Speedmometer stopped working, help!!

camshaft · December 13, 2011

So a few days ago I noticed my speedo was acting up. It seemed like it was sticking a bit and during accelleration wasnt moving smoothly but appeared to "twitch" as it moved. At one point it was stuck at about 20mph no matter how fast I went.

I shut the truck off and started it up again and it seemed ok. There was a lot of fresh snow so I thought perhaps something was frozen or there may have been a build up of slush ect.

The truck was garaged overnight and everything has melted, but now my speedo needle seems dead and wont move at all. Any suggestions as to diagnosing the problem? The tach and all other guages are working just fine.

Stevens03 · December 13, 2011

Theres a little stepper motors in the cluster that goes bad. It's fairly easy to fix if your good at soldering and very cheap too. Otherwise you get to pick out a new cluster. They can be had on ebay new with mileage/hour meter transferred for under $200

Mckenzie · December 13, 2011

If you got a GPS you can use that for a quick fix solution which will allow ya to still drive the truck and check the mph

spankrz · December 15, 2011

as stated before, it was a known problem with those clusters. my friend and his father both own one of those body style trucks in a gmc, they both had cluster problems. his father's was fixed under warranty, and my friend's was not. both were out of warranty. the dealer said there is a certain VIN range that is covered regardless of mileage or age. it would be worth checking into before having it done

camshaft · December 15, 2011

Unfortunately my vin isnt covered

On a side note, depending on how long I drive, my speedo is either dead, moves very slowly, seems stuck at certain speeds, or shows Im going much slower than I know I am.

Do these symptoms all sound like the stepper motor is toast. I would have assumed that if the motor is toast, the speedo simply wouldnt work at all....

There is a local mobile company in my city that will come out and replace the 6 stepper motors, check the board, lights ect on the cluster for a fair price. Certainly cheaper than the dealership anyways. I have heard though that the needles may become "locked" and that the cluster may have to be taken to a dealer to get unlocked. Is there any thruth to this?

FFMikeM · December 29, 2011

One updated stepper: http://www.ebay.com/...=item256ad3a84b

Six updated steppers: http://www.ebay.com/...=item256ad3e696

dsr611 · December 30, 2011

Unfortunately my vin isnt covered

On a side note, depending on how long I drive, my speedo is either dead, moves very slowly, seems stuck at certain speeds, or shows Im going much slower than I know I am.

Do these symptoms all sound like the stepper motor is toast. I would have assumed that if the motor is toast, the speedo simply wouldnt work at all....

There is a local mobile company in my city that will come out and replace the 6 stepper motors, check the board, lights ect on the cluster for a fair price. Certainly cheaper than the dealership anyways. I have heard though that the needles may become "locked" and that the cluster may have to be taken to a dealer to get unlocked. Is there any thruth to this?

It is the stepper motors. I had them replaced on my wife's 05 Tahoe and haven't had any problems with the needles becoming "locked". I paid $125 for the guy here locally to replace all 6 stepper motors and the bulbs on the panel. And, most of the people that repair them will give a lifetime warranty on the repairs.

tgranthamfd · December 30, 2011

I just replaced all 6 of my stepper motors. Cost me $34.40 and about a hour and a half to do. I had a spedo acting up and the oil pressure pegged. All are working very well now. Cheepest I could find to do it was in the $125 to $150 range. Speed is 1 mph over the gps reading, most factory, I have noticed, is 2mph over actual speed. It is really simple to do yourself, just take your time and read the directions carefully. Rpm, temp, and fuel are dead on, as well.

Jspafford84 · December 31, 2011

I replaced my speedo stepper motor this week. The jostling of the cluster caused almost half of my light to burn out. From 2003 and up they are soldered onto the board as well. Had one heck of a time finding the correct bulbs, but just for future reference, if anyone needs to replace the backlight bulbs on their cluster's and you have the solder on style in the blue base you need a bulb number 2174. I found mine at batteries plus.

tgranthamfd · January 13, 2012

I have repaired 2 clusters, now. The seeler's I used gave 10 free bulb replacements with each order. My eyesight is not as good as it used to be, so I elected not to do the bulbs yet, but all of mine were ok when I finished the motors. Guess I got lucky. I, too read that the bumping around my weaken the solder joints on the bulb sockets.

ColeTrains03 · February 11, 2012

Mine speedo just started to act up so i wonder if i should just replace all 6 or just do the one. The speedo is the only one doing anything weird. I recently replaced all the bulbs so i have that part covered

dsr611 · February 12, 2012

Mine speedo just started to act up so i wonder if i should just replace all 6 or just do the one. The speedo is the only one doing anything weird. I recently replaced all the bulbs so i have that part covered

Replace them all while the cluster is out. It takes almost as much time getting the cluster in and out as it does to change the steppers.