Digital Dash Not Working!!!!!! HELP!!!!!!!

[cor69692289]

<span style="font-size: 14pt"> </span> <span style="font-weight: bold"> </span> I have a 1988 Reatta coupe, it's white with gray interior. The car is in excellent condition with a few minor touch ups to be done on it. It has 200,000 km on it. The motor runs great needs a harmonic balancer and thats it, But the big problem is the digital dash. See it used to work when it wanted to, it would come on for a week an work perfectly fine, everything would be great all the electronics would work. Then it would just all of a sudden go out an wouldnt come back on killing all the electronics except for the radio. I parked the car for a couple of years cause i didnt kno wut to do or how to fix it. I brought it back out recently in hopes of fixing this problem an getting the car back on the road, but now the dash isnt working at all. I was told my BCM was cooked, but then i was told it could be wiring. Can any one help my out i need some insight on this problem. If this problem seems to be huge and is looking like alot of work I may take the route of parting the car out. Help me out let me know wut you think, in hope to give me a direction.

[DAVES89]

Welcome to the forum. I will help you with what I know, then maybe someone else will chime in with additional knowledge. I think your instrument panel [iPC] is either bad, or more likely has a poor connection. Going from memory, here is what you do.Take the dash trim pieces off, starting with the center one. It will come off by prying gently with a screwdriver starting with top right corner,about 1" in from the edge between the trim panel and your gray dash panel. You will do this 3 more times working around the center trim panel. Once that is off you will see the 2 side panels are held in place with screws on the center side and snap ins on the outer side [similar to what held in the center panel]. Your car may have a rubber trim piece above the steering wheel and below the IPC remove that. Next remove the 4 screws that hold the IPC in place and gently pull the IPC out. You will see that the connection is hard mounted on the back of the dash and that the IPC just slides into that. Spray that with a contact cleaner,allow to air dry and try using dielectric grease. Slide IPC back in and turn ignition to the "on" position to see if it works. If it does you are in business and can continue replacing the afore mentioned parts,if it doesn't you can contact Jim Finn, he's the parts guy for a working usedIPC. Your wiring is probably good as is the BCM.

Also it never hurts to list you hometown and state on your profile as you never know, you might have a fellow Reatta owner close by that might be willing to stop by and help you with questions. Good luck!

[Ronnie]

Hi cor69692289,

Welcome to the forum!

I have a harmonic balancer that is in great condition. I bought a new one because I had a noise at the front of the engine. People here on the forum thought it was the harmonic balancer. It turned out to be the AC clutch making the noise. PM me if you are interested.

[Jim]

I agree it is probably the IPC itself and if cleaning the contacts on the connector doesn't work I do have a good used one available. I can be reached at jfinn@cpinternet.com and please include your zip code for shipping purposes.