C5 odometer not showing

[KevT]

Hi all, The odometer readout in my 99C5 has disappeared.
It was working fine on Monday but on start up Tuesday the screen remained blank.
Any ideas ?

[Vettech]

Umm C5 eh!. If you said c4 i may be able to help.
Is it a mechanical or digital (liquid crystal) read out.

84/87 C4's are mechanical, seperate unit that plugs into cluster.
Plug can come loose, but usually the back is deliberately snapped out to allow the metre to he set to a lower number.
Naturally no vettes for sale in Oz have any more than 40 ~ 60K kms on the clock. Sorry sarcasm.

Is everthing else working, esp speedo?

[KevT]

Hi VP ....  The readout is liquid crystal display.
If I start running through the DIC info the messages only display briefly before the screen goes black again.

[Vettech]

Kev I'm not ofay with C5, but if its liquid crystal, an educated guess is backlighting, you normally can not easily see LQ without a backlight, this most likely supplied from P'supply on main board. On your cluster you may find a little black hole or orifice that is the light sensor. This drives the display cluster lighting up and down depending upon ambient brightness. If so, get torch, turn on car, display lights up, blank sensor, display dims, shine torch in sensor, display should brighten up (max). If not then the dimming circuitry could be faulty, if all the cluster works except the odometre, then its Mr Google.

Sorry I cant be of more help.

[KevT]

Thanks VP .... I'll see what I can find.

[Vettech]

How did U go Kev?  I had a look on Mr Google, not much there, but did see something - question does yours give a read out of fault codes, if so, can you interpret them?. I'm sure the C5 used the better, later OBD11 system.

[gtc]

does yours give a read out of fault codes, if so, can you interpret them?.

He mentioned:

If I start running through the DIC info the messages only display briefly before the screen goes black again.

On CorvetteForum, there are numerous references to problems with the display, such as this one:

https://www.corvetteforum.com/forums/c5-general/3694013-dic-display-not-working.html

... and I note that Kev T has posted the same problem on there.

[KevT]

Problem solved !
I managed to get hold of a handbook, read through the DIC (driver information centre) and there on page 2-93, 2-94
in Section 3 TRIP I found the answer.
Press the TRIP button and scroll through ..... the odometer shows.

Thanks for the suggestions folks.

[Vettech]

Well that's great, and if nothing else I now know what DIC means, I must admit I was thinking of other forms.

[KevT]

That's why I put it in there ....