I was at a red light and when it turned green I shifted from neutral to 1st. Then shifted from 1st to 2nd and noticed that my RPM gauge wasn't moving and was below 1000 mark. I was going about 30 mph and was sure my RPM wasn't moving. I was like "holy crap" and was going to pull over to the right. While I was looking to find a good spot to park my RPM started moving again. I shifted to neutral and reved up to about 5000 RPM just to make sure it's working.

This is the first time it has happened. I have an 05 with about 4500 miles on it. Does anyone know what is the cause of this and should I be concerned? I figure if I take it to the dealer they are going to tell me the regular BS since it most likely won't occur when I take it in for service.

 

Let me guess, this happened on a very sunny day, or during a sunset when the sun was falling straight onto your tach?

This is a known issue with roadsters, many current cars use optics to control the needle in the tachometer, if a very strong light is shone onto the tach it sticks. Next time that happens just put your hand over it to shade it and see if that fixes it.

Use search for more information.

 

^ really? Never knew that.

 

LOL

Me350Z, if this really did happen, then that means the cable is loose from your motor to your cluster. Very odd, very rare.

 

Happened to me a few months back, was just going through the gears after leaving a stop light and the tach needle just stuck at about 2500 rpms for about 20 minutes, then just came down on its own. Very odd, engine never skipped a beat though.

 

Amnbex, that is true. The sun was behind me falling straight on my tach. That is weird. Thanks for the info. I will do a search. Glad to hear it has something to do with the light source than an engine problem.

 

Happened to my coupe once exactly like the original postar. No direct sunlight on the guage obviously. Never happened since though.

 

Happened to me yesterday. Direct sunlight behind me with the top down. Stuck at 3000 after I left a stop sign. I pulled over and put it in neutral. Took off again and it was fine. This is very weird.

 

whoa, i did not know that....good to know

 

I have same experience in my Roadster. Last fall I found a post of the problem and an explanation on this site. Just to verify I drove top down with the late afternoon sun behind me and got the tach to stick. I used my hand to shade the tach and it immediately started working again.

The problem is pretty consistent so the "optics" explanation is true and verifiable.

 

O.k. now I'm having this problem and I have a 03 Base coupe. I thought it was my imagination before as it didn't happen for long. I thought I saw the needle stick and then kinda jump. But the other day I was driving, accelerated somewhat quickly and noticed that my rpms were stuck at 2. Then it kinda caught up and then froze again. I didn't notice any problem with the engine just the tach. I take a turn and keep and eye on the tach and realize it's working again. But this time I knew it wasn't my imagination. The sun was out and my window was down so I guess that sun theory is plausible. But we'll see. I'll keep an eye on it.