Instrument Cluster lighting up intermittently

[Richard320]

Here's the backstory: The wife and I headed for the hills to go camping Sunday night. I ran over something because the tire warning came on and showed that I had two flats, both rights. We were in the middle of nowhere up on Angeles Crest Highway, so I limped on as far as I dared hoping to find a safe pullout with cell phone reception. No reception, which left us at the mercy pf passing motorists and the ineptitude of AAA which left us sitting there for better than 14 hours despite two calls giving the mile marker. But that's another topic.

The point is that while we were just sitting there, periodically the instrument cluster and the Uconnect screen would come on for a few seconds. The first few times we assumed we had jostled the key. But it would do it with both keys safely tucked in the cupholders. At some point I realized it hadn't done it for a couple hours. I thought about it for the longest time and mentioned to my wife that I thought maybe it was the Bluetooth. We'd checked time and again to see if we had any reception, even a little to text with. My wife was skeptical, but she powered up her phone. And seconds after, things lit up. They did not light up again after we stopped turning the phones on.

I know I have seen threads here where dashboards light up like they are haunted. Makes me wonder if it isn't Bluetooth? Everybody's phone has it, everybody's laptop, some wireless keyboards, some printers, and I wouldn't be surprised if some of these smart appliances don't as well. Imagine if there's a smart freezer in the garage next to your truck. Every twenty minutes or so, things power up. And if the cluster powers up, probably lots more will, which could run a battery down real good if it were parked for a week.

Just an idea I thought I'd share.

 

[asgadf/lkjnadsfg]

That's interesting. I've seen mine do it one time. It was parked out in front of my house, around 30 yards away from the keys, which were sitting motionless in a cabinet. We were looking out the front door watching a big thunderstorm at work with heavy rain pouring down. There was a flash of lightning, and then for seemingly no reason, my 12 inch screen lit up in the truck, and then went off after a few seconds. I watched for a bit after that, but ran out of patience and interest after five minutes. I have no clue how often it does that.