A longshot, but are there any mechanics on fluther?

Sooooo you did still have gas?

Oh yeah, I’m pretty sure…I had half a tank, my car was parked on a well lit city street, and given that the odometer is also out, I have to imagine they’re related and not just two things going out at the same time.

So it started up and ran fine?

(i think your dash lights went out)

not a mechanic unfortunately but have had to pull apart a few Honda dashes before…

It sounds like you’re getting lights and assuming you started the car up and the odometer was still not working it sounds like something isn’t connected correctly… (I know, you’re glad I’m here to tell you these things, stick with me)

There’s a recall on one of the dimmer switches on your dash, which may not be problem, but it is a free fix and they should be able to tell you what the problem is if you take it in.

Description of the recall about halfway down the page.

If you’d like to tackle it yourself, it sounds like one of the pins for the dash harness probably just jiggled loose either due to the cold or just driving around. Usually it’s not the harness itself that separate (which clips together) but the little individual pins that work their way out the back. I’m not real familiar with Odysseys but the harness will either be behind the instrument cluster, or if you’re lucky under the dash with all those wires… it probably won’t be listed in the user’s manual.

If you buy a haynes or chilton type of book for your vehicle it should tell you exactly where it’s at and even which pin would would be responsible for those particular goodies. It’s cheaper than even a half hour of mechanic time so it may be worth checking before taking it in to anyone you would need to pay.

i think bodyhead is a mechanic, you might PM him if he doesn’t see the question

It isn’t uncommon for fuel gauges to mess up just because they are physical gauges and work using bobbers sitting on top of the gas in the tank and go down, so it wouldn’t surprise me if it somehow got stuck on something (can’t say i’ve heard of that before but I can imagine that it is .. possible in some form or another)

as for the odometer, you say it’s LCD, are you sure you weren’t viewing like the trip miles or something and it got reset? If it really was the engine odometer then you got me on that one i’m clueless.

I think I must not be making myself clear enough, though I thank you all for trying.

It’s not the dash light. The light on the dash is fine and dandy.

Yes, it is an LED Odometer/Trip meter. But I’m not viewing the wrong thing, and nothing is “reset”. It’s not at zero, it’s just not THERE.

The gauge is just a standard gauge, with a standard needle. That needle just doesn’t move upward when the car is turned on. It seems as if neither the gauge nor the odometer is getting power.

So a loose wire, yes, that’s possible. What wire, and where it’s located, I have no mechanical expertise of any kind, I wouldn’t have the first idea of where to look.

My first instinct is that since it is two things that happened both at the same time (i.e. both were functioning when I turned the car off, then both were not functioning when I turned the car on), it’s as if something burned out or came disconnected. This is why I immediately thought “FUSE”, but either there’s a fuse that controls these things and something else that I didn’t realize was also malfunctioning and whatever that other thing is would be what the fuse is listed under in the manual, or there is some sort of component that controls both of these things, or some wire that goes to both of them that either fried or came disconnected.

We did just have an oil change and when we did so, we had them replace a rear brake light, that was just two days ago, but I wouldn’t think there would be any connection…maybe there is though and I don’t know what that connection is.

Anyway, to summarize, just imagine you look down at your dashboard, and your needle is beyond E, and you look at your digital/LED Odometer and it doesn’t say anything, but the entire dashboard is illuminated, so if there were numbers on the display, you would see them. Make more sense?

forget what the manual says for a minute and pull each fuse and look at it. It may be labelled as something you wouldn’t suspect, like instruments or cluster.

That’s what I’m thinking, I was just hoping on a longshot someone might say, “Oh yeah, I’ve seen that problem, pull fuse #13)...

You will have to take it in to someone who can hook a computer up. An auto parts place should be able to help you. I would call one.

jessturtle – thought of that, maybe they would…we used to have a couple that would check your codes no charge, but they stopped doing that, I’ll see if they can help me. Just want to try to avoid the mechanic if it’s something I can do myself.

Getting the codes read only works if there’s a trouble code…if the check engine light isn’t on, there’s likely no code.

Well, my amber light has been on for months. Every time I get it turned off it just comes back on again. ALWAYS says it’s a loose gas cap, so I learned to ignore it, because I ALWAYS tighten my gas cap more than enough. But maybe there’s a second code now?

I am 100% sure that there is a fuse that controls these devices.

If only the fuel gauge was sitting at empty, I would say that there might be a problem with the physical bobber that checks the gas level (as XCNuse mentioned). Sometimes these stick or dry rot or what have you.

Based on the fact that you have two problems that started at the exact same time, I would say that it would have to be a fuse. If it’s not a fuse, it sounds like it could be a short. Sometimes if you replace a fuse with one of a higher tolerance, you will actually burn out the circuit. You didn’t do this did you? In this case the fuse could remain good while the devices burn out.

Some newer cars will have fuse boxes two different places. Sometimes there’s a box under the hood that has your relays (always check them) and just a couple of fuses complimented with a fuse panel somewhere under the steering wheel. Are you checking both places?

There’s an easier way to check your fuses then pulling them all out. Just go get you a test light as shown on this page. (they are real cheap at any auto parts store – a fiver at most) It will catch things that the eyes don’t see. It’s also very satisfying to check fuses in this way and it will make you feel smart.

If you find that all you fuses are good, I’ll second checking out the car codes to see what’s in the error log. That will tell you where you need to go from there. Give us an update and we’ll give you some more advice.

edit: And you are correct in your thinking. There should be a second code now.