The digital dash in my 1986 Cimarron is going bad. The displays work when they feel like it. I can drive downtown, or to the next town, and it works fine, but when I start the car again there's no guages. At night I can see a very dim flicker around the odometer and trip meter. Whenever it quits, the trip meter resets.
It acts like a bad inverter or power supply circuit for the vacuum fluorescent display. Anyone know of a place that repairs these dashes?
"What is it about pyromania and civil insurrection?" she wondered. "Can't anyone stage a riot without bringing the matches?" Major Serafina Palacios, Imperial Marines
A buddy of mine had this problem on his reatta, and my aut had the same thing on her riviera. The Buick set-ups were one piece screens that handled everything, but my point is, there is no fixing involved. They both had to replace the whole module.
I fear that may be your situation as well.
I wish you the best of luck.
I found this link from a Google search. Look under the Cadillac section.
http://www.mrwhizard.com/
I've never used this guy and $169 is pricey in my opinion. I would either give this a shot or see if you can scrounge a cluster from a boneyard car.
Good luck with your quest. Always good to see some Cimarron owners on here!
I'm sending it to Mr. Whizard. $189 is what he quoted me. The local GM dealer said if they sent it to wherever they send instrument clusters, it'd be at least $200. Mr. Whizard sent me a prepaid UPS shipping lable and apparently the $189 also includes return shipping.
Out of all the companies I contacted, only one other replied- to say they don't have the parts to repair Cimarron clusters. Which is bollocks since 90% of the thing is standard components that're still commonly available!
I repaired one of these myself in a 1985. Mud dauber wasps built a nest on the back of the connector plug, causing a short circuit and nearly setting the car on fire. I bought another cluster with displays that were nearly burned out and swapped out the whole back PCB. Then I sold the car- the new owner had it almost a week, went out partying with the boys to celebrate his 'new' Caddy and wrecked it.
P.S. I'd add another car to my list but the dropdown doesn't have Hudson.
I've a 1951 Hudson Commodore Hollywood Hardtop Coupe.
"What is it about pyromania and civil insurrection?" she wondered. "Can't anyone stage a riot without bringing the matches?" Major Serafina Palacios, Imperial Marines
Does Mr. Whizard handle all GM digital instruments, including 1st-gen S10 Blazer & 4th-gen Corvette?
Go beyond the "bolt-on".
All you'd have to do is look a the website.
"1989-94 Blazer/Jimmy/S-10/Bravada Digital Unit - Repair Cost only $159 USD includes all shipping!! Now only $149!"
"What is it about pyromania and civil insurrection?" she wondered. "Can't anyone stage a riot without bringing the matches?" Major Serafina Palacios, Imperial Marines
The GM dealer uses an "Authorized" Delco exchange center. Delco / GM shut off many places doing radio and speedometer repairs and directed the GM dealership network that only the authorized centers should be considered for GM repairs. World Radio in New York is one of them, I think there's still one in the Boston area, and I seem to remember United Radio in CA as the place we sent stuff to from the left coast. I have some schematics here for Delco radios, but any parts called out are in GM "internal" part nos which are not available through the dealer network.
I have 2 Sunbird speedometer clusters here for parts. The speedometer driver chips, though once "Standard" parts, are no longer available and I do not know of any direct replacements. Maybe your dash is in the same situation?
I know these answers don't bring a solution, but maybe they'll answer a few other questions which have cropped up along the way
-->Slow
We use Specmo (www.specmo.com) here in Charlotte, NC. They repaired the tach in my Z with digital gauges. They will look at any instrument cluster (analog or digital) and radio or audio/visual unit.
There was an 87 Cimarron in the boneyard here by myhouse I was going to go out this weekend to scavange parts off that and for what I need on other cars I can take a look.
GM Powertrain Engineer
Currently in Charlotte, NC
Worked at Lordstown Assembly in Mid 90s
Hamtramck, Lake Orion, Lansing Grand River
Currently work on older cars but support
any GM make or any car for that matter.
Owned 3 J's over the years among other cars.
Currently 88 Z24 Convert. Mostly stock.
Mild exhaust, chip, CAI, stereo, etc.
Feel free to hit me up on anything!
