Were they only made in 87-88 ?

Does anyone have one that DOESN'T have a section or segment blinking or just plain out ? It seems there are tons of threads about problems with these things and nowhere to go to get them fixed and obviously parts would be scarce.

Reason I asked I found a 88 GTA driver I wanted with no leather and no tops which was the way I wanted for a daily driver but it has that darn digital dash. After a few minutes of questioning the guy he fessed up and said one of the odometer segments would change to a solid block sometimes.

The car has only 47k on it but from what I read almost all of the digital dashed have problems. I just don't want a problem child on my hands ? Anyone ?

 

If you don't want a problem child, then you shouldn't get a thirdgen at all!

That being said, those dashes get harder to come by, making them harder to replace, but a bit more desirable, too. You could also look around here at several of the aftermarket digital solutions.

 

Aftermarket digital dash would be my preference if that is what I wanted. I am not a fan of the digital dashes as they are hard to read in any type of daylight and obviously problematic, at least the factory ones. The cool factor doesn't count much to me.

But 50k mile thirdgens are hard to find anymore. Just don't think the dash would be worth the trouble since it is already acting up.

 

If you read the threads about digital dashes, you will notice that the vast majority of them bring up problems with the odometer section. The problem with "black out" of the section resides located on the integrated circuit board that connects to the readout for that section, and is probably the same transistor or series of electronic item failures on that board. Certainly the folks that make electronic repairs don't want to give away the details of the fix - they would rather charge you $139 and keep quiet about the $10 used on parts. Unless you know someone that trace, remove & replace EC components, your only alternative is to replace the entire board with one known to work. Unfortunately there are no new OEM replacement boards availavle, so you have to purchase on the secondary market (such as TGO). Also, rare to find someone willing to just sell the odometer section - typically will only sell the entire digital dask assembly for $200+.

Fortunately for me, have not had a problem with my digital dash, but only has 13K on the car. Bought two additional dashes for spares since they become harder to find and replace with time. Thats my story and I'm sticking to it.

 

My digi dash was having problems where the speedo would blink and the the guage section would rarely come on. This problem is very easy to fix. Take the digi dash out of your dash and you will see that the socket that the light bulbs fit into is loose from the circuit board. just adjust the little metal pieces on either side of the bulb socket so that the push on the circuit board more, causing them to stay in place. This will fix the blinking or just plain no light at all problem.