Hi all,

New to this forum and trying to help my mother-in-law out. Her '92 SL2 has been overheating and the odometer has been working intermittently. Her indie fixed the overheating but told her the temp gauge and odometer problem are related by a bad instrument cluster, which needs replaced. My question is, does this sound right and where does one go for a 25 year old cluster - JY, rebuild outfit or does Chevy still source parts for Saturns?? She loves the car and has about 40K miles on it, so she really wants it fixed!

Thanks much!
Bob

 

40k?
140k?

The temp gauge on the car is driven by a 1 wire device that screws into the cylinder head.

The early year odometers were less reliable than the later ones.

Doubt they are related as one is usually a mechanical issue whereas the other is electrical. I have a 91 to 93 Chilton's manual, I'll double check tomorrow.
.
The other obvious point of potential problem is corrosion buildup between the connectors and the contact areas on the board they attach to.

When I went to pull the cluster on my 97 SC2, the connector was essentially frozen to the PCB of the cluster, and it took quite awhile break it loose. If you try this, BE PATIENT or you will snap it off. Once off i would disconnect battery then use only electrical contact cleaner to clean the connector and where it attaches.

 

Thanks for for the reply. That all makes a lot of sense. And yes, just 40k miles, all garaged which is another reason I was questioning if the instrument cluster would really go bad just due to age. I think I need to check the small things first before I take a leap to a new (or rebuilt) cluster.