Ok for those of you, like myself who have been looking for a good step by step on dash removal and cluster repair, I made one myself...
Step 1, disconnect negative battery connection.
Step 2, you will need to loosen the radio/HVAC trim removal is not necessary.
Step 2a: remove 2 screws, one each on the driver side and passenger side at the bottom. They are recessed and Torx T15.
Step 2b: Carefully pry the top of the trim out and it should come loose
step 3: remove the right hand screws from the dash near the handle
step 4: (the hidden screw) Remove the screw found behind the right side of the radio trim
step 5: remove the lower dash cover on the drivers side
step 5a: remove the 2 screws one each on the left and right of the OBD2 connection under the steering wheel
Step 5b: carefully pry the top edge out. There are clips and they are pretty strong so you will need to work it out but it will come out. below is mine after prying out.
step 6: you will need to lower the steering wheel more than the adjustment will allow. So the steering column is held by a brace with 2 each 1.2 inch bolts. remove the bolts and the steering wheel will have the play you require.
step 7: carefully pull the dash out from the handle on the right and pry it loose on the left. The left side only has clips. The dash trim will now come off. get it out and put it aside. in order to get it out you will need to push the steering wheel downward and then pull the dash cover out.
step 8: there are 4 screws in each of of the corners of the cluster. remove them. The cluster will now come out...luckily the engineers at GM decided to give you plenty of wire harness length to work with. Turn the cluster face down to expose the hardness and clip. The clip squeezes in and then pull up to disconnect.
These next steps involve replacing the cluster stepper motors. You need to have some experience in desoldering/soldering in order to do this and the correct tools. They are, a good soldering iron with a fine tip and a desoldering pen or braid. The stepper motors were readily available online. I bought a set on amazon for about $18 for 6. i also bought a desoldering pen as i could not find my old one this was $4 on amazon.
Step 9: remove the backing on the cluster by carefully prying the clips open. the back comes off. Remove the front the same way. this picture is the back off and the front clips pried up. The front will now come off. There are 2 clips the go through the "white" part of the assembly..don't forget them.
step 10 remove the dials from the cluster. A fork works perfectly for this.
after removing the dials you will need to disconnect on cable from the board.
after removing the cable you now have access to the back and front of the circuit board. The stepper motors are typically white. as seen in the above picture and will have a small diameter and larger diameter plastic orientation stubs coming through the back. There will be 4 solder joints per motor. locations are marked in this picture.
you can see the 4 solder joints slightly above and below each arrow.
step 11: desolder the joints, remove the motors and replace with new ones. Solder all joints and reassemble the cluster.
finished product here ready to reassemble. old motors out , new ones in
Notes:
Dial calibration: before you put the cluster front cover on, take the cluster out, reonnect the battery and plug it in. turn the key but dont start the car. The dials will reset and then go to their positions which likely will be off..
here was mine when i plugged it in...
I had to remove and take the cover off then put it back in...I put the dials on enough that they would move correctly BUT not all the way down. This makes it easy to adjust them. Pull the dial off and place it in the correct position. speedo at 0, rpms at 0, temp at 0 and fuel. I filled my tank before i did this and set it to full. turn the car off and then back on and see if the dial set correctly. Mine took about 3 iterations of this before the set correctly.
reassembly note. On the right hand side of the steering wheel, when you put bolt the steering wheel brace back into position, please note there is a large cable also connected to the bolt and nut make sure to put it back on the bolt. it will come off as you lower the steering wheel.
Step 1, disconnect negative battery connection.
Step 2, you will need to loosen the radio/HVAC trim removal is not necessary.
Step 2a: remove 2 screws, one each on the driver side and passenger side at the bottom. They are recessed and Torx T15.
Step 2b: Carefully pry the top of the trim out and it should come loose
step 3: remove the right hand screws from the dash near the handle
step 4: (the hidden screw) Remove the screw found behind the right side of the radio trim
step 5: remove the lower dash cover on the drivers side
step 5a: remove the 2 screws one each on the left and right of the OBD2 connection under the steering wheel
Step 5b: carefully pry the top edge out. There are clips and they are pretty strong so you will need to work it out but it will come out. below is mine after prying out.
step 6: you will need to lower the steering wheel more than the adjustment will allow. So the steering column is held by a brace with 2 each 1.2 inch bolts. remove the bolts and the steering wheel will have the play you require.
step 7: carefully pull the dash out from the handle on the right and pry it loose on the left. The left side only has clips. The dash trim will now come off. get it out and put it aside. in order to get it out you will need to push the steering wheel downward and then pull the dash cover out.
step 8: there are 4 screws in each of of the corners of the cluster. remove them. The cluster will now come out...luckily the engineers at GM decided to give you plenty of wire harness length to work with. Turn the cluster face down to expose the hardness and clip. The clip squeezes in and then pull up to disconnect.
These next steps involve replacing the cluster stepper motors. You need to have some experience in desoldering/soldering in order to do this and the correct tools. They are, a good soldering iron with a fine tip and a desoldering pen or braid. The stepper motors were readily available online. I bought a set on amazon for about $18 for 6. i also bought a desoldering pen as i could not find my old one this was $4 on amazon.
Step 9: remove the backing on the cluster by carefully prying the clips open. the back comes off. Remove the front the same way. this picture is the back off and the front clips pried up. The front will now come off. There are 2 clips the go through the "white" part of the assembly..don't forget them.
step 10 remove the dials from the cluster. A fork works perfectly for this.
after removing the dials you will need to disconnect on cable from the board.
after removing the cable you now have access to the back and front of the circuit board. The stepper motors are typically white. as seen in the above picture and will have a small diameter and larger diameter plastic orientation stubs coming through the back. There will be 4 solder joints per motor. locations are marked in this picture.
you can see the 4 solder joints slightly above and below each arrow.
step 11: desolder the joints, remove the motors and replace with new ones. Solder all joints and reassemble the cluster.
finished product here ready to reassemble. old motors out , new ones in
Notes:
Dial calibration: before you put the cluster front cover on, take the cluster out, reonnect the battery and plug it in. turn the key but dont start the car. The dials will reset and then go to their positions which likely will be off..
here was mine when i plugged it in...
I had to remove and take the cover off then put it back in...I put the dials on enough that they would move correctly BUT not all the way down. This makes it easy to adjust them. Pull the dial off and place it in the correct position. speedo at 0, rpms at 0, temp at 0 and fuel. I filled my tank before i did this and set it to full. turn the car off and then back on and see if the dial set correctly. Mine took about 3 iterations of this before the set correctly.
reassembly note. On the right hand side of the steering wheel, when you put bolt the steering wheel brace back into position, please note there is a large cable also connected to the bolt and nut make sure to put it back on the bolt. it will come off as you lower the steering wheel.
