Digital Dash Gremlins
Thread Starter
Burning Brakes
Joined: Jan 2006
Posts: 859
Likes: 8
Digital Dash Gremlins
I have had my 85 for a little over a month now and I'm starting to seriously wonder what's wrong with my digital dash. I have heard of many people having problems with the dash, but I've never heard of anyone with the problems that I'm having. First of all, sometimes when I hit the gas real hard, the dash will reset and light up completely, like what happens when you first start the car. And the weird thing is, before it happened today, my gas was at 1/4 tank. After the resetting incident, my gas gauge went way back up to reading 1/2 tank. Which is weird, because when I looked at the gauge and saw 1/4 tank, I was shocked because I had more than a 1/2 tank left when I left my house, and this was only about 30 minutes later. The 1/2 tank reading made more sense to me. Also, the dash seems to be very "slow." It seems that it takes a few seconds for the speed reading to change. For example, I'll be at 70 mph, and then hit the gas, and then 2 seconds later It'll read 75, and 2 seconds later it will read 80. Plus, some parts of the digits don't light up, for example 0 looks like 7 because one joint of the number doesn't show up. Plus, the high beam indicator only works some of the time. That's a lot of gremlins!
Melting Slicks
Joined: Dec 2000
Posts: 2,629
Likes: 7
From: Lawrenceville PA
Try this website for digital dash problems http://batee.com/corvette/dcrg/index.shtml
It's a good place to start to diagnose problems for the DIY crowd, but these dash problems are so common it makes you wonder what genius designed it
Lousy design and very prone to these gremlins you describe. 
It's a good place to start to diagnose problems for the DIY crowd, but these dash problems are so common it makes you wonder what genius designed it
Lousy design and very prone to these gremlins you describe.
Melting Slicks
Joined: Sep 2005
Posts: 2,568
Likes: 264
From: Near Charlotte NC
Yep,welcome to the "Atari" dash world of the 85 & C4.
All my guages work,but only light up from time to time.
My lights have been off for 7 weeks and all of a sudden,they are back.
I mostly drive it in the day,so no worries.And of course,when the lights are off,the cruise doesn't work!!
\db
carolina
All my guages work,but only light up from time to time.
My lights have been off for 7 weeks and all of a sudden,they are back.
I mostly drive it in the day,so no worries.And of course,when the lights are off,the cruise doesn't work!!
\db
carolina
Le Mans Master
Joined: Oct 2003
Posts: 6,130
Likes: 2
From: seattle WA
BOTH of you need to buy Gordon Killebrews digital Cluster book-less
than $35. Ground problems are usually the culprits. Also-if you don't have the Factory Service Manuals-get them, I bought mine on ebay for around $100. for both the service and electrical manuals.
than $35. Ground problems are usually the culprits. Also-if you don't have the Factory Service Manuals-get them, I bought mine on ebay for around $100. for both the service and electrical manuals.
Team Owner
Joined: Mar 2001
Posts: 54,124
Likes: 30
From: Cincinnati, Oh USA
Most of your problems are due to an intemittent ground. Check the black wire from pin D1 of one of the connectors on the cluster to the ground near the left hand side of the steering column behind the instrument panel. The ground may be corroded. Further, the two circuit boards need to be removed and all solder joints inspected under magnification and reflowed if they look questionable. Your missing bars in the numerical readout is most likely caused by no connection to the fine pitched, "conductive fingers" that connect to the LCD (liquid crystal display) panes. Also, the fuel gauge and the outside temperature by design, are not allowed to make rapid changes so as not to distract the driver. Go to Batee's site for some helpful suggestions. I have seen Gordon's book on the dash and in my opinion it does not offer very much help in the repair!
Safety Car
Joined: Feb 2005
Posts: 4,721
Likes: 1
From: Beautiful Down Town "SWINDLEHURST" Long Island NY
