A public service bulletin:
If you have GM vehicle (maybe other manufacturers too) that have stuck or pegged out dash gauges, you don't have to live with it.
A little background:
A few months ago I noticed that the voltmeter on my '03 GMC was acting oddly. The gauge would read high--never low. (I also noticed it would never reset to 0 when truck is turned off). But when I'd check voltage with a meter at the battery, it checked OK. Finally, the meter pegged out and I wrote it off as a defective gauge. The truck's got almost 130k miles, so it's time for stuff to start failing I thought.
Last week my fuel gauge started acting in a similar fashion. A faulty fuel gauge is a little more of an urgent issue in my book. So I figured I'd be a little more diligent in my troubleshooting. Plus now, I had multiple failures with similar failure modes...hmmm. This should make it easier to find the culprit, I figured.
So, I do a little research on troubleshooting/repairing/replacing fuel gauges on GM pickups. As it turns out this is one of those issues that is common on GM pickups and SUV's from, like, 2003-2007 or so. There are outfits out there that offer to completly rebuild your gauges from $50 up to $150, if you take them out and send them to them. No telling how many hundreds of dollars Mr. Goodwrench will charge you for an OEM replacement.
The Repair
The problem is there are small stepper motors attached to the gauge needles that fail. I bought a set of 6 off of Amazon.com for about $25 including shipping
[ame]http://www.amazon.com/Instrument-Dashboard-Silverado-Cavalier-Avalanche/dp/B004PXAUGC/ref=cm_cr_pr_product_top[/ame]
If you can solder, you can fix these yourself in about an hour or less:
[ame]http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=-j_uBRx9j-c&feature=related[/ame]
The biggest trick is releasing the little plastic latches that fix the front bezel to the gauge assembly. But getting the unit out of the truck, making the repairs, and then reassembling them is about as an easy a repair for a nagging problem as I've encountered on a relatively modern vehicle...and cheap.
If you have GM vehicle (maybe other manufacturers too) that have stuck or pegged out dash gauges, you don't have to live with it.
A little background:
A few months ago I noticed that the voltmeter on my '03 GMC was acting oddly. The gauge would read high--never low. (I also noticed it would never reset to 0 when truck is turned off). But when I'd check voltage with a meter at the battery, it checked OK. Finally, the meter pegged out and I wrote it off as a defective gauge. The truck's got almost 130k miles, so it's time for stuff to start failing I thought.
Last week my fuel gauge started acting in a similar fashion. A faulty fuel gauge is a little more of an urgent issue in my book. So I figured I'd be a little more diligent in my troubleshooting. Plus now, I had multiple failures with similar failure modes...hmmm. This should make it easier to find the culprit, I figured.
So, I do a little research on troubleshooting/repairing/replacing fuel gauges on GM pickups. As it turns out this is one of those issues that is common on GM pickups and SUV's from, like, 2003-2007 or so. There are outfits out there that offer to completly rebuild your gauges from $50 up to $150, if you take them out and send them to them. No telling how many hundreds of dollars Mr. Goodwrench will charge you for an OEM replacement.
The Repair
The problem is there are small stepper motors attached to the gauge needles that fail. I bought a set of 6 off of Amazon.com for about $25 including shipping
[ame]http://www.amazon.com/Instrument-Dashboard-Silverado-Cavalier-Avalanche/dp/B004PXAUGC/ref=cm_cr_pr_product_top[/ame]
If you can solder, you can fix these yourself in about an hour or less:
[ame]http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=-j_uBRx9j-c&feature=related[/ame]
The biggest trick is releasing the little plastic latches that fix the front bezel to the gauge assembly. But getting the unit out of the truck, making the repairs, and then reassembling them is about as an easy a repair for a nagging problem as I've encountered on a relatively modern vehicle...and cheap.
