Resources on the Digital Instrument Cluster

[Set71101]

I recently went and looked at a 1988 Buick Reatta and came home with some questions about the vehicle.  The Car was in pretty good shape and drove really well. The big issue though is the Instrument cluster as far as i can tell without opening it and looking does not work. The touchscreen worked great though and was perfectly responsive and everything displayed properly. So my question is what could be wrong with the dash and most importantly how much money would it cost to fix. The guy told me 2 years or so ago it worked fine and then when he got a new car and this one sat and now the screen doesn't light up. I was super interested in the car but without being able to see speed/fuel status its not worth it if i cant fix it.

[Ronnie]

Welcome to the ROJ forum!  First thing to do is push the "test" button on the instrument panel. If everything lights up the panel is probably good.

[Set71101]

Thanks for the welcome! When i pressed the test button nothing happened. The lights on the panel under i noticed did flash on when the car turn off, the area where it says service engine soon.

 

[Ronnie]

The idiot lights along the bottom seldom fail at the same time the digital part of the dash does. There are several used Reatta parts vendors that would probably have a good instrument panel at a fair price.  I don't want to put a price on their parts but the panels aren't too expensive if that is what is causing the problem. Not much else to go wrong if the CRT is working as it should. There are also companies that can rebuild the instrument panels.  You can look for them here.