97 Deville - Center Digital Dash Does Not Display

Greetings - I have a 1997 Sedan Deville with a digital dash. Recently while driving the center portion of the dash went completely dark and has not come back on. The left portion that displays the AVG/EST MPG works as does the right side portion that displays the Climate Control temp and the outside temp. Another sympton is that the turnsignals physically work but the interior right and left indicators do not illuminate when the signals are activated. Also when switching from low to high beam the hight beam (blue) indicator does not come on in the center display, nor does the information bar at the bottom of the display. Probably just a coincidence, but this seemed to occur shortly after turing on the windshield wipers. There has been no mechanical or electrical work done on the car recently. I found a 10Amp fuse located in the trunk that the manual identifies as a link to this display, but it checked ok. Does anyone have any ideas for other areas or items that I can check out?

Thanks for the help.

There could be an internal short in the dash. I'd suggest a service manual to trouble shoot, or a dealer for service. It is also possible, a power wire has come loose behind the dash.

If you have display on part of the cluster, it isn't a connector. It's an internal IPC problem and your instrument cluster will have to be sent out for repairs or an exchange unit may be needed. Good Luck!

Greetings - I have a 1997 Sedan Deville with a digital dash. Recently while driving the center portion of the dash went completely dark and has not come back on. The left portion that displays the AVG/EST MPG works as does the right side portion that displays the Climate Control temp and the outside temp. Another sympton is that the turnsignals physically work but the interior right and left indicators do not illuminate when the signals are activated. Also when switching from low to high beam the hight beam (blue) indicator does not come on in the center display, nor does the information bar at the bottom of the display. Probably just a coincidence, but this seemed to occur shortly after turing on the windshield wipers. There has been no mechanical or electrical work done on the car recently. I found a 10Amp fuse located in the trunk that the manual identifies as a link to this display, but it checked ok. Does anyone have any ideas for other areas or items that I can check out?

Thanks for the help.
It sounds like you have a bad IPC (instrument panel cluster)

If you decide to tackle it yourself, you might want to check with www.modelelectronicsinc.com for an exchange cluster.

I want to thank those that responded to my original cry for help on the 97 Deville Center Digital Dash that Does Not Display. I found a replacement that when I installed and connected the 3-plugs does seem to work, but with one exception. I now get a message that reads on the info display "THEFT DETERRENT - IGNITION DISABLED - WAIT 3 MIN. Each time I retry to start the car after the 3 MIN the same message is displayed. If I replace the display unit with my original that does not display the center portion, the car starts immediately. Is there a sequence using the info center that I can reset this message to allow the car to start?

Thanks in advance for any information that I can use to complete this repair.

FWIW....

http://www.asttraining.com/Files/vats1.pdf#search='gm%20vats'


http://www.drdetailshop.com/gmpellet.htm


http://www.12vp.com/info_resistors.htm

http://www.commandoalarms.com/itm100040.htm

FWIW....

http://www.asttraining.com/Files/vats1.pdf#search='gm%20vats'


http://www.drdetailshop.com/gmpellet.htm


http://www.12vp.com/info_resistors.htm

http://www.commandoalarms.com/itm100040.htm
Thanks for the information. I checked them out and while they do seem to give a person a method of starting a car that has a malfunctioning passkey by inserting a resistor of known comparable value into the circuit. Unless I missed something in the articles I don't believe this will help me as my key does not seem to be the problem. As I mentioned when I replace my original digital cluster (that does not work) the car does not give any Theft Deterrent msgs and it does start immediately. Do you have any other suggestions or have I missed something in these articles that would tie the problem to the substitue digital clusterf?

I just wanted to let everyone know the outcome of the repair to my Cadillac 97 Deville - Center Digital Dash Does Not Display opportunity. It has been about 2-weeks since I began this project which resulted in several replies on this forum that I have read and considered. While many may not consider following that path that I chose to take I will present it here for others with the same or similar problems to consider, since in my case it saved me a considerable amount of repair cost and did achieve solving my original problem. I did discover certain things in the process such as the fact that Cadillac seems to have tied their theft deterrent system to include the dash as well as the well know pass key that disables the ignition system if defective. My repair path which worked for me allowed me to retain the original automobile mileage, which in my case was only 60,700 miles on the odometer as well as not having to resort to the dealership or aftermarket add ons or modification to the system.

I found on e-bay a replacement 97 Deville Speedometer Instrument Cluster for a total cost that included shipping of just over $30.00. It was listed with an accurate and honest description stating a mileage of 149,000 along with the stock # and model number. As I mentioned in an earlier attempt to get assistance from this forum after installing it the display did work, but when I tried to start the car it gave the ignition disabled message. To solve this problem I disassembled my original unit and the replacement. If you do this you will find basically 4 assemblies with the rear case in which they mount. Since I only needed the center Speedometer readout section I used the one from the replacement Cluster and reassembled my original Instrument Cluster. It worked. I realize that my case may be unique, but I doubt it.

I have enjoyed the use of this forum and the advice of previous users that have helped me. Even if this repair had cost 5 times this amount I feel I came out ahead by saving money and learning more about the automobile. Also after reading hundreds or perhaps thousands of fourms I find that many leave the reader hanging - wondering the outcome of a certain problem. Feel free to contact me if you would like further information.

Anyone else try what he did? I have the same problem with my 96 DeVille. I found a 96 in the junk yard and I'm thinking of doing what he did. How much of the dash has to come apart to get to the cluster? I tried to start on the one in the yard and I broke the wood grain dash trim. I don't want to break mine too. Not sure what all has to come out to get to the cluster. Also, once I get at the cluster, does the center spedo cluster just unplug or do I have to do any soldering? I know this is 4 years old, but thought I'd ask. :smile:

The cluster unplugs, I would suggest a factory manual here, or a subscription to alldata.

gcloud, I must give you many many thanks for this thread! I had the exact same thing happen to my 97 Deville and was looking at a huge repair bill (249.00 for one place. 800-900 in another) I went and pulled the cluster out of a junk yard Caddy (1998) and just dropped the unit in and got the same starting disabled, remove key and wait 3 minutes. I did this several times before giving up for a while and calling a GM dealership here in Denver they wanted 95.00 to reprogram the new cluster to my car. Not all the expensive but I read your post and swapped the middle section of the cluster and everything works perfectly! So again gcloud thank you thank you thank you!

Hi,

having the same problem, I bought a cluster from the junkjard.
After replacing the whole instrument cluster, I had the usual anti-theft-problem.

But then I just dissasembled my cluster and the raplacement and only changed the center speedometer readout sektion. It works! I didn need reprogramming oder the "turn ignition on, turn ignigion off every 3 minutes" procedere. Nothing, just turn the key and the caddy runs as usual.

Dissasembling the cluster is not a big deal, just a few (7 or 8 ) torx screws.

Sorry for my bad english, but I live in Germany.

Hi,

having the same problem, I bought a cluster from the junkjard.
After replacing the whole instrument cluster, I had the usual anti-theft-problem.

But then I just dissasembled my cluster and the raplacement and only changed the center speedometer readout sektion. It works! I didn need reprogramming oder the "turn ignition on, turn ignigion off every 3 minutes" procedere. Nothing, just turn the key and the caddy runs as usual.

Dissasembling the cluster is not a big deal, just a few (7 or 8 ) torx screws.

Sorry for my bad english, but I live in Germany. No problem with the English, just as good as some American posters. LOL

No problem with the English, just as good as some American posters. LOL

I think I have a very good dictionary :licka:

I forgot to say that , when changing only the center digital display, even the original milage of my car was displayed.
I'm not shure, because I don't know the milage of the donator car. It would be a funny coincidence, if it had exactly the same milage like my DeVille .

I just had the same problem.all I did was went to the junk yard got a used one,I only paid like 20 bucks.I took the new screen off the one from the junk yard and changed it out with the old one.it work now with no problems .now it only work if it just your screen and u won't have to get the code reset..it took me only about 30 min to pull out the cluster and swap the circuit board..the original miles stay the same cuz you're only changing out the top circuit board.I hope this helps

Hello everybody,
I just bougth a digital cluster on ebay, to replace the old one on my cadillac deville 1997, but it just shows the "service engine soon" sign, nothing else .
What you suggest me to do ?? thanks a lot !!

thanks for the info , i changed the display board from the used one to my original and it worked great. cant thank you enough.the dealer wanted $ 278.00 to reprogram it. really saveed me a lot of time and money.

I have a '95 Deville and the dash display keeps going off. We found a temporary solution by accident... On the left side of the dash display, try pressing down the Display On/Off button and the Reset button at the same time for a few seconds until dash display comes back on. It works for me most of the time when the display goes out, hopefully this works for others too. Also, I read somewhere that unhooking the battery for 10 minutes would reset dash display. That seemed to work for a very short time. Try to reset instead first. Way more convenient than unhooking the battery. Hope it helps!

Thanks to all who posted info.I changed out just the middle of the instrument cluster and it worked.I was 2 minutes away to shipping it off to get repaired for $130 plus $40 to ship it.Thanks a lot yall save me time and money.

I just had another northstar motor put in my 96 caddy it drives good its not over heating but it is smoking really bad coming from the back of the motor where the wires is.Do you think they wired it up wrong and also the motor makes a loud humming noise while driving the smoke is black.Does anybody know what this could be?

Ok so I have a 96 Sedan Deville that the Dash Cluster went out on. One problem I've had is when I was easing it home when the Dash was on I didn't have any problems, but if the I went very far with the Dash off it would drain the battery. Anyone else have this kind of problem?