I've been driving my 97 Cl 2.2 for about a year now with no problems. About a month ago my girlfriend said that the ABS light came on, the radio went off and the speedo dropped to zero while she was driving it. I drove it around to see if I could reproduce her problems with no results. Earlier this week the car did it again and I witnessed the problem first hand. It doesn't seem to be related either to speed, engine rpm, turning or bumps.

I've pulled the codes using the blue connector under the passenger dash but the codes I got were: 8short - 2short- 2short- 2short. I'm tempted to take a video of it because it doesn't make any sense to me based on the links from this site to the codes.

The ABS light is generally off. It only flickers on for maybe a second or less, shorting the radio and the speedometer, everything else on the car (clock, rpm, etc) still appears to be working when it shorts.

I checked the fluid and they were on the low side, but not at the line or below (so I filled it up just in case).

My biggest question at this point is what's up with those codes? I can't get the car to short regularly so I can't figure out what's doing it unless I figure out the codes.

Thanks!

Shawn
Long time reader first time poster.

 

Shrug, sounds like a short somewhere... could be an exposed wire that touches something from time to time.

 

I have the EXACT same problem on my '97 CL 2.2 (except I did not notice the speedo dropping to zero). The ABS light comes on with a click, the radio goes out for a second, and the dash lights flicker. It does this intermittently and for no apparent reason. I topped off my ABS fluid reservoir and that did not help (it wasn't that low anyway).

I know this is an old thread. Does anyone have a fix for this?