2000 PA New Instrament Cluster

[david.anker]

Just bought a 2000 PA (Base-not an Ultra) with 175K miles from a co-worker for $1000. I know, I know, thousand dollar car/it ain't worth nothin', but this seems to be the exception: Very well taken of, seems like the perfect chariot for my 40 mile each way, daily interstate scramble to work. I'm in love with the ride quality, roominess, and "who knew?" highway gas mileage. Problems were: driver's seat stuck in down position and leather very rough, instrument cluster LCDs (Odo and PRND123) burnt out, gas gauge flaky when down to a quarter tank, front windows slow to operate, and missing two wheel center caps.

Pulled the driver's seat out. The forward/back and tilt worked fine, vertical up/down on both the front and rear seat edges non-functional. The motors whir, nothing happens. Dissasembled enough to find missing teeth on nylon gears, at least I got it into the "Down" position when re-assembling. Looking for new seat rail, don't really care if I find it at this point. Any good resources for new bottom and back drivers seat springs/cushion/leathers? Non-heated, grey color.

Understand the gas gauge issue is probably the sending unit, seems to be integral part with fuel pump, $200+, again, don't care that much unless anyone has a cheaper fix.

Cleaned and lubed both front window's running gear, works well now except the drivers window bangs badly when I close the door when the window is down-what'd I forget when I re-assembled?

I've got 8 spoke wheels with caps that have 4 "bumps" that interface with every other spoke, R/W/ & blue Buick shield emblem in the middle. I've seen about every center cap except these on Ebay and CL, any other good resources out there?

Last, the instrument cluster. My co-worker fully disclosed this problem, said he'd been quoted $800 to fix it, and didn't want to fix it at that rate. He knew what gear he was in and kept a running estimate of miles based on fuel consumption. Once I owned the car I quickly pulled it out of the dash and found that it was a year or two too modern to benefit from the "replace 7 resistors" DIY video fix that seems to be so popular for this problem. As long as I was in that deep, I went deeper until I held the LCDs in my hand-they were obviously burned out. I took a chance on a "fits 00-05 PAs" cluster on Ebay for $26, it works like a charm with two exceptions:

1. The battery voltage warning light is now on. I'd already had the battery load tested while in for alignment. Will get the alternator checked next. Is this likely an actual charging system issue or related to the cluster change?

2. It seems the new instrument cluster was made for the more advanced DIC models with the 5 buttons to the left of the cluster. My ride's only got two buttons, trip reset on top, eng/met conversion on the bottom, and a filler plate in the middle. When I first power up the ignition, all the warning lights come on and then go off (except for the btry warning light), and the LCD displays "driver unknown" for a few seconds, then changes to "change oil soon". Pushing either of the two buttons mentioned above clears the message and displays the odometer/trip meter. I assume the new cluster is looking for info related to driver 1 & 2 presets and oil life data that my car's not equipped with. What does it take to retrofit these systems? I can buy the 5 button switch for $25, surely it can't be that simple? Please?!

Sorry for miss-spellings, my wireless keyboard is low on btry, thanks for any and all info.

[TopherS]

Congrats on the new PA. I've had my 2001 for 5-1/2 years now and am still happy with it. It's had a few problems (120K miles), but the car is worth it to me.

I've had the seat motor problem, like you have. That problem is common to the Park Ave's. The only fix that I'm aware of is to replace the seat rails/motors...but beware that the problem is common enough that you might get a replacement part that is either bad or not long for this world, either. Some people choose to try to manually get the seat into the preferred position and leave it alone. Mine was fixed under a warranty, so hopefully, it will last a while.

For replacement seat covers, lurking on eBay may bring you to someone selling parts. Here in Portland, we have a GM-only breaker yard that I often turn to for parts. You might check around for one close by. Also, there's a breaker yard here that deals almost exclusively with newer cars (not a U-Pull-It). Parts are more expensive there (they charge 1/2-price of what a dealer would charge), but they've had more of what I've been looking for at any given time than any of the U-Pull-It's.

Mine has the heated leather seats and the driver's side doesn't heat (burned out element or something like that)...the only fix seems to be a new leather seat cover (the elements are sewn into the seat cover). I've not worried about it...it's been that way for nearly 4 years now...but every winter, I swear I'll get it fixed. The seat covers are expensive, though, so I've not fixed it yet...probably never will. I'd love to get cloth seats from a 1997-1999 model and ditch the whole leather thing...but the cloth seats are rare as hen's teeth.

I've had the fuel guage problem, as well...again, I hear it is common in these cars. Mine was problematic when I bought the car in 2005 with 64K miles on it. The selling dealer put in a new sending unit/pump as part of the deal. I've not heard of a cheaper fix, though.

I've never messed with the windows, so I'm not sure where to point you in regards to the banging windows.

I know which wheels that you are referring to. Again, I'd look to the breaker yards for replacement caps, and keep lurking on eBay.

As far as the Driver Info Center, I don't know if you can retrofit that into a car that didn't have one originally. You might look at the connection to see if there are some wires that come to the connector in the back that aren't connecting to anything because you only have the 2-button setup. The info contained in the Driver Info Center is calculated in the BCM, I believe, and these are usually programmed at the factory to the car's specifications and equipment. If the car wasn't set up to then send that info back to the display, I don't know if it would work. It would definitely be worth a try, though. If do you get your hands on a 5-button panel and install it and it works, that would be cool...and I bet others would be interested to know...so defintely post back your findings on that.

Your voltage light may be coincidental to the display change. It's worth getting the charging system checked out before attributing the light to the new display. In the time I've had my Park Ave, I've had to install 2 new batteries and a new alternator. (btw, if you have your headlamps on and they flicker when you step on the brakes, it's usually the battery going bad on you...happened both times when I needed to replace the battery in my car...went away after new installation).

Good luck with your Park Avenue. Hopefully, you can get some or all of these issues resolved quickly.