# Intermittent digital dash-display lights



## girleegirl (Dec 6, 2004)

The digital display in my '86 300ZX comes on for a few days, then flickers out, then the next week it comes back on. Car runs great otherwise. Nissan garage said it was an alternator and to repair it immediately....the car will drop dead in a manner of days!.....Oh yea! this problem has been goin' on for at least a year now....I think it is a loose or corroded connection/wire. Maybe a bad solder on the chip board. :newbie: Any ideas what it is and where to look under the hood?


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## Rubberspoiler (Sep 14, 2004)

Erh....

Was surfing an came upon this site:
mr whizard 

Since you speak of (as I read it) a digital dash, these here might help.

I know nothing of them, since i live roughly on the other side of the globe. Dont know anything about digital dashboards either, but if the link can help you...... Who cares???!?

Rubberspoiler


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## JAMESZ (Mar 12, 2004)

It is just a connector that has corroded or is loose. It is not the altenator so don't listen to them. Go through the connectors and clean them and then check the fuses.


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## asleepz (Feb 24, 2004)

go to z31.com and they have some info. It's the power box under the dash right above where your right knee would be if you were sitting in the car. about 4x4"


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## Zen31ZR (Mar 24, 2004)

Mine flickers when the temperature is below 40 degrees and on rough sections of road. Same section of road above 60 degrees, no problem. Very interesting.....


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## asleepz (Feb 24, 2004)

My water temp/trip meter goes out unless I hit a bump

then it comes on...

By the way you do have the digital dash right?


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## Zen31ZR (Mar 24, 2004)

SKD_Tech said:


> My water temp/trip meter goes out unless I hit a bump
> 
> then it comes on...
> 
> By the way you do have the digital dash right?


The original poster? Or me. Mine is, yes. It's a love/hate thing.......sometimes I wish it was analog.


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## asleepz (Feb 24, 2004)

Same here and yes I was refering to you Eric.


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## Matt93SE (Sep 17, 2003)

It's bad solder joints on the circuit board. Very common in all Nissan applications where they use the green displays...

The green glowing display is called a Vacuum Fluorescent Display (VFD for short), and they run on a high voltage power supply to create the glow, but use small signal circuits (similar to LCD) to switch each tiny light segment on or off.

What happens is the high voltage power supply circuit on the board gets very hot and over time this heating/cooling every time you turn the display on causes the solder joints to fatigue and stop working- or work intermittently as some of you see.

This also happens on the Bose radios in several places and in the door lock timers on the relay circuit for the locks..

The solution... tear it apart, find this part of the circuit, remove the old solder, clean the joints up, then flow new solder back into the joint.
sound scary to you? then don't touch it. Pay someone else to do it for you.

do you understand circuits and know how to use a solder sucker, solder wick, and a soldering iron? yaay.
open up the unit, find the large power resistors (typically 1-5W depending on the part), then remove and reflow the solder on the joints of that component and all of them within about two inches of it. that will usually solve the problem.

[spam mode]
can't do it? contact me. I've fixed the auto climate units, door lock timers, bose radios, and digital clocks for dozens of Maxima owners over the years. I have good prices as well.
[/spam mode]

(Mods, feel free to edit that part out if you wish, but I'm sure there are a few people who would rather have someone else tinker with their gauge cluster than FUBAR it themselves)


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## asleepz (Feb 24, 2004)

Matt93SE said:


> It's bad solder joints on the circuit board. Very common in all Nissan applications where they use the green displays...
> 
> The green glowing display is called a Vacuum Fluorescent Display (VFD for short), and they run on a high voltage power supply to create the glow, but use small signal circuits (similar to LCD) to switch each tiny light segment on or off.
> 
> ...



Mine is in the power supply somewhere and if I hit it it'll come back on


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## Zen31ZR (Mar 24, 2004)

Matt93SE said:


> It's bad solder joints on the circuit board. Very common in all Nissan applications where they use the green displays...
> 
> The green glowing display is called a Vacuum Fluorescent Display (VFD for short), and they run on a high voltage power supply to create the glow, but use small signal circuits (similar to LCD) to switch each tiny light segment on or off.
> 
> ...


 You're not selling a product, per se, just services, which we will all need at some point. I personally will let it slide, dunno about the other mods who come here.


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## Matt93SE (Sep 17, 2003)

heh.. I sell lots of products too, but I'm still waiting on the okay from scott to post my current group deals... (that end in less than a week. grrrr)


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