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Whacky guages

Posted: Wed Feb 20, 2019 10:47 pm
by micabarry
I tend to glance at my guages regularly while driving and yesterday while crossing a high bridge in heavy traffic I had a rising panic as I noticed my temp guage was peaked. Then I saw the oil pressure was maxed out and the gas guage, which I knew was @ 3/4 a minute before was laying way beyond full. The only guage not changed was amperage, showing its usual slight charge. My blood pressure returned to normal because I knew this had to be guages malfunctioning. Sure enough, once over the bridge the guages returned to normal. This morning all was normal on the 20 mile commute to where I'm volunteering in Panama City, BUT, on the return home, crossing the same bridge, the guages did the same thing, returning to normal when I reached the other side. This would be a great Car Talk question if they were still on, but thought it also might generate some ideas. So far all I've come up with is that during both days there was heavy fog on the bridge. I'll be interested in seeing what happens tomorrow. Thoughts?
It's a 91 Beige B190 I've had for 4 years and have put 40k on it crisscrossing the country. Now has 70k. Thanks!

Re: Whacky guages

Posted: Thu Feb 21, 2019 9:05 am
by skater
This thread mentions the IVR as a problem that would cause this. It's some sort of voltage regulator. Perhaps the humidity in the fog was enough to trigger something in it.

Re: Whacky guages

Posted: Thu Feb 21, 2019 10:05 am
by micabarry
That's what I'm thinking. It is foggy today so I'll give an update. Will be a head scratcher.

Re: Whacky guages

Posted: Thu Feb 21, 2019 10:04 pm
by micabarry
Yes, I checked the thread you sent and it is called an ICVR which stands for instrument cluster voltage regulator. When it starts to fail the 3 instruments in question get whacky. It included a part number and said they were used on Econoline's through 91. When it stops correcting itself I'll use this info to get it fixed. Thanks!