A little background - 2001 with 146,000. Had it about 5 years and put approx 30,000 on it. I use a small 12V cooler occasionally that I plug into the power socket on the dash. No issues at all over this time. Purchased a portable CB a few weeks ago that has an external antennae and 12V power supply cord.

Hop on the highway today and decide to try the CB. Plug it into the power socket adjust the squelch and drive on. Being a jeep, I spend about the same amount of time watching the gauges as watching the road.

Approx 10 miles down the road I notice the speedo start swinging from 60 to 0 back to 60 back to 0, etc. Airbag light comes on. Before I can say WTF, everything goes back to normal and airbag light goes off.

I pull the plug on the CB.

About a minute later, the speedo AND the tach start swinging back and forth, airbag light comes on. All other gauges read correct. 30 seconds later, everything goes back to normal, airbag light goes off.

About this time I'm planning on getting off the highway and turning around for home.

Suddenly speedo and tach drop to 0, check engine light comes on and mileage LED changes to read "no bus". All other gauges read correct, vehicle continues down the road. Approx 30 seconds later, everything returns to normal, check engine light goes off, mileage readout returns to normal.

Turn around and drive the aspprox 10 miles back home with no issues.

The only thing I can think of is bad ground somewhere? CB use just a coincidence. Hot condition triggered the problem.

I'm all ears on any other suggestions.

 

A bad loose or dirty connection on the back of the instrument cluster.

 

Thanks, will check that and the grounds. Guess I should have done a little searching before freaking out.

 

This....it is a known issue. You can get a new wiring harness from a dealership for the back of the cluster to remedy it, or some have successfully fixed it themselves.

 

It is a very common issue. 3 of the 4 XJ's that I have owned had this problem. The next time it happen give the dash a firm slap above the instrument cluster. If it's just a loose connection they may start working again. If not you will have to pull the cluster and clean the connection and make sure that they are all tight. Don't forget to clean and tighten the ground that is back there too.