Dear Ed and Jeff:
My mid-range 2004 Chevrolet Impala with a 3.6L V6 has the same instrument problems that the Internet indicates is endemic to all of GM these days. My problem started just before the warranty expired, and I did not realize the significance of the symptoms until it was too late.
As of now the speedometer will work for 10 to 20 minutes then drop to a fixed negative speed. A couple of times it got stuck in the 60- to 70-mph range. After stopping for a while it works again — for about 20 minutes. This is an important item and needs to work correctly.
The tachometer works most of the time but occasionally reads double speed initially, but sometimes merely high. Since the tach is a luxury/toy, I don’t really care whether it works or not.
The temp gauge is working, I guess. It almost always comes up to just under the horizontal position. Perhaps that indicates it’s running too cold? I’ve gotten lousy gas mileage, worse than my 1987 Caprice with the 5L V8. The big problem is the gas gauge. It used to jump high but reset correctly when the car was stopped and parked for a while. Then it started staying high but usually it would try to reset before jumping higher. That meant if you turned the ignition on and off quickly enough times you could walk the needle back to zero so it would go up to the correct fuel amount when the car started.
The Internet lists about a dozen causes for all this, some of which may be right, in at least some cases. I am leaning toward buggy software and erroneous hardware design.
Is there some secret warranty or recall that can be used to get them to fix this problem? The dealer wants about a grand to fix this design problem. Is there any cheaper way to fix the instruments and be sure that they will stay fixed? Using the dealer would mean replacing an erroneous design with another unit of the same that could also fail within two to three years.
There are at least three Internet sources that will rebuild this for about $300. I am not sure if their fix would be as good as a new replacement unit. Could my garage handle this?
– William A.
Ed: You are not the only one experiencing these kind of conditions on GM Chevrolet vehicles. I have a Chevy Malibu with the fuel gauge concern. We have it down to the number of miles per full tank and make sure the tank gets refilled before a road service call is necessary. The speedometer is a true safety issue. You’re right, there are many people voicing concerns with instrument panel gauge inaccuracies. I checked our online system for recalls/campaigns, but there are none for this concern.
My first recommendation would have been to call GM customer relations, if they were not in such bad shape as now. There is probably a shop in your area that would look into the cause of this problem. I would not say it would be an easy or inexpensive repair or that it would be permanent. I would check with your usual repair center. There is always an AAA Approved auto repair facilities list on
Jeff: I would call GM’s Customer Service Help Line. They may extend at least a partial warranty to you since this is a common problem. It doesn’t hurt to try. If not, ask your garage if they can recommend someone to repair this.
