Son of a B@&(#, instrument cluster issues 04 mazdaspeed
 

Ok, so a bit more than a month ago I installed revlimiter gauges in my mazdaspeed.mtheure gorgeous, I love them, but I screwed up and cut the incorrect trace during the modifications needed to move some of the lights around. Got that fixed up nicely, and everything was fine for a couple weeks. I parked the car for about a month due to nasty weather, and when I drove it to work the other day, the gauges just didn't work at all.

I have illumination, and my blinkers and cel work, but the needles don't do anything at all. I pulled the cluster back out, checked it for obvious issues, and reinstalled it. No change. I then pulled up some wiring diagrams, and found that the gauges do all share a common ground located under the drivers headlight, so I fiddled around with the easily accessible wiring in the engine bay (wasn't able to get the light out at that time) and still no change, but I DID now have a check engine light! Codes listed below

P0420 (catalytic converter system efficiency below threshold bank 1)
P0462 (fuel tank level sensor circuit low input)
P0500 (vehicle speed sensor)

I cleared the codes, and went back to work. 5 hours later I go to warm the car up before heading home, and my gauges all function normally!?!? No problems on the way home from work, and everything was fine Tuesday night as well. Last night I head to work and they stopped functioning again. Repeated the process that "fixed" things last time with no luck (though I haven't cleared the codes yet)

I'm at a loss, I'm going to pull the bumper and check/clean the common ground this morning to see if that helps out. If not, I don't know where to turn next other than to swap in a known good cluster (anyone in the Baltimore md area want to hook me up with their cluster for a few minutes?)

Other than the gauge face install I have done nothing electrical to the car, though the po did put some aftermarket hid's in that I have yet to remove. Real electrical testing is above my pay grade at this juncture, though I guess I'm going yo have to learn quickly!

I know many of you have much more electrical experience than I do, so im asking for some insight!
Thanks
Ken

Do the later cars not have grounds for the dash harness on either side of the dash bar? Granted the gauge wiring is in the chassis harness, but they're worth a check. On NAs they're on either side of the dash bar, towards the bottom, if that makes any sense.