SamNardi

Casual User
Ontario Ontario
Aug 24, 2021
23
9
VetteCoins
511
Car
87 Corvette
Province
ON
Hello I recently had my dash cluster rebuilt over the winter but I'm still having issues. Without the car running, the voltage indicator will start to spike and once it hits 18 Volts(car is not running just have key in ignition) it will shut down. At times it looks like it want to power up but only jiberish comes up on screen. They guy that rebuilt it says the cluster is fine and that I may have another issue connecting into the cluster. I re-routed the main grounds as per batte.com but I'm still having issues. Does anyone out there know a good automotive electrical mechanic in the Toronto area I can take it to to figure this out?

Any help would be greatly appreciated.

Thanks
Sam
 
Your dash display power supply is shot. Here's the clue: Your voltage indicator function compares the 12 volts provided by the power supply inside the display, to the battery voltage from the car itself. Normally, it will see 1 or 2 volts above, and assigns a value of 12 + 1 (or 2), and displays 13. However, if the voltage coming out of the power supply is low, say, 7, then it sees 5 volts above the power supply voltage that it thinks is 12, but is really 7. It then displays 12 + 5 = 17 volts. Between that and the occasional jibberish display, it's a dead giveaway that the power supply is failing. It actually sounds like a capacitor is slowly failing.
All you need to do is order a new power supply and solder it in. Batee.com provides two ways to do this: One way is to buy the parts replacement kit and replace individual pieces on the power supply board. This is cheap, but unless you are an electronics whiz, don't try it. You can buy a full power supply on a board, and it comes with a ribbon cable to solder. This is a bit more expensive, but totally worth the ease of repairing. If you don't think you're up to some soldering, it shouldn't be too tough to find a neighbourhood kid that likes electronics, or someone with some soldering experience to do this.
Have fun!
 
Hi just had installed a new power supply from Batee.com. cluster seems to work for a minute or two but then the 4 bulbs that illuminate the panel will flicker on and off. While the 4 bulbs are off, all the tell tale gauges will continue to work but hard to see without the backlight. I already re routed the main ground wires to a new clean ground. Was wondering if it could be a bad ground from the ground strap to the battery. Attached is a video of the issue im having.
 
Hi just had installed a new power supply from Batee.com. cluster seems to work for a minute or two but then the 4 bulbs that illuminate the panel will flicker on and off. While the 4 bulbs are off, all the tell tale gauges will continue to work but hard to see without the backlight. I already re routed the main ground wires to a new clean ground. Was wondering if it could be a bad ground from the ground strap to the battery. Attached is a video of the issue im having.
 
I'm thinking you may have to open the display back up again. There are two boards inside that have a multi-conductor pin connector between them. The first pin is the ground for the board which houses the light bulbs. If you look at that ground pin, you'll probably see it is discoloured from high heat. The pin socket gets a bit weak and heats up. I fixed mine by soldering a bypass wire beside the pin on one board, and another beside the socket. At the ends of these wires, I crimped on an insulated spade connector and socket, which enables the boards to be separated next time you need to get into the display. This should fix up the light problem. Good luck!
 
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oh no I was hoping I would not have to open it back up. Bryan Thompson from batee.com who installed the Power Supply checked it and said there was no discoloring on the pins. By chance would you have a diagram of the pins so I can make sure I'm looking at the right one.

Thanks for your help once again
 
I'm thinking you may have to open the display back up again. There are two boards inside that have a multi-conductor pin connector between them. The first pin is the ground for the board which houses the light bulbs. If you look at that ground pin, you'll probably see it is discoloured from high heat. The pin socket gets a bit weak and heats up. I fixed mine by soldering a bypass wire beside the pin on one board, and another beside the socket. At the ends of these wires, I crimped on an insulated spade connector and socket, which enables the boards to be separated next time you need to get into the display. This should fix up the light problem. Good luck!
Ok i follow what you did but have a few questions
1) which pin is the ground to the lights on the bottom board. Is it the first pin closer to the power supply?
2) when you soddered the by pass wire from the pin to the socket, why did you use a connector and how does it enable you to separate the boards? Aren't the other 11 pins still connecting the 2 board together?
I appreciate your feedback
Sam
 
On the wires I soldered to the boards, on the white connector next to the power supply, I put the wires together using a male and female insulated spade connector. This way, when the boards have to be separated, it's easy to just separate the wires. Look at the picture in the attached ad. Above the power supply (circled in red) is the white multi-pin connector. The ground is the pin on the end, but I just can't remember which end. Follow the PCB track from one of them and it goes to each of the light sockets for the ground. On mine, only the ground wire had overheated. The other 11 pins were ok.
 
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Wow thanks for the detailed info. I really appreciate it.

thanks so much for the reply.
Hi Sam Nardi, I am new to the forum. I had entered a search for "C4 instrument cluster blinks out after powering up." and your comment came up. I had a new power supply from Bryan at Batee installed two years ago, and it worked up until a few months ago. Did you resolve your problem? If so how? I have sent Bryan an email just now to see if he can help. Any suggestions are much appreciated.
 
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Hi Sam Nardi, I am new to the forum. I had entered a search for "C4 instrument cluster blinks out after powering up." and your comment came up. I had a new power supply from Bryan at Batee installed two years ago, and it worked up until a few months ago. Did you resolve your problem? If so how? I have sent Bryan an email just now to see if he can help. Any suggestions are much appre
Hello, for me it must of been a bad connection between the pins connecting the 2 boards together. Shortly after I posted this, the instrument cluster has worked perfectly. Are you having the same issues I had where the gauge cluster is working but the light bulbs that illuminates are not lighting up?
 
Hi Sam, I just had the same thing happen to me. I called Bryan Thompson at Batee.com and he said that the light board had a problem and that he would fix it for me. It wasn't something that I could have repaired. Bryan is very responsive and has taken my calls even on a Sunday morning. I should have it back in a few days so I can put everything back together. Good luck!
 
Thanks for the input @petermcermak@aol. Please let us know if this repair works for you.

Welcome to the CC Forum. :thumbs:
Hello again! Thanks for the greeting! Yes, Bryan did repair the light board malfunction. It cost me $200.00 plus return shipping. He is set up for any type of cluster failure. He also spoke with me a few times and via e-mail. Great guy to deal with.
 
Hi Sam, I just had the same thing happen to me. I called Bryan Thompson at Batee.com and he said that the light board had a problem and that he would fix it for me. It wasn't something that I could have repaired. Bryan is very responsive and has taken my calls even on a Sunday morning. I should have it back in a few days so I can put everything back together. Good luck!
Yes I agree. Bryan is a total pro. He replaced the Power supply on my cluster last year at a really reasonable cost.
 
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