I have a 2005 xB, Auto with only 53000 miles. Its an RS2.0

Every so often, the dash light start to flash (only at startup), no gauges work. Sometimes, this goes on for the entire drive (could be an hour or more) and sometimes, it goes back to normal within a few minutes.

Car runs fine during these times. Radio works, all outside lights works.

Any help would be greatly appreciated.

Also, what oil does everyone recommend? I just purchased this car from the original owner

 

I'd have the battery and charging system tested at an auto parts store and if those check out fine then I'd say you're looking at either a short or a grounding issue that's going to require some chasing and troubleshooting.

Oil...a search is going to give you fifteen different answers. Buy a decent name brand, the correct weight, conventional, semi-synthetic or synthetic, regular or high mileage...none of it is going to make a huge difference as long as it's changed every 3,000-5,000 miles.

 

I wonder if someone found a 53000 mile cluster and swapped it on.

 

I know the orig owners of this car. They bought it new and I am almost certain that did not happen.

 

Thank you. Will get that tested and also run an OBD II Scan.

What weight oil? Also, if I go full synthetic, do I change oil less often?

 

I run Toyota filters (Part no. 90915-YZZF1) and four quarts of Mobil 1 Full Synthetic 5W-30 with oil changes every 5,000 miles, give or take. I also send my oil out for analysis with every oil change and it's always come back with excellent results and the suggestion from Blackstone Labs is that I could likely increase my oil change intervals. The thinking is you would change oil more frequently if you used conventional oil but most oils these days are so decent that I think you could likely get 5,000 miles out of just about any oil.

 

Hi all:

just an update. Since I could find nothing wrong with the car, I purchased a used instrument cluster off of eBay.

installed and it is working fine.

I think problem solved.

Hope this helps anyone with the same issue.

ojas

 

Mine has the same problem but after swapping the Dash it continued.. I was told by someone who owned a different brand of car that their did this and that they were told by the dealer that the cold was effecting the ECU and once the ECU was warm it functioned normally....do not know if I believe that or not, but mine only does it when it is below 35 degrees. I have had the car for almost 5 years and it runs amazing.....I just let it warm up on cold days and ignore the blinky flashy of the dash lights (not the dummy lights, just the actual dash illumination) after about a minute or so and 5 "beeps" it is good to go.
Here is a video I made on youtube of what it does..........

 

Mine does this but only when below 40 degrees in the morning. I just let it do it's thing for a minute and by the time I am ready to fasten seat belt just doing that makes it stop. Otherwise, I can drive a mile or so before it'll stop. Yep, temp related is what I am experiencing. It is a driveway car so it'll have to deal with it. I have no corrosion, ground, battery or charging issues so it is none of that.

 

One cold morning in March 2022, I started my 2005 XB (150k miles) only to have the "Maint" light, clock and back-light all flashing in unison. The car was idling very roughly, so I turned it off. When I started it again, everything seemed fine. Took it to the mechanic and ended up with a new fuel pump. They said the flashed did not return after the new pump was installed but they didn't think it was connected. Anyway, all was well until last week. Started the car after the outside temps had dropped into the 40s and the Maint light, clock and cluster back-lights were again flashing. As I backed out to go to the mechanic, the power steering made noise and seemed almost like manual steering. Also, the fuel gauge, MPG and RPM gauges were all flat-lined, but everything else seemed fine.

Literally ten minutes down the road, all the flashing stopped, the gauges started working and the steering was back to normal.

The mechanic had it for two days and though they did get it to replicate after one cold night, the weather warmed up and they were not able to find the cause because it would not do it in warm weather. The battery was replaced this year and is testing fine as well.

They checked all of the hard grounds and reported no problems. They did "hard reset on the computer" (whatever that means; I'm not a mechanic) after they did some on-line research, but said they didn't think it would solve the problem; I just have to leave it with them when the weather is going to be cold for an extended period so they can track it down.

I see that some others on here are having the same, or similar issues during cold weather. Has anyone found a cause or solution for this? I love my Box and don't want to get rid of it, but we're a one-car household and I have to have a reliable vehicle.

I have reported the issue to Toyota and asked if they'd heard of this problem or heard from anyone else and they said they hadn't, but they said they encourage everyone having this weird issue to report it and they might be able to look a little deeper into it.

Thanks in advance for any help or advice!

 

My question to that dealer would be, I've lived in the same climate since buying the car, and it has been through years of freezing temperatures. So why is it SUDDENLY causing problems in cold weather as of 2022?

 

My new neighbor (who is a mechanic) suggested it was the Body Control Module.

Anyone else been told this?

 

I contacted Toyota at the phone number on the bottom of the page linked below (800-331-4331). The first guy I talked to seemed really interested and concerned, the woman I talked to later seemed to blow it off as "that car is so old/discontinued we probably won't do anything about it". So the kind of response depends on the quality of the Toyota employee you get :/

https://www.toyota.com/support/contact-us/

Maybe if they hear from enough of us they'll take it seriously. If you call, have your VIN # handy.

 

Assuming mice are not eating the wires...
As vehicles age, the electrical connectors can corrode or loosen up... I'm talking about the actual pin to socket inside the plug housing.
Sometimes you can simply disconnect and reconnect the plug socket combo to fix it, sometimes a bit of WD40 is enough to help work off a bit of corrosion.
Worst case you have to take the socket wire out of the plug shell and compress the tubular shaped socket a bit to get good contact thru the plug.

As you can tell, this is a pain in the a#$e process, but is probably the only way to fix the problem

 

It's at least somewhere else to focus on. Right now the guess is the BCM and I'm quoted $1k-1500 to replace it.

It just seems odd to me that the temperature would be such a factor if it was something that was worn/wearing out. No sign of mouse (or other) wire damage at this point.

 

Mine also does this, just let it warm up, 5 beeps and all is well...

 

Hello xB Crew. So I have been experiencing the same thing with the cluster gauges not working and the dash lights flickering until now. I just posted a video of what fixed my issue and hopefully this will help you too.

Please check it out here and share the video to help others.


Capacitors that I ordered are in the description of the video.

Cheers and good luck!
Ron

 

[QUOTE=timemech;4311913]One cold morning in March 2022, I started my 2005 XB (150k miles) only to have the "Maint" light, clock and back-light all flashing in unison. The car was idling very roughly, so I turned it off. When I started it again, everything seemed fine. Took it to the mechanic and ended up with a new fuel pump. They said the flashed did not return after the new pump was installed but they didn't think it was connected. Anyway, all was well until last week. Started the car after the outside temps had dropped into the 40s and the Maint light, clock and cluster back-lights were again flashing.


So, the issue is actually going to be in the gauge cluster circuit board. Let's start by disconnecting the battery. Pop the cover off of the gauge cluster, some have a single retainer screw, most don't have one. Take out the 4 screws holding the cluster in place and pull out gently from the dash. Unplug the harness from the cluster and the harness from the clips holding it to the cluster. Set it on your workbench and remove the screws from the back side and gently pry the retainer clips up enough to pop the backside off. You should now be able to see the circuit board. Gently disconnect the ribbon cable from the circuit board that connects to the speedometer and push it our of the way. You should be able to see some 100 microfarad 16 volt capacitors on the board. Replace these with new ones making sure they are aligned in the same exact manner as the old ones. Once you have replaced all of them, there were either 3 or 4 if I remember correctly, reassemble the cluster. Be very careful when reataching the ribbon cable. It must be correctly aligned. Reinstall the cluster and cover into the dashboard. Hook the battery back up. And start it up. The dash lights and gauges will all be working correctly again and speedometer will tell you your speed again. Best of all, you just saved yourself several hundred dollars. If you are not comfortable working on electronic circuit boards, pull it out and take it to an electronics repair center near you. They shouldn't charge you much. It took me an hour start to finish to complete the repair and it's all working perfectly now. Hope this helps.

 

[QUOTE=Satxhard4u;4339739]Satxhard4u -- Exactly what my video just above your post shows. Glad it helped you and the other xB drivers out there!
Take care!

 

[QUOTE=Robenne;4339741]Robenne, I noticed you didn't appear to disconnect the battery before shooting your video. Has anyone else removed the cluster without disconnecting the battery?

I FINALLY found someone "locally" who will do the capacitors but I have to remove the cluster and take it to him. Provided I don't wet myself just doing the removal, I don't want to damage anything else