About my truck:
2004 Chevrolet Silverado 1500 Crew Cab
V8 5.3L
Automatic
My grandpa gave me this truck about 4 years ago and the speedometer wasn’t working then. He bought it new and said it went out at some point after that. He thinks it’s something with the servo that controls the dial arm. It doesn’t read anything, it just stays at zero.
Almost half a year ago my odometer stopped working at 124879. (It’s a digital odometer).
All of the other dials on the dashboard work, at least it seems like they do.
I’ve checked the fuses and to my untrained eye they look fine. After some research I decided to replace the vehicle speed sensor on the transmission, hoping it might fix both. However, nothing happened.
Any idea what could be wrong? Suggestions as to the next cheapest repair would be appreciated.
GM had a big issue with the stepper motors used in instrument clusters during this time period. You can fix it yourself if you are comfortable with a soldering iron, otherwise there are companies that specialize in this repair. Lots of videos on YouTube on how to do the repair.
Yeah, I’ve checked out a few of those videos. I don’t think it’s the stepper motor because when I remove the fuse and put it back in the stepper motors reset and the speedometer needle moves like the others.
The motors don’t normally completely stop working. They will often act erratically displaying incorrect information. My best guess is that the guage sweep sends full power to the motor, which enables it to still work. If you mileage is still tracking correctly, the issue is almost certainly with the cluster.
I would remove the cluster and clan the contacts of all it’s connectors with some alcohol, 91% if you can get it or just spray the connectors with MAF cleaner (very expensive alcohol). A dirty or corroded connector could be blocking the signal.