Instrument gauges went dead

[Phil Valentine]

Just bought a 2004 Arnage R Mulliner just outside of Washington, DC. I was driving it back to Nashville and everything was fine until...

I stopped for dinner in Knoxville. Got back in the car and it was dark so I cut on the lights. No lights on any of the gauges. In fact, the gauges weren't working at all. That included the speedometer and tach. I pulled over and proceeded to look up the proper fuse. I decided to move the car further under a shelter to get out of the rain. When I started it up, everything was working again.

Later on the Interstate the car simply died. The engine was running, but it wouldn't rev. I coasted to a stop on the side of the road, cut the car off, then started it again. It was fine.

I'm wondering if these two problems are related. I see from the Carfax report that the batteries have been replaced several times, more times than would be normal for a car that age. I assumed the prior owners were letting it sit too long without driving it. Now I don't know.

Any help would be greatly appreciated.

[Gareth Thomas]

I have no specific knowledge of the Arnage, but this sounds like a fairly common car problem. I had something very similar with my '04 Jaguar XJR.
I think you have a grounding problem somewhere, maybe more than one. These can seem to be the same as an old battery, but replacing the battery doesn't solve the problem. The solution is fairly straight forward, but rather labor intensive. You'll need to track down all the grounding points on the car and clean them. Start with the battery terminals, then whatever is in the engine bay, there are probably some near the headlights. It's probably only one ground that isn't doing it's job properly, it may be obvious when you find it.
I had this problem with my Jag last summer. Every time I turned on the windshield wipers the engine cut out. One of the grounds behind the headlights had partly broken, it came off in my hand when I tired to clean it. Once I repaired it (replaced the bolt) everything was back to working properly.
There may be some Arnarge specific problem causing this. If that's the case hopefully someone will be along to help...

[Phil Valentine]

Thanks, Gareth. I'll give my mechanic the info and see if we can track it down.