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1st gen HUD.


jiggity76
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Was wondering how good the 1st gen HUD's were in the Cutlass.  I think the 88-90 cars used a different one then the 91-94 cars?   Wanted to know the differences between them and the good and the bad.

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The 1988-1990 Cutlass used the GM Electronic Hughe HUD. And the 1991-1994 used just a typical GM AC Delco. As far as I know there is no/little difference in display between the two. As far as reliability no idea. I have had both, and they worked fine. The only difference I can think of is the design of the HUD itself and the dimmer/adjuster switch is different as well.

 

I would say they are both good. If you have a 88-90 you need the early HUD, and 91-94 cars need a 91-94 HUD. 95-97 CS you can add a HUD from a 94-96 GP.

Edited by 94 olds vert
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Can the first gen be repaired easily?  I have a 2nd gen one that may need repaired.  My local GM dealer said they would have to send my 2nd gen one off somewhere to be fixed for about $500-$600 bucks.  They would have to send in the cluster too.   Somewhere in Michigan I think, can't remember.  I wonder if that's where they would send a 1st gen also.  Thanks for the info by the way 94 olds vert!

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2nd gen HUDs are cheap. Buy another one before fixing yours. Most of the time the solder joints just need to be touched up. Open it up, and look at the solder points to see if they are cracked. If nothing appears cracked it should work just fine.

Edited by 94 olds vert
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Ok, thanks so much.  I'm just preparing myself for when I start working on it.  I came across a 90 International with the 1st Gen HUD and was wondering if I should stay away from it because of the possible repair issues.

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FWIW, I've seen way more shitty 2nd gen GP HUDs than 1G ones.

 

88-90 HUDs are adjusted on the unit itself.

91-93 HUDs are remotely adjusted.

94-96 (GP Only) HUDs are electronically adjusted.

97-03 (GP Only) HUDs are effectively identical to the 94-96s in terms of physical dimensions, but include radio data on the display.

 

Why on earth would you stay away from a car because of a stupid unimportant feature like a HUD?

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The 88-90 1st gen HUD had a glass lens with metal grating and a larger circuit board.  The entire unit was quite a bit larger.  The 91-94 HUD has a curved plastic lens, no metal grating, and much smaller circuit board.  The height control was also mounted in a different location (center pod vs unit itself).  The 2nd gen would probably be easier to repair since its a cost-reduced version of the first, with smaller circuit board and fewer components.  I put the 91-94 style HUD into my 89 because I liked its smaller appearance better.

 

Yeah, the HUDs are cheap, no way I'd pay $500-600 to fix it.  Also, I have no idea why they'd need the cluster.  They aren't controlled by the cluster.

The GP vs CS HUDs are also the same except for the top covers, so you could swap the CS top cover onto a GP one if that's all you can find.

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I wasn't going to necessarily stay away from it, actually one of the reasons why I wanted to buy it.  Just wanted to know what I was getting myself into if I had to repair it. 

 

Thanks for the great info guys!  I'm not sure why they would need the cluster and I never pursued it any further with the GM service guy.  Maybe I misunderstood him.  Once I tear into the project, I'll get a better idea of what I need/want to do.  Seems like the HUD in either generation is getting hard to find, so I thought I might have to have it sent off and repaired if worse came to worse.

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I have one of each from a 1st and 2nd gen GP I`m ready to let go, PM me if interested.

In this thread 1st gen means the 88-90, and 2nd gen means 91-94. Lol. I thought it was 97+GP too

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Need the cluster to jack up the labour hours on the job  :dance: $$$. 

 

It could be all that's wrong with it is the spring on the mirror is broken, which is an easy fix.

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On 1988-1991 HUD equipped cars, the speedometer only uses the bar graph, not the numeral readouts. So perhaps they thought it all had to be serviced together.

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I think it's cool but I would rather have the readout. That way if a cop pulls you over for speeding you can say you have THREE speedometers and no way that was possible. hah!

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Oh wait, I remember someone saying that the 3.4 DOHC cars had a different redline tach that the smaller engine cars so maybe I'll just leave it alone.

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Oh wait, I remember someone saying that the 3.4 DOHC cars had a different redline tach that the smaller engine cars so maybe I'll just leave it alone.

 

GnatGoSplat got a readout working fairly simply from what I understand.

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If I remember, I think that my car does show the digital speedometer even with the HUD.  The hood cable is busted and the battery is bad so can't look at it right now.  I've seen a couple of pics that show cars with HUD and the digital speedometer too so not sure.  Once I get the hood open and drop in a battery I'll let ya guys know.

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Redline on the Cutlass UB3 is real simple. It comes from the ALDL so it'll always be correct. The digital readout on a HUD cluster isn't very easy to enable. I had to solder a ton of tiny wires because there are no traces connected to the digits. The electronics are there, but wire traces absent from PCB. Can post pics when I get home.

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The 88-91 ub3 digital read outs were only shown if the car was a non-HUD. HUD equipped ones did not have a digital number readout in the cluster.

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