Half my Gauges and Air conditioning fail simultaneously

[jaburto1124]

Hey everyone, new poster here. Obviously i'm probably going to bring my 1992 Toyota Corolla into the shop before i need to get a smog by Nov. 22nd, but it was extremely curious to me that my Fuel Gauge, Engine Temp. Gauge, Fan, Engine light and Battery light all stopped working at the same exact time. I'll be honest, im not a car guy... but i know how to work through simple problems. I checked the fuse box and there doesn't seem to be any blown fuses... i did a little research and was thinking maybe to check the voltage regulator in the alternator? The battery is only about 3 years old... the car recently (about 2 years ago) did have starter problems and we had to install a new one. But i think that's completely not related. I want to ask some people with experience if checking my voltage regulator would be the first step to trying to figure this out. Thanks everyone for your time.

[jaburto1124]

correction, battery light is fine. Its the Oil light that doesn't come on as the key is in the ignition before the car is started.

[90 GP]

Three fuse boxes. Drivers side kick panel,passenger side behind kick panel ( including a resettable circuit breaker with hole in top) and black box under hood. There is also a small black box attached to positive battery cable with three large fuses (held by lugs on the underside). Check all fuses with ohmeter. Try to reset the circuit breaker( passenger side kick panel) with a paper clip. The dash cluster also has a voltage regulator that could have blown. Did you get a jump start with cables reversed when you were having starting issues?

[jaburto1124]

when i was having starter issues? yeah but that was about a year ago. I checked the black box under the hood but had no idea to check the "bigger fuses" I'll check all the areas you told me about today. Thanks for the info. Anymore would be awesome.