Z24 odometer displays "error"

Two things come to mind. First of all, some memory component of the computer may have "gone flat". More likely, the act of zapping jumper cables on the system caused a momentary spike that insulted the computer. It is possible that it is a temporary thing, but my wild ass guess is that something electrical in the computer is fried. Sorry.

It is also possible that one of the rectifier sets of the alternator got taken out by the spike. That happened to me one time. The car will still run, but it isn't right.

That is sort of one reason why they tell you not to jump start cars in certain ways or use chargers in certain ways. It is the spike that gets you.

---Bob Gross---

Solomon,

Does it display "error" or something else. I have similar problem like you. My odometer from the beginning would display "strange" characters then it starts display the right numbers but not all numbers at one time. For example, my car has about 65732, it would display the three odd numbers 6 "blank" 7 "blank" 2 and about couple minutes (it used to be only less than a minutes), it would displays 5 "blank" 3, and keep switching around. I read in some places they fix this problem but you have to send in the dash board (ouch) and it seems the problem with only 2 model years 1998 & 1999 and my car is Cavalier 1999.

You may have to have the dealer read the codes and reset the computer. The miles is kept in the computer as well as in the odometer....

Just fixed it! At ignition turn on, the odo would always read the same mileage regardless how far I'd drive, but that would only last for about 5 seconds before displaying "error" I removed the 10 amp fuse in the CLST position, waited 10 seconds and reseated it, heard a noise from the dashboard, turned on the ignition and the odo read normal. It even remembered the lost miles and is registering correctly. The fuse was not blown, perhaps it was some sort of lockup situation which needed the fuse to be pulled for things to reinitalize.

Solomon.

Where is the fuse exactly.

Thanks

Hai.....The fuse panel cover is located on the extreme left of driver's side of the dashboard. You will see it when the driver's door is open. The fuse I reseated is labeled CLSTR and is located on the bottom row, fourth from the front.

Good Luck........Sol.

It is the instrument cluster. Resetting it caused the mileage to be read from the computer to reset the odometer.