dbdreams

My friend has a 1995 Corvette and the digital speedometer and gas gauge is dim and hard to see. Any ideas on how to fix and what the cost may be?

WVZR-1

Shine a very bright flashlight/LED maybe into the lens on the DIC and see what happens. Maybe clean the lens?

Do you need the LCD? Maybe but I wouldn't rush to judgment.

Williamlindsey

did he by chance hit the dimmer when he turned the lights off?

8valve

I have this same apparent problem on my 95. In bright sun, you can hardly read the speedo. Shinning a light into the photocell does increase the brilliance of the speedo, so the electronics are working.

The big problem, for which there is no answer, what is normal, as designed. The Factory Shop Manual does not give any kind of benchmark for what is considered proper brilliance.

If I take my 95 out in bright sun, and shine a flashlight into the photo cell, the speedo gets much brighter and becomes easily readable.

My fix, that I have actually done is to take a super bright white LED. Feed it with 12 volts thru a 680 ohm resistor and stuff the LED into the recessed hole where the photocell sits.

This winter during layup, I will permanently mount the LED in the photo cell hole, paint the rear of the LED satin black to match the dash. Run power up inside the console, dash and come out by the dash AC duct and from there to the LED. I can really hide the wires so its not seen.

If the General even gave us a Voltage at the LED illumination under a given condition, we could then determine if the system was working properly. But the lack of any given tests in the FSM leads us to ambiguous determination, if there is or if there is not a problem.

8Valve

dbdreams

Ill try shining a light like suggested but it I can tell the speedo is working but it is really dim, day or night. I checked the dimmer but it was set right. Ill try shining the light tomorrow.

dbdreams

I tried shining the light but nothing happened so I remove the cluster with the photcel and clean it, reinstalled but still no change

Cliff Harris

The usual way to do this is to remove the cluster from the car and then put a glob of solder across the photocell pins to short them together. That will keep the dash back lighting at maximum brightness all the time (even at night, which might not be the best).

GM never expected the dealer technicians to troubleshoot and fix the cluster. It was serviced as an assembly. Take out the old one. Swap in a new (or rebuilt) one. That's why there is no detailed troubleshooting info in the FSM.

8valve

Cliff, thanks for your reply.
My method of illuminating the Photo cell with the LED allows me to turn off the LED at night and not have the LCD Speedo at high brilliance.

I still maintain that with out a benchmark spec on LED Speedo illumination, the decision by a dealer parts changer is ambiguous. A parts changer at Dealership #1 says the cluster is to dim, swaps out the cluster at a huge cost. A Parts changer at Dealer #2 decides, in his opinion, that the LED Speedo is normal and nothing is done. Its possible the General used this as one means of selling very costly clusters ?

8Valve