So after exchanging a bunch of stuff at Babies R Us for the new little guy (which was supposed to be a girl, hence the exchanging), my wife and I get everything inside and call it a night. The next day, I have trouble finding my keys, which (low and behold) I left in my ignition in the confusion of carrying in all the new baby stuff. Not only were they in there, but they were in the "on" position. Yay for being a dumb@ss, lol. Now, I've needed a new battery for a while, so this totally drained every last ounce of energy it had left. I also noticed that my speedometer fell all the way to the RIGHT, past the 120mph mark and down to the bottom of the dash bezel, as opposed to resting around zero like it should.

What would make it do that? Yeah, like I could even get this beast up to 120mph ...it'* not a big deal, it kind of concerned me at first becasue it wasnt correcting itself, but once I got the car started and up to about 20mph, it kicked back over and has been fine ever since. I'm just wondering if that could mean somthing in there is about to fail...

Now, the very strange and very cool part:

A little history first...my DIC/compass has never worked. Ever. My step father had owned the car since it was brand new before he gave it to me, and he said that the dealership had to disconnect the DIC system becasue it was making the interior lights stay on after he got out of the car, draining the battery every time. I was contemplating pulling the dash to see if I could figure out where they disconnected it; although I've gotten used to the beeps and whatnot when the door is open or I'm low on gas, it'* annoying not being able to see whats showing on the DIC. Plus, the extra "cool" factor just isnt there when half of your instruments don't work, lol.

Well, as I'm cruising down the road (right after the speedometer corrected itself, actually), what lights up? My DIC and Compass, all by themselves! Then, it went out again. So I pull into the gas station thinking "hmmm, maybe they didn't disconnect it very well...the DIC module should be right about...here....according to the stuff I've read..."

*WHAM*

A strategically placed love-tap on the top of my dash, and the DIC and compass came back on, stayed on, and have been on ever since! Talk about lucking out...this is a 1990 SSE with 151k miles, I thought for sure that the module had crapped out by now. I took my car up to the mall parking lot this morning, recalibrated my compass (which was limited in movement between north and northeast for some reason), and other than a few elderly people wondering what the HE*L I was doing driving in a circle six times at 5mph, it'* working flawlessly now. No interior light issues, either. All I need is a new battery, and I'm set. Talk about stupidity turning into a good day!

One thing though - how do I clear all of the service reminders from the DIC? I do all of my own oil changes and tune-ups and whatnot, so I'd like to get all that stuff off of my screen. I'm also showing a tail lamp bulb indicator, but I'm sure thats just becasue the LED bulbs I'm using aren't drawing enough current to register in the computer. I've played with the buttons a little trying to reset it, but I'm almost scared to push them until I know what I'm doing for fear of losing the displays again, lol. I must have banged on a connector JUST right for it to start working again all of a sudden...and so well, too.

Thanks in advance, everyone!

Sounds like you got very lucky on this one. Congrats on the forgetful fix.

as for the tail light, I would suspect it is the lack of current draw. Check this page out for a possible fix got it: http://www.superbrightleds.com/1157.htm

You also have a PM.

Geoffrey