I bought a '91 Riviera that had been sitting for a couple of years. Very nice clean car with 141K miles showing, part of the time. The digital instrument cluster contains all of the gages, speedo, tach, temp, you name it. Part of the time it works perfectly, and part of the time it blacks out. It has a TEST button that light up the whole thing when you push it. It will sometimes stay in TEST mode for a while after it’s pushed, or it may settle into PERFECT mode, or it may black out. WHen it is blacked out, there is an orange rectangle that says “ELECTRICAL PROBLEM” in the lower left corner. The cruise control works even when the cluster isn’t. It registers miles while it’s moving, although the miles may not show until it’s back in the mood. For those reasons I think the VSS must be OK.
What’s the fix, or is there one short of replacement? I can get a used one, but it has more mileage than my car wants to admit too.
The electrical contacts in the connectors to the dash are probably corroded. I would clean them and see if that helps. The problem with 20 year old digital dashes is that most of them have problems.
Do you suppose popping it out and putting it back would have the effect of cleaning the contacts well enough, or do I need emery paper and some CRC contact cleaner?