Digital Dash Freakout
Thread Starter
Burning Brakes
Joined: Sep 2003
Posts: 1,196
Likes: 29
From: Wine Country, CA
Digital Dash Freakout
Fired up my '89 today and the display on the digital dash was kind of flickering & had a horizontal line scrolling from bottom to top.
I had just reconnected the battery ground strap, so I thought maybe I should clean the connection. Shined up the ground strap and the chassis connection point with a scotchbrite pad - no help.
Problem cleared itself after about 5 minutes of driving. Anyone BTDT? Hopefully this is not the beginnings of a digital dash death rattle....
James
I had just reconnected the battery ground strap, so I thought maybe I should clean the connection. Shined up the ground strap and the chassis connection point with a scotchbrite pad - no help.
Problem cleared itself after about 5 minutes of driving. Anyone BTDT? Hopefully this is not the beginnings of a digital dash death rattle....
James
Rennlist Member
Joined: Jul 2008
Posts: 2,288
Likes: 97
From: NW Arkansas
As Rob said low voltage will cause the digital dash to go bonkers. Check your voltage at idle and have the battery load tested. I had a battery starting to go bad (rough road would cause a plate-to-plate short) and the dash would go bat $hit. New battery and all was well again.
Mike
Mike
Rennlist Member
Joined: Feb 2010
Posts: 1,350
Likes: 79
From: Tucson,AZ
Perhaps not specifically covering the above issue, but one thing to remember is that the ground point for the digital cluster AND the sensor grounds (cluster side) are on the steering column mounting area, left of center. I bet this point never gets checked 99% of the time as it is hidden by the instrument pod.
Cheers!
Carl
Cheers!
Carl
Thread Starter
Burning Brakes
Joined: Sep 2003
Posts: 1,196
Likes: 29
From: Wine Country, CA
Checked to voltage at the battery before trying to start the car today. Reading about 12.65 volts.
Fired right up instrument panel working normally (no scrolling lines). Dash voltage gauge showing ~13.5 volts with engine running.
I just did the steering column grounds on the '82 a couple of days ago, so I figured it wouldn't hurt to do them on the '89 as well (my back is already sore), so the grounds and chassis contact are now shinny clean.
Hopefully this was just an anomaly and my new (to me) digital dash is not going south....
Fired right up instrument panel working normally (no scrolling lines). Dash voltage gauge showing ~13.5 volts with engine running.
I just did the steering column grounds on the '82 a couple of days ago, so I figured it wouldn't hurt to do them on the '89 as well (my back is already sore), so the grounds and chassis contact are now shinny clean.
Hopefully this was just an anomaly and my new (to me) digital dash is not going south....
Thread Starter
Burning Brakes
Joined: Sep 2003
Posts: 1,196
Likes: 29
From: Wine Country, CA
Checked to voltage at the battery before trying to start the car today. Reading about 12.65 volts.
Fired right up instrument panel working normally (no scrolling lines). Dash voltage gauge showing ~13.5 volts with engine running.
I just did the steering column grounds on the '82 a couple of days ago, so I figured it wouldn't hurt to do them on the '89 as well (my back is already sore), so the grounds and chassis contact are now shinny clean.
Hopefully this was just an anomaly and my new (to me) digital dash is not going south....
Fired right up instrument panel working normally (no scrolling lines). Dash voltage gauge showing ~13.5 volts with engine running.
I just did the steering column grounds on the '82 a couple of days ago, so I figured it wouldn't hurt to do them on the '89 as well (my back is already sore), so the grounds and chassis contact are now shinny clean.
Hopefully this was just an anomaly and my new (to me) digital dash is not going south....