happened yesterday. everything fine. then the fuel and temperature guages on my 83 240d stopped fuctioning. both needles are resting on the zero stops. with no other thing to do, i checked the fuzes. they are ok. where should i start? thank you.

As both gages get their signals from different sending sensors you might check to see if they share a common ground or power connection. If they do that the connection may have failed, either the wire/s have broken or possibly the fastener has loosend over time, The ground/power connection for your instruments will most likely be inside the dash, behind the cluster, there should be a screw or bolt to the steel dash support frame or something like that. In later models the ground wires are often brown and you should probably see a convergence of brown wires to the attachment point. I'm not sure of the power connection wire color code. Look there for any nearby loose witre and you can check at the gage end also. You can find the gage ground connection and simply jumper that to any grounding point or power connection, if the gage then works that's the problem!

This has undoubtedly been said many times before, by many others, and you probably know better already but, it won'hurt anybody for me to say once more for anyone who reads this post and might not already know:

To avoid possible damage it is always a good precaution to disconnect you battery before probing around under the dash and fooling with any electrical components. once you find something and need power you can always reconnect the battery for further diagnosis.

Just had a failure similar to yours on my E300. Check the fuses again very closely I missed mine the first time Good Luck

__________________
Ricali

03 C240 4matic wagon
95 300E 234,000
7 prior 240;s 5 still going
81 300sd gone
65 230sl gone
49 Studebaker Champion
90BMW convert.167,000
60 Dodge D-100

update. my gauges are now functioning. other than check fuzes i did nothing. my "ignition" switch is difficult to engage. have to play with the key some before the key will turn from off to the first on position. could this switch/tumbler assembly be the cause of my experiencing loss of the two gauges mentioned above? when the gauges are not operating, everything else appears to work a. o. k.

Electrical problems that are intermittent are usually the result of poor grounding or connections/ shorting. The problem that you stated, where there are two unrelated gauges that are causing the trouble, I'm swayed to believe that there is a to-ground short on the circuit board to which the gauges are mounted.

I had a similar problem and found that on the positive-channel to the fuel gauge on the circuit board had become broken, and detached from the board to contact the other metal parts around it. This caused my fuel gauge and temp gauge to not work. Strangely with left turn signals, both gauges would max-out.

Simple fix:
Cut out broken section of stray channel on the board. Drill small holes on each extreme. Solder a new wire in each hole to complete new circuit.

No more problems!

ATLD