it is a pontiac dealer and your right, this cluster controls everything on the entire dash. they said they had to reprogram the mileage in and all that carp. probably to prepare me for the labor bill.

I have a spare here I got from a 92 SSE. I would try to re-connect yours first before spending that kind on money on a new one to find out there was nothing wrong with the old one!


acg_ssei
Good article! The only thing I would add is that you can use a 7mm socket too instead of that Torx driver. I've got my time to R&I down to less than 10mins now!

I wouldnt doubt it if it just needed cleaned and reseated. Unfortunately my tranny took did a belly flop pulling into my driveway last night so i had to have it towed to the dealership this morning! (i originally had the appointment today to get the cluster replaced so theres no backing out now). When it rains it pours! Now that $356 is a drop in the bucket compared to what I'm getting myself into now (4T60-E HD Performance transaxle from ASG) If my tranny IS completey roached. Which, when you look at it, really isnt a bad thing at all! ALthough my wife would diasagree. LOL

One thing to check before you take her out of the hands of the garage after the cluster replacement..........make sure your rpm still registers the same at idle. Check it before you take her in. I replaced mine many years ago and my rpm showed about 200 rpm higher after the replacement. I just learned to live with it.

If you were to do it yourself you can get a reman cluster w/ trade for about $110. That is here in Ohio anyway.

I lived with my heat gauge at 280+ for almost 2 years! and the boost just goes crazy when ever it wants. idle RPMs were 900, i'll give 'er an eyeball after thier done, thanks... they got a week to get it right now!

Aaargh...

Well, keep us informed about how it goes, and remember to get the old cluster returned to you. The consensus here is that there'* probably nothing wrong with it that a little reassembly won't cure, and thus you can recoup a small amount of your investment by maybe reselling it on eBay. After all, the people bidding on it will be familiar with it already; they'll know what it'* worth and what it needs.

(I have gauge clusters from a 1950 Pontiac and a 1977 Firebird in storage. The 1950 cluster is a gorgeous chrome thing that I had as a decoration over a fireplace for many years. The Firebird cluster is way too big for that, but one of these days I'm going to mount it on a nice walnut base and run a power supply to the clock and the backlighting so I can use it here in the office... )

I'll give them a call today to make sure they dont throw it out. Its just sitting there til my tranny comes in, so im not sure which day they are going to replace it or if they done it already.

that firebird cluster would be an awesome conversation piece! i cant even picture what a 1950 cluster would look like, im sure very kewl.

Good plan. Make sure that'* written down on the repair order. Unless they're claiming that some sort of core charge applies, it belongs to you.

They may have done it already; I'm sure they have different specialists for some jobs, and the guy qualified to rip out the transmission is hopefully not the same gorilla who will be working on the dashboard.

Funny you should mention the trans: When I was deciding whether to buy my '93 SSEi with 58K on it, the first thing I noticed was that it had a factory-rebuilt trans in it. Finally decided not to worry about that, and it has in fact been problem-free ever since.

It'* a big wide stamped-metal panel maybe three feet wide, with several separate gauge clusters that sit behind the various openings, plus extra fiddly bits like the wiper switch, lighter, etc. Unfortunately I don't have the plastic housing that would hold all the hardware in the right places behind the panel, so will have to improvise that. I plan to add a power supply with enough juice to light up the backlighting in the dark (by pulling out the headlight ****, of course ), and maybe also blink the turn signals and such with a couple of extra switches added in back.

It'* a symmetrical piece, with an arched speedometer in the middle and a large chrome housing extending out the right and left sides, with each housing holding two gauges. The typeface used for the gauges is a kind of retro, Art Deco style, really classy stuff. There'* also an ink stamp on the back with the exact date it was assembled back in 1950. Got the thing out of a box of junk in a flea market for $2 and polished it all up.

-- Andy

OMG!! I called the dealer and is a $1200 core charge? Is that inhuman or what? I've never heard of a core charge that was 1000% more then the actual part. Its only costing 360 for the part AND labor! (and thats mostly labor! I need to talk to DeathRat and see if there is any truth to that core charge. I just wnat proof that i got a new one and they just didnt clean the dust bunnies out and button it back up.

Um, is it possible they thought you were talking about the transmission?

I think you might want to forget about the gauges anyway until you get your transmission sorted out. Does the phrase "rearranging the deckchairs on the Titanic" mean anything to you?

Once you get yourself back on the road, you can take the time and do the gauge thing yourself. We can step you through it, and the worst that could happen is that it doesn't fix the problem, but (1) I think that'* pretty unlikely, and (2) at least then you'll be paying a chunk of change to the dealer later on without agonizing over whether you really needed to or not.