, one behind the glove box for the ECM) would be a good thing to do next before throwing in another cluster.

 

I've heard of people installing a ground kit for their transmission. Are there other primary points on the chassis to hit other than the three you mentioned?

 

Typically a grounding kit hits the top plenum, the timing chain cover at the main engine bonding jumper (passenger/right side, it's the big wire that goes between the timing chain cover and the chassis below the coolant reservoir), the wire landed on the top middle of the timing chain cover (two wires for 5AT, one is the transmission ground), both the headlight grounds at the front of the wheel well, lastly the one in the battery box right in front of the fusible link.

Some bonding kits go a LOT further than that though, personally I don't see the point to grounding literally every metal component separately, you're just adding a SUPPLEMENTARY ground path so the electronics don't have to rely solely on the chassis (actually once directly bonded the chassis probably becomes the supplementary ground).

Also keep in mind the OEM ground path through the chassis was completely sufficient when the vehicle was new, the issue is 15 years of oxidation/corrosion on all the lugs, mating surfaces, and fasteners. Simply going through and unbolting, wire brush, deox, reassemble is going to get your equipotential bonding system all back to factory spec but an additional grounding kit just adds a layer of insurance for the future.

The factory grounds were notorious for being bonded onto PAINTED SURFACES though, this is a big part of the problem since the ground path is literally using the bolt itself as the ground instead of the bolt just acting as a fastener to clamp together two electrically conductive surfaces. I strongly recommend using a burr bit (I prefer the shape "cylinder with radius", get it with a 1/4" shank and chuck it to a drill, no need to use a dremel but you can if you want) to remove a little paint around all those painted factory grounds, just liberally apply the deox so you don't get rusty spots in the future and don't remove more paint than needed.

Additionally it's not a bad idea to pull one back for the electronics in the trunk. That ground is below the rear seat right next to the left side seatbelt where it bolts to the chassis. That will handle the HICAS controller, stereo amp, RAS, fuel pump, etc. The RAS uses a second ground as well but that's up under the vehicle right above the RAS unit, just clean that one up and use the factory spot.

That gets basically all the critical engine management stuff. It's a pain in the *** to add the one behind the dash for the instrument cluster, stereo, and ECM. You don't need to pull 3 separate wires, just series/daisy chain them together.