Also clean the battery terminals and cable ends with a wire brush to get the corrosion out. You may have had bad connections at the battery.

I figured I'd add this here because it'* along the same line...

I have a 1995 Bonneville SSEI. One morning I started the car and the 'Drivers Information' window lights went nuts. Flashing, fading, coming back on, 'bell' would ring now and again. I went to a local mechanic and he said the battery was bad (it wasn't, but it was 6 years old so I went ahead and replaced it). Alternator checked good. After replacement the gages and such worked fine - for a day. Started the next morning and the same weird thing happened. Checked battery terminals and the cable to the main bus for internal stuff was corroded so I replaced it. Worked fine and then - the same thing. Have cleaned battery terminals (I'm getting ready to go get a set up deep metrics to take the negative off the block to clean it and I already cleaned the wire to the chassis).

Now this gets really weird. Car runs fine. But every time you start it something different with the thing. Sometimes the Driver Info window will be completely blank - sometimes just the numbers (sometimes a couple, sometimes all) in the trip milage will light brightly. Sometimes the mileage numbers will be the only thing lit. Other times nothing is lit. Sometimes the lights flash - not together, necessarily, in the driver info window.

A common factor is that when the display goes all gages and the compass go - Except for the speedometer and the tach - Neither of them seem to be affected.

Drove from Cincy to Dayton yesterday. Nothing in the display. Met friend and went to breakfast - no change (blank display). Drove him back - no change. Stopped car to talk for a minute and when I started it everything worked without a problem all the way to Cincy.

Drove it to a dealer on Friday. None of the gages worked (except the speedo and tach as noted above). They did a 'RAP' test (I have no idea what a Rap test is...) and said the cluster is bad (US$340 + US$110 for installation but they would have to order the part). I said OK fine, but until you get the part I'll drive it. When I started it to drive away all the instruments worked fine including for several trips that day.

This morning I went out and a new one happened. All the lights came on for the 'check mode' but after almost 60 seconds they were all still on. Turned the car off for 1 minute and then started it again. No lights at all.

As an aside, sometimes the 'beeper' will start beeping. Sometimes just once or twice, sometimes many times. One day it just kept beeping for about 10 minutes.

Typically if I turn the car off, as this morning, when I restart it it does a different 'routine'. For example, when it was doing the beeping continuously I turned the car off and it didn't beep when I turned it back on.

I don't have a 1995 manual but have been looking at the GMP/97-H-2 service manual a friend has and I'm lost.

Have any of you gone through anything like this with a cluster?

Any ideas will be appreciated!

Yes, similar issues, but only with the DIC and compass.

http://www.bonnevilleclub.com/techinfo/?article=56

if your buying a new battery, DO NOT buy a Delco!!! They leak acid amd the terminals fall out!! please hear me out, ive replaced more than a handful of GMs that had a delco battery and it wasnt pretty

I bought a Bosch battery.

I just ripped the cluster out and took the circuit boards off the back and checked all the connections including unplugging and re-plugging them in. I put the cluster back in - every thing works - but I left everything else off. I figure I'll drive it today and tomorrow and if it stays working I'll put the trim back on.

One thing I noticed today when I drove it earlier was the Driver Info panel was blank but the rest of the gages worked... Usually when it did it'* 'trip' all the gages except the tach and MPH went dead. Gages were working and then, after a few miles, the Driver Info display came on. I'm hoping it was just an oxidixed connection or something and by 'working them all' by disconnecting and reconnecting several time may have 'cleaned' them. I guess we'll see soon enough.

But I did 'loose' 2 screws - both trying to put in the upper most left of the cluster. I could hear them drop - and took off part of the bottom of the dash - but can't locate them. I'm old with bad eyes and shaky fingers... I have to find those suckers...

BTW - Same here - Compass goes out when the Driver Info display goes out.

Marc Smith Wrote:Marc, RAP is the acronym for Retained Accessory Power. This routine keeps your power windows, radio, etc operable for approximately ten minutes after ignition off, unless a door is opened, then RAP is canceled. I'm not sure what association RAP has to the problems you describe.

Thanks for clarifying what a RAP test is.

The gal at the dealer'* repair shop said only that the tech did the test and that it showed the cluster is bad. I had heartburn with that, actually, which is part why I searched the net and found this and one other forum. Too weird that it would work for a while and then not work.

And at the price they were wanting for the part, I figured heck - I haven't worked on my own car in some years so it was off to the internet. My fear was I would have to pull the whole dash.

I would have been a believer in a broken trace or component lead or such if I could have associated temperature or vibration to it but neither seemed to be a cause. I kept thinking something like an oxidized connector pin (or pins) or some other type of connection issue. It seemed to me is has to be at or in the cluster.

I've let it sit several hours and went out and started the car a few minutes ago and everything still works. I left the trim off and will drive it for a couple of days and if it doesn't happen again (fingers crossed) I'll be a happy camper. If it fails again I've found cheaper places to buy the cluster on the internet - Any recommendations, just in case, will be appreciated.

I did recover 1 of the 2 screws that dropped down into the dash.

As an FYI for anyone suspecting a connection, I took each connector off and put it back on about 6 times (while wiggling as much as I could) to try to 'scrape' the connector pin and squeeze surfaces. There were several circuit card connectors inside the cluster and two main connectors on the back of the cluster. I did note that the cluster was a 'remanufactured' cluster - that'* what the sticker on it said.