Hi; I've acquired a 1.5 CRDI Getz as my first car; the problem with it is that in cold weathers the instrument cluster doesn't turn on. It shows the ambient temperature and the odometer as if the car was turned off. after a 30 minute drive as it heats up (i guess) it comes back to life. I'm suspicious of the battery; it may be that the voltage drops and as it heats up it works again. if anyone had the same issue or anyone with an idea please share it with me.

 

We could be pretty sure the problem is within the instrument cluster itself.

Don't know for sure if this the the case here, but this is how some of these things go,

Where a connection is soldered on assembly, sometimes the connection doesn't flow and seal completely. This is called a "Cold solder joint".
What it does is , when the temperature goes down beyond a certain point the material contracts and the connection opens up. If the temp goes up beyond that point it expands and closes and the circuit is once again complete, temporarily !
So the cycle repeats itself.
Because this problem can be difficult to find without special equip and training the instrument cluster is many times either sent out for repair or just replaced.

 

Thank you for the reply, although I've think I've fixed it, I just don't know how. I've tried to take off the instrument cluster but I was unable to; it was taken apart before in a bad manner, harness clips were broken and it wouldn't come off, maybe with enough persistence. I've put it back together started the car but no luck, then I opened the bonnet and checked all the fuses, and battery leads and hit the cable leading from the negative lead, then got back in and it was working all fine, today at night, in cold weather I drove it couple of times and it seems to be fixed, it's just frustrating that I don't know how I did it.

 

Like a lot of things that defy explanation, if it was a poor connection at the battery, we would think there would have been a starting problem, but as far as we know there was not.
So in the process of moving the instrument cluster around , you may have unknowingly hit the problem area. This may have for now corrected a poor connection problem.
This could be the end of it as long as you own the vehicle and we don't know if it will return after a while.
For now, you have some idea of what you did and if it comes up again you know where to look.
Some folks just have that magic touch ,,,lol.