Caddy dash display broken

[GreeCguy]

Greetings and good evening fellow Bitogers:

Here's the situation. Our Churches Senior Pastor's wife drives a 1997 Cadillac Sedan Deville. The dash display does not work, (as in, totally blank). A local shop wants to charge them 1,000 dollars to repair said dash display. Unfortunately, they don't have 1000 bucks.

I'm thinking, if it's not too complicated, perhaps I can repair said broken dash display. However, I ain't never messed around with anything like that before.

Is it complicated?

Could it be something simple like a blown fuse?

Is it merely a matter of swapping out something like a motherboard or computer chip?

Is this something I can pick up at a junkyard for a relatively low price?

Are these units known to go bad and therefore, picking one up at a junkyard would be a bad idea?

Any and all guidance and advice will be most appreciated to help me determine if I want to take the plunge.

 

[supton]

Is it important to fix? I recently got a smartphone, still haven't activated it yet so it's really a tiny tablet. But it has a gps. That could be used for a speed readout. Or a regular gps.

Is a working spedometer/odometer required for inspection?

 

[Chris142]

http://m.ebay.com/itm/230761681386?nav=SEARCH

 

[izualangel]

Helped a friend a few years back with the IP in his Caprice. Sent it off to Specmo, in Flint. I lived in Michigan at the time, so it was pretty close. Ask your local Caddy dealer who they use to rebuild the instrument clusters for them? I'm guessing you're comfortable doing the removal and re-installation.

 

[Trav]

Is this a digital display? What model of Deville is it, base or de elegance ?

 

[michaelluscher]

Originally Posted By: Chris142
http://m.ebay.com/itm/230761681386?nav=SEARCH


If its the right cluster, This.
BBA Remans of everything are very good I'm told. Contact them, they should give you some insight.

 

[GreeCguy]

Originally Posted By: Trav
Is this a digital display? What model of Deville is it, base or de elegance ?


Yes, it is the digital and I'm pretty sure it's the base model Deville.

 

[Smcatub]

I might have a digital instrument cluster for a '96 DeVille (something like what's shown in this video: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=srsU7Xi7EfM ). If you can figure out if it'll work in a '97 and you want it, PM me and I'll start looking/

You have some stuff to rule out first, though (like is the cluster getting power, etc).

 

[Trav]

There are fuses. IIRC one or two are in the back behind the rear seat. I will look it up and post back.

 

[Trav]

This should be in the trunk, it will be on on the panel behind the rear seat.
The fuse is top right marked cluster 20A

 

[artificialist]

Where I live, Southern Speedometer usually charges $100-$250 depending on the type of speedometer. Is this an analog speedometer, or is it all digital? All digital ones cost more to rebuild.