While trying to get the rear hatch open ( The button makes the BRAKE warning light come on when it is pressed in and doesn't pop the hatch and the entire manual locking mechanism is removed ) I believe a blew a fuse somewhere.

There was some wires ( Along with black plastic square fittings on the end which looked like they supposed to be plugged into one another ) Upon attempting to connect them, it became obvious that they werent intended to be connected. Partially due to the fact that the white wire I had attempted to connect ran out of the back of one fitting and into another.

Upon starting the car, I noticed the speedo was in km/h but was still reading correct speeds and the odometer was completely dead. ( Previously, the numbers weren't showing up correctly, similar to a old microwave as if someone had punched it ) but the buttons still worked fine before this because I could see the bits of numbers re-arranging and attempting to show me what the button corresponded to. ( Including the km/h and mph button which did work just fine ) Also, the BRAKE light doesn't come on when I hit the hatch release button anymore and the Speedo is stuck at 0.

I was wondering if anyone has had a similar problem before and how you fixed it. I'm going to be checking the fuses tomorrow since I had no time tonight, but I know basically nothing about the electronics of a car so any help would be appreciated.

 

Well I checked the fuses and they are all fine. No clue where to go from there.

 

I just went through this mess...some of my buttons on my 87 TA digital dash were not working, my odometer numbers were 1/2 visible. I ended up replacing the digital dash and it now works fine except that I now have more miles on the car than previous since the mileage is stored within the PCB bd in the digital dash. What a pain to change out though. Also check all the bulbs at the back of the digital dash...i noticed that some of mine were burnt out. I am going to replace all my bulbs with LED's....GL on this

 

Thanks for the reply, and yea I started taking apart the dash today and found the bulb behind the odometer screen was burnt out. I think it may be the odometer circuit board itself since the buttons on it are attached to that and they still don't work. But then again I don't know since they worked just fine up until the whole thing went kaput.

I don't know if a cluster/harness is bad or something like that because the diagnostic screen still works just fine along with the tach, oil pressure, eng temp and battery voltage. All still kicking like new.

Any idea where I could get my hands on the odometer ( circuit and screen) and ballpark a price? None of the local shops around here carry that sort of thing and the junkyards have NO Firebirds aside from one completely destroyed 77.

 

you can contact wreckers, CL ....thats what I did. I think my defective digital dash was also the culprit for my car dying after 2 days of not being used. It wouldnt start and I changed all my wiring to 2 guage( battery, etc) It was causing a short to my system. I will let my car sit for 3 days, if it now starts, my problem has been fixed.

 

Any other suggestions before I go on a hunt for new dash parts?