1996 Caprice B4U 146k bought new.
After 200,000 miles of trusty service, my speedometer and odometer display would intermittently black out. There have been lots written about this, however, I didn’t see many pics of the failure mode for the 94/95 model years. The speedo is an easy part to access; takes about ten minutes to remove. There are lots of excellent sites that show the disassemble procedure.
Here was the problem with mine. Severe pitting at the contact points.
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Appears to be a bit of solder transfer from the pads to the pins. All the spring loaded pins looked level and still had good “spring”. I would recommend not prying up on any of these unless they look to be sacked. I left them alone with the solder and all, only cleaning them with a little isopropyl.
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A quick resolder and cleaning.
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Display is like new after this repair. The photos only show one level of contact points. There are actually two rows of contacts, one row at the top and one row at the bottom of the circuit board. Both rows had identical pitting.
Cant complain after 17 years and 200,000 miles. This may be good for another 200,000!
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I'm starting to have a little problem with the dashboard display. Sometimes it gets very dim but then comes back. The other day I couldn't even tell if I had the high beams on, since I couldn't see the indicator. But then I got in the car a little while later and started up and it came up perfectly bright. Most of the time it doesn't seem super bright although I can always read the speedometer at least. Is it a bad ground or just age? Can the cold cause this or aggravate it? Any input would be appreciated
