When I start the car the Instrument Cluster stops working?

It sounds like this problem occurred right after the alternator change, if so, the alternator is defective because of a bad diode. It will still charge but it also is charging with AC voltage which will cause the cluster to shut down.

This guide can help check for AC voltage when the engine is running to help confirm the issue:

https://www.2carpros.com/articles/how-to-check-a-car-alternator

Please go over this guide and get back to us.

So, I went through the guide and checked the DC voltage which checked good. There was no AC voltage present. I should have mentioned that after the water puddle incident the car was driven about 15 miles home with the alternator putting out 17 volts at driving rpm. During that time the dash would go out and so did the power steering. When the car would slow down and rpm down the dash came back and so did the power steering and windows. That's when I changed the alternator. Just today my son started it about three times and drove it with the dash working. I put a couple extra grounds on with 4 gauge cable last night to see if it had bad grounds. Last night the dash stopped working with engine running but today it worked like I mentioned.

Yes, the high voltage could have overpowered some of the electronics including the dash cluster. We should run a CAN scan to see what comes up, you can get a CAN scanner (Controller Area Network) which will work on most cars from Amazon.


here is a video to show you how:

https://youtu.be/u-4syLc-ifQ


Please go over these guides and get back to us. Here is how to replace the cluster in case a code comes up for it. Check out the images (below). Let us know what happens and please upload pictures or videos of the problem so we can see what's going on.