05 impala problems

[irishfan]

So I own a 2005 Chevey Impala and it is a turd for a car and the last Chevrolet I will probably ever buy. However, I do need it for now and I just had a problem start today that I need to see if anyone can help with.

I was driving home from work when all of my dash gauges went completely haywire including the ABS and battery lights flashing on and off. After doing some reading it seems that GM did a recall on 03 and 04 Impalas with this problem but not 05-06 models. Also, it seems that the common problem is "stepper motors" which I have found on Ebay to replace mine. However, I do not know for sure how tough that is going to be. It looks like you have to pull the gauge cluster out and unsolder the old motors and solder in new motors. Has anyone else done this? If so how tough of a job am I looking at here?

Thanks

 

[darkkevin]

most likely a bad bcm (body control module) or possibly a bad ignition switch. bcm needs to be replaced at a shop that has the ability to re-flash the new module, ignition switch can be done at home if you're so inclined. the bcm's are very common.

i would say try playing with the ignition switch by wiggling the key and such and see if you can't recreate the problem as well, but i'll stick with the bcm being the most likely suspect

 

[Mr. Habib]

The stepper motors drive the actual gauges. Your tach, speedo, ect needles are moved by the stepper motors. Chevy had some problems with some in their trucks, too. I'm certainly no expert on Chevy instrument clusters, but if all of the lights and gauges were going nuts, my first thought would be either the computer or some common electrical connection, like a ground for the entire dash. Without having a schematic in front of me, I can't see how one stepper motor going bad could cause something like that. I know that when they die in the trucks only that one gauge is affected, not the entire cluster.

 

[irishfan]

Hmmm...I did see that another issue they have is in the ignition which has something to do with the security feature causing problems. I will have to check into the BCM issue. What kind of cost would I be looking at there?

 

[ISHOOTHST'S]

Theres a guy on ebay that will rebuild your cluster with new everything if you can take it out and send it to him.

 

[Don]

Why not go to pull a part and get another cluster for under $20?