2003 cavalier help. Cluster gauges.

The fuel & temp. gauges go crazy after starting/turning off the car several times.

How much fuel is left is imposible to read.

What can be the cause of this problem?

Fuse? Whole cluster?

Please help.

Can u supply a little more information please?

Need to know:

Engine size?

How exactly do fuel and temp gauges go crazy? By that I mean, what happens from when you turn your car on to when you turn your car off?

Does the instrument cluster go through it's normal warm-up check before things go crazy?

Is it just the Fuel and Temp gauges or all of the instrument cluster?

The GAS GAUGE is suposed to come back down when the engine turns off.

Before I turn it off, the gas gauge is poiting at the TEMP GAUGE, sometimes they crash with each other.

When I turn the car off it comes back to like maybe half a tank.


Same as the TEMP GAUGE, when the car is on it is very high (3/4) up. and when I turn off the car is suposed to come back down to the end and stays in like (1/4)

Its a little difficult to explain.

The point is basiclly i cant read correctly ethier the GAS left nor the TEMP of my car.


BOTH MPH's AND RPM's are functioning correctly.

Help please

Okay, this is a little on the tricky side to diagnose, but we'll give it a shot. I need some more information too... the answer I can give will depend on getting all the information I can get.

If at all possible grab a digital camera or better still a video cam and upload pics/video to show the problem happening (it'll do all the explaining for you).

If you can't do any of those then please go through the following carefully, and provide the most detailed answers you can... we'll figure out the problem one way or another :)

Your Car

When you're starting you car the instrument panel should go through a self-diagnostic check. What that looks like is all the gauges going from one end to the other, then they reset themselves to the levels their currently at. So after the diagnostic is done, your gauges should be:

- RPM will come to rest at the idle speed of your car
- Spedometer should read zero (you're still in park after all)
- Fuel Level should be at the level in your tank
- Engine Temp should be somewhere between 0 and 90 degrees (bottom to half way up depending on whether or not you used your car recently).

Question: Does your cluster do this *then* go crazy? or does it go crazy right from the start (Fuel and Temp gauges)?

Question: What size of engine do you have. This is important... please answer this.

Question: Does your Check Engine light come on? Are there any other lights that come on? If you have access to a scanner (even a cheap one), I'd love to see any codes that come out.

Question: Have you had anything installed on it recently? Or does the car have any after-market accessories on it that tap into the wiring directly, like a remote start or a security system? Things that plug into the lighter socket don't count here.

Stuff You Can Do Right Now:

1. Replace two fuses with brand new. In the interior fuse panel replace the 10A CLS/PCM Fuse and the 10A Cluster Fuse. In my experience, fuses can go bad, and when you pull them out to look at them, they look perfectly fine, but when you replace them with brand new, things work properly. This is a long shot, probably not causing any problems, but it's cheap and we can rule this out.

2. If you've already got you dash opened up, take a look at the following wires to make sure it's all in order, nothing burnt out, loose or corroded. Be gentle with the wiring, it is a GM after all :)

Instrument Cluster or Microprocessor
This is your cars universal translator... it takes all that sensor information and displays it on the dash in terms you can understand - your gauges. Check the solid Tan wire, it connects the Microprocessor to the PCM (below)

Fuel Level Sender
This is located in the fuel tank, but we're only concerned with the wiring at the cluster, don't go ripping out your back seat or anything... just look at the cluster. This sensor sends its info directly to the microprocessor where its turned into the fuel level indication you read on the gauge. It has 2 wires - solid Purple and Black/White Stripe

Engine Coolant Temperature Sensor (ECT)
This is located in the engine compartment by the thermostat. I can't tell you where in your car because I don't know what size of engine your car has. The ECT sends it's info to the PCM (below) which is also inside the engine compartment. The plug going into the sensor has 2 wires - solid Yellow and solid Brown

PCM
Powertrain Control Module. This is the brain of your car... it sends much info to the microprocessor. It's location depends on what size of engine your car has. If you can find it now, check the wiring on it too. We only want to check for the ECT wires (Yellow and solid Brown), and it's connection to the Microprocessor, which is the Tan wire. Of course if there's anything out of line here, make a note of it.


That's about all we can do for now until we can get more information.

Hope this helps.