Sparkplug82

I have a 2000 Chevy Silverado. 2wd, rwd, v8, 4.8l.
265,000 mi. The cluster in my dashboard has been steadily going bonkers. Hit a bump, some of the dials surge. The gas guage dial would lock up, then I could physically hit the dash and it would resume. After a few months of this I hardly have instrument readings. Digital, dial, all.
Doing google, youtube searches I have not dome up.with much. Ground issue keeps coming up. Checked the grounds that I can find/see; somewhat of a novice so checking to see if anyone else has experienced this.

chem_man

It sounds like you have a large number of bad solder joints on your instrument panel and/or bad stepper motors. My advice is to get a stepper motor replacement kit and replace all the stepper motors and while you are at it, look over the solder joints on the circuit board. Look for ones that look dull and fractured. They all should look shiny and silver colored. Using a low wattage soldering iron and some rosin core solder (the stuff used for electronics repair) reheat the bad solder joints.

Good Luck!

abunai23500

Check the ground wire to the cluster.
I had a Blazer doing the same thing.
I taped another ground wire to the one going to the cluster, and everything was like new again.

Gumby22

The clusters in these trucks (actually almost ALL GM models from this era) are notorious for stepper motors going bad and solder joints going cold (separating).

Although you should absolutely verify adequate power and ground feeds to the cluster, there are repair kits available from Dorman and other manufacturers.

If you’re not confident in repairing it yourself, there are several options for repair or replacement. Google your truck (make model and year) and “instrument cluster repair” to find several options.

There are many to choose from but here’s a couple of repair services I’ve had good luck with in the past:

www.circuitboardmedics.com

www.cardone.com