GM Trucks instrument clusters from the late 90s and 2000s are notorious for developing annoying issues as they age.
In this video I cover the diagnosis and repair of the “top three” problems that plague these clusters:
-Erratic or stuck gauges (@20:15 solder in new stepper motor)
-Burned out backlight bulbs (@ 20:15 solder in new bulbs)
-Dim or missing PRNDL display (@31:00 solder resistors)
There are many forum posts and other videos on YouTube that deal with the issues above, as well as less common problems that may arise.
My source for replacement stepper motors and backlight bulbs:
http://www.ebay.com/itm/6PCs-GM-GMC-Stepper-Motor-Speedometer-Gauge-Repair-Kit-Cluster-10-Bulbs-X27-168-/252408041506?hash=item3ac4b11022
Enjoy!
Ivan
){kind=link}
You are very rough on the shifter.
What a great video you saved someone hundreds for a rebuilt dash Thanks for your videos keep up the great work
Subscribed. Useful content. Keep up the good work.
Don't see your antistatic mat there Ivan!!! Cheap , easy practice to follow, also ground strap to your wrist!! Good Job tho. Like them thar vijaoes!!
beautiful man…but buy yourself some wire cutters
On an 03-07 Can I pull off the gas gauge needle and reindex to the proper reading? It's never been right after the recall but works properly.
Couple things to add to save some people some head ache:
When plugging the bare board back into the truck, don't let the board touch any of the brackets or fasteners. Those will be grounded and can cause shorts and blow out components.
The microprocessor is static sensitive so follow ESD rules.
And like the others have said, just replace all the back lighting bulbs and stepper motors, other wise you'll be right back in soon chasing problems.
check TACH conn. , after U called a wiggle on it?
We have a fleet of 12 GM trucks 03 -05 and every one has a non working cluster! What a joke GM what kind of crap do you manufacture? Good for Ivan's business
That was assume
Get you some masking tape to put on the cluster face under the needles at their resting point and mark their location with a pen on the tape. Always right on the money when I put them back together.
As a GMC (2007) 2500HD owner thank you, thank you! My PRNDL is ok but the info below it is so dim I can't read it most of the time. Going to try this fix. Thanks Ivan, this is a hugh help. Going to try the soup one of these days as well!
The oil pressure gauge went to about 3/4 once and almost to the max another time. Looks like bad motor. You can see it in the video.
Before I make a video, I scan what is available, to decide whether I can improve on what is already out there. In that sense your video is a great disappointment, since I honestly couldn't do better than this. Excellent work! Some have remarked that they would have replaced everything while they were in there, reminiscent of the pro vs amateur approach. The pro is concerned about the extra price and double labor cost of a callback, not to mention the hit on reputation, so he replaces extra parts as a form of insurance. The amateur doesn't pay for labor and can easily go back, so he can afford to replace only what is needed, leaving money in his wallet for later if needed. He insures himself. Most of us tend to the latter approach, and I really like the method and quality teaching here. By the way, I always thought that LED lights were polarity sensitive. When replacing bulbs, do you need to pay attention to polarity?
It's nice when a handy internet video can lead to a solid fix. I know I rely on these as well.
But after a while you learn that they aren't always helpful and in some cases a multitude of agreement by the Internet Experts is still not the answer. Such was the case with a 2005 Chevy Astro and the infamous ABS problem. "Redo a couple solder joints on the module" was the consensus but it was not the fix. 3 independent shops and 2 dealers later it's still unsolved
Did Eric O. hide some of his chirping crickets under the owners hood of that truck? Dang
Top notch repair Ivan. I wonder how many techs would actually bother with this kind of repair! Seems like a waste to replace the whole unit over a few stepper motors, 2 bulbs and a few bad traces. The other week i fixed a Siemens servo motor on a CNC for a friend of mine. Service engineer wanted to replace it. All it was, was some bad traces on the board for the motor brake.
I just replaced mine in my '03 this past spring, I had no PRNDL forever, and some of the back lighting didn't work, didn't bother me, but suddenly the cluster would just go dead while I was driving. sometimes it would come back with a key cycle sometimes not. at first it only happened a couple times, then It was happening every time I was in the truck. I made the decision to replace it, if It was just a gauge or two I would have did the stepper motors. It was only like $580(Canadian) parts and programing.
You've got 99 problems and your gauge cluster is all of them!
Clean the solder gun iron tip and reduce the change of cold solder joints.
Did you see the speedo jump when you revved it after the fix? Is that stray voltage or more problems looming I wonder?
Ivan do you know if the numbers on the resistors are Ohms or a part number?
NOTORIOUS for draining the battery overnight!!!