The speedo, tac, voltage, oil, and fuel gauges in my '85 Camaro Berlinetta do not work. I checked the fuses and it's not that. So it must be something more serious. Please reply or e-mail me at mechmx@cswebmail.com if you have any suggestions or answers to my problem. Thanks!

[This message has been edited by mech (edited December 17, 2000).]

 

This seems very typical of GM products designed in the late '70's thru early '90's. It is usually caused by a loose connection to the instrument panel. Before you grab your voltmeter and torx tips, this is how I test if it is a loose connection or blown fuses. With the lowbeams on, give a couple of hard thumps(sometimes harder than others) on the dashpad above the instruments. If the lights come on on the instrument panel, you've got a loose connection(nice to know before you start tearing things out). Both of my IROC's have occassional problems with guages(especially over rough pavement). One of these days I'll get around to correcting this(like when none of my vehicles have any more important snags), but for now I'm content to thump the panels into compliance.

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He who hesitates,... is lost!

 

My 84 Berlinetta does that also. It has the digital dash, and is all screwed up. The speedometer dosent work at all, and the dash lights go out when you turn on the headlights, and my turn signal won't work when the headlights are on, and none of the fuel oil or temperature gagues work. the only way I know how fast I am going is to look at the tach, which for some miracle still works.

 

mech- One of the 4 circuit boards in your berlinetta cluster controls the gauges to the left of the cluster. It has probably burned out. The cuircuit boards are tied together by a set of long pin wires that start at (what I call) the controling board. This is the board that the dash plug actually connects to. sometimes these long pins get hot and burn the plastic around the pin - this cuases a poor contact and therefore - porr performance from the cluster. (when you bang on the dash you may move the pins just enough to makes good contact - till the next bump!)

 

84Berlinetta305 - you have a problem in your dash because you have a TACH but no Speedo,& the gauges are out .......... But you definatly have a problem with the cars "light module" as well. It's the little black box that is mounted "piggy-back" on your ECM. You said that "and the dash lights go out when you turn on the headlights, and my turn signal won't work when the headlights are on," a clear indication that the light moudle is toast !

John in RI http://pages.prodigy.net/berlinetta/home.htm

 

I noticed the dates on these threads are quite old, but has anyone had any luck with the non-functioning dash? Mine was working and I swapped out the old gummed up carb for a remanufactured one and I fired up the car and no gauges. I checked the fuse and it was blown. I replaced the fuse and it did not blow but I still have no functioning gauges. I checked all of the fuses in the fuse box and they are all fine. This is an 84 Berlinetta with the digital dash. The background lights on the cluster work but no speedo, tach, volt, oil pressure. The other weird thing is the hatch release on the center console doesn't work anymore either. I'm stumped. I noticed that Auto Zone sells and instrument cluster relay for this car, but where does it go and could that be my problem? Any help would be appreciated. Thank you

 

I know this is quite old but I was wondering if you ever had any luck figuring out what was going on with your digital dash? I recently bought an 84 Berlinetta that sat for 15 years, I got her running and everything seems to work except the dash. No odometer, no spedometer, nothing. If you have any possible solutions please let me know! It’s a bit of a b**** to access the dash and I’d rather not replace it if I don’t have to. I’ve replaced all the fuses and I’m pretty confident it isn’t a lose connection.

thank you

 

I just recently had a similar issue and was looking online for information and through a lot of these threads I ultimately track down what it was not exactly but at least the part that was causing the issue that corrected it. I have an 86 Trans Am and I swap a T5 in and in the process of doing all that I'm not sure if I messed with one of the wires or whatever but after going through each and every section of wire and connector unplugging and plugging back in and trying it , the one I did it to get get everything working again was two 2 wire connectors that come off from the same harness right next to the distributor and they plug into each other not sure what it was for but upon disconnecting that one and starting the car up everything worked again , and to make sure I ended up plugging it back in and tried starting it again and it poped the fuse and took out the gauges and set off Doug father for the key in the ignition. at least for me that's what worked. it's no longer popping the fuse and everything else is working as it should . As I said I'm not sure what that particular wire set is for I converted everything it from TPI to carburetion so I don't know if that was important for anything for the engine but at least that's what work for me if that helps anybody else. I just remembered that I read a few threads on here about others having issues so I figured I would jump back on the share my findings