[Diy_efi] NVRAM chip for a 1986 GM odometer?

[Steven P. Donegan]

My gut instinct says pay GM for the refurb - I think any other path will
take longer and cost more in the end...

On Wed, 2007-07-04 at 12:51 -0400, Scot Sealander wrote:
> I am not sure if you are asking a question or just stating your experience.
> 
> > Not so hot reliability for the panel to go *poof*
> > at only 96,480 miles.
> 
> Well, a 21 year old electronics part starting acting funny?  Seems to me to
> be fairly reliable!  I would offer a guess that maybe the solder was
> fractured somewhere.  There is also the possibility that the EEPROM has just
> been written to too many times.
> 
> 
> > Would be nice to find a reasonably priced replacement
> > and a way to set the miles to match the original.
> 
> Sure, but if it was easy to reset the mileage, we would have lots of
> low-mileage used cars around.  I think GM kept this part quiet for a reason.
> Do you know what the NVRAM part is?  There is a good chance that it is a
> house marked EEPROM that could be replaced, if it is still available.
> 
> Scot
> 
> -----Original Message-----
> From: diy_efi-bounces at diy-efi.org [mailto:diy_efi-bounces at diy-efi.org] On
> Behalf Of Gregg Eshelman
> Sent: Wednesday, July 04, 2007 4:49 AM
> To: diy_efi at diy-efi.org
> Subject: [Diy_efi] NVRAM chip for a 1986 GM odometer?
> 
> I was pointed to this list from the V6 J-body list.
> 
> I have a 1986 Cadillac Cimarron with the digital
> instrument panel. It developed a bunch of problems
> suddenly (trip meter quit, displays intermittent,
> english/metric switch stuck on english) so I sent it
> off to the only place I could find that would work
> on this particular panel.
> 
> A bit later the tech there calls and said it's all
> fixed except the odometer. When he first powered it
> up it displayed all zeroes, a common problem. (Just
> before I sent it off, I hooked it up to check the
> miles and it read 96480.) After he did the repairs,
> the odometer read ERROR. He tried the NVRAM chip
> from the Cimarron cluster he has that he's been
> cannibalizing parts from and it too said ERROR.
> 
> Says he can't get those chips, that particular one
> was only used in the Cimarron. Going through a GM
> dealer to have AC Delco refurbish my already
> refurbished panel (and have the NVRAM chip replaced)
> would cost me $300! AC Delco does not sell just the
> chips, repair or exchange of the whole panel only.
> 
> The service manual for this car says the odometer
> will read up to 200000 miles then will display FULL.
> 
> Not so hot reliability for the panel to go *poof*
> at only 96,480 miles.
> 
> The panel is still in transit by UPS back to me, so
> I can't get numbers off the chip yet.
> 
> Would be nice to find a reasonably priced replacement
> and a way to set the miles to match the original.
> I'll be keeping mileage logs until I can get the
> odometer fixed!
> 
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