Silverado has cluster problems

Va Gasman

Member
I have a 04 Silverado that I use to transport my Red tractors so I hope this will qualify on this site. The volt gauge has gone to the 6 o'clock position,(but handmeter says 14.4 volts) and Intermittently the tach loses 1000 rpm in its readout. My son's 04 acted up 3 years ago and his cluster was replaced for free after warranty expired. Has anyone else seen this? Or heard of extended replacement? I see that they stop replacement after 80k miles. I am at96K. And have logged 1500 miles since this reared it's ugly head.
And Happy Thanksgiving to all! randy
 
I see a sight on line that rebuilds and offers 12 yr warranty. and just as you stated the site says they are motor driven. My big issue is how to get the cluster out???????????
 
From what I've seen the cluster comes out pretty easy. There's videos of it online.

The bezel pops off. From there you can get at the screws.
 
I have a 2004 GMC Sierra that had the same problem. The stepper motors used on the gauges in that period tended to fail. I was cheap, so I just replaced the stepper motors. I bought the set to replace the stepper motors on all the gauges for under $30.

You can find good instructions for the entire process on the internet. I had one of the sites bookmarked, but that was on my old computer that expired a couple of months ago.

On my truck, the plastic cover just pops loose. As I remember, you have to tilt the steering wheel as far down as possible and have the gear shift lever as far down as possible to get enough room to wiggle the plastic cover out of the way. Once the cover is out of the way, there are four hex head screws (7mm?) that hold the instrument cluster onto the dash.

You have to disassemble the instrument cluster to get at the printed circuit board where the stepper motors are soldered onto the board.

When you replace the motors, do all the gauges at the same time. When one gauge fails, the others aren't far behind.
 
My wife's 04 Yukon had similar issues, common on that vintage of gm's. Search the internet, there is a way to reset the gauges. Iirc you put it in gear and turned the ignition for 15 or 30 sec, but search the net. It's a temporary fix. There are replacement servos on eBay. $100 for the complete dash iirc.
 
Common problem on the earlier trucks. I think the later ones are better. I know 2 or 3 people that had this problem. Dealer will want to replace whole assembly, but as others said, individual units can be replaced much cheaper. Had one friend that did it himself.
 
(quoted from post at 11:00:09 11/28/13) Common problem on the earlier trucks. I think the later ones are better. I know 2 or 3 people that had this problem. Dealer will want to replace whole assembly, but as others said, individual units can be replaced much cheaper. Had one friend that did it himself.

They were first used in medium trucks starting with the 2003 models. Most of the early ones that I serviced I replaced the instrument cluster 2 or 3 times under warranty. They had a $700 core charge on them. GM evidently didn't want them to get into the secondary market.
 
When something like this comes up, the company should replace or correct the problem at no cost---regardless of mileage. I've driven many IH pickups & travelalls & never had problems such as this. GM & Ford [& others] should be sure all systems are good for at least 300,000 miles.
 
Probably out the front. Is there a face plate across the left side of dash to the center stack? That would pop off, giving access to retainers for cluster. At least that's how it is on our 99 Savana and was on our 94 Silverado and 81 Topkick. Can probably find out for sure via Google.
 
They are junk. If the first dealer turns you down on free or low cost replacement go to another. If all else fails there are people who rebuild them for way less than Chevy's replacement.
 

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