My instrument cluster has a digital mileage readout. Remember which needle came off of which gauge so you put them back on the way they were. The plastic sleeve of the gauge needle is pressure fitted on the metal needle of the stepper motor. If you read a comment by Alex in this comment section, he did replace his while his cluster was out, which you would have to remove to do the job. I went online to try to look up what the problem may be, and instead found blogs where 1000's of people are complaining of the same issue, same story on their 05 Cavaliers. If your friend is a competent mechanic, it should be no problem for him.
I found out the way to re-set it is to crank the motor, let it stall but leave the ignition engaged. The current mileage was 61,000 and the failure mileage was 60,650. This part fits vehicles made in the following years 2000, 2001, 2002, 2003, 2004, 2005. With the dash removed, the cluster removal is a breeze. The vehicle was not repaired. I went a little further with the dash removal, took out the def. This definitely should be considered a recall! If you are that concerned about breaking something, I would suggest that you pay to have someone fix your instrument cluster.
A little over 5 years ago, the dealer had to replace the instrument cluster because the speedometer stopped operating. For me the job was moderate while I was considering it, but turned to easy once I got into it. Everything seemed to be working correctly. Grease I'm pretty sure my son's gauges would move occasionally, but they didn't work properly. I replaced sensor no help. It is extremely easy to use and makes the job a snap.
It may help if you read through the entire post again, because I answer your questions in there. The speedo needle goes all the way past the s and rests at my mileage s. The next morning it was down to 0. It was running fine until I swapped the cluster, which was pretty easy and no damage occurred. My temp guage goes past all the s. Best bet would be to look on ebay, or if that fails search yahoo. The only gauge working was the Tachometer.
The vehicle was taken to a local repair shop, who diagnosed that the instrument panel was defective and needed to be replaced. Pop the arm back on and reassemble everything. The following pictures show you the locations of the Stepper Motors on the business side of the board soldered joints. Here is a picture of the Cluster while we were driving around checking it out. They stealthily put a link to their own business way down at the bottom of their comment that I missed.
Do you have any that I could purchase from you or do you know of a good place where I could order them? What you have to have to complete the job is a soldering iron and some way to de-solder the joints. Here is a close up of my son's cluster so you can see the marks I made. Make sure the wire pins go into their respective holes without folding under. In addition to the speedometer, the tachometer and the fuel gauge are also completely inoperable. I got my stepper motors off eBay and apparently same vendor as you used, because the instructions were identical. Is there anything else I should check before taking the dash apart? Check to see what your state laws are for such.
Thank you so much man! Took about 5 min more to get the whole dash out than just loosening it. Just take your time, it isn't hard. Hope the new gm gets its act together fast. Possibly they are all related. This is a picture of what the Stepper Motor looks like.
On several occasions, while driving, the instrument panel failed to operate as intended. I don't care about the mileage or keeping track of the mileage, as I intend to keep the car until it's dead. The symptoms eventually got worse to the point that the speedometer doesn't indicate properly at all. Reviewed various websites and found that this is a well know defect for Chevrolet instrument panels. This time it was in the right spot.
I've done quite a bit of work with electronics so monkeying with a circuit board was nothing new to me however, your very well written and detailed post cleared up any ambiguity I might have had. The Temperature and Fuel gauge were pointing to the six o'clock position and the Speedometer was registering about 45 mph when the car was parked and not running. It will take an experienced mechanic just over two hours to pull the instrument panel and unsolder the stepper motors off then replace them. They need to be sticking out through the holes to solder them in place. Here is a picture of the De-soldering Iron. I've done some research on this, and it appears that many other Cavalier owners have experienced this same exact problem.
At that point, turn the ignition off, wait 5 seconds, then turn on the ignition again and the car starts up. The instrument cluster was replaced. I put the old cluster back in and the same thing occurs. Good Luck with what you decide. Front side showing the shaft that the needle attaches to.