My 2004 chevrolet cavalier has "squirrelly gauges" . None of the gauges read correctly. However, once in a while one or more gauges do appear to be reading correctly. My gas gauge is never accurate. My speedometer is often pegged over to top speed or reads 45 MPH when I'm doing 65. The only accurate gauge is the odometer. This problem has been going on for about 2-3 years. (no I do not have the money to repair it) researching this problem, I search google for the symptoms and this seems to be a common problem. I look on ebay and find vendors who repair "squirrelly gauges". My complaint is not unique.
2004 Chevrolet Cavalier electrical complaints
Page 4 of 7: complaints 71 to 100 of 185, newest first, as owners wrote them.
My 2004 chevy cavalier instrument cluster has not been working for a while was just the speedometer now the fuel gauge is not working I have researched this and found many people have the same issue.
Dash cluster abnormal operation, in regards to fuel gauge and speedometer. Speedometer is inaccurate says I am currently traveling more the 110 MPH when vehicle is at a state of rest. Fuel gauge also inaccurate sticks when engine is shut off, when restarted the fuel gauge moves in excess of its limits pinning against temperature gauge. During warmer weather the fuel gauge doesn't work and neither will the tachometer. Very disappointed. Contacted gm and was given the run around. Customer care noted that no one has complained about this defect on these vehicles. Very unsafe, don't know exactly how much fuel I have and have resorted in using a GPS for speed reference. Recall needs to be issued!
My car failed to start 8/21/08 so I took it to my mechanic. The car was only 4 years old at the time and was still under my extended warranty thank goodness. He determined it was my ignition switch. Since I am the original. Single owner of this vehicle, I knew this was the original ignition switch to the car when purchased new in 2004. My mechanic replaced the switch with a napa oe part. Now, on 3/29/11, my car failed to start again and left me stranded. I had to have my car towed to my mechanic and then find a way home from work. I then had to borrow a friend's car just to get to work the next day. As discoverd by my mechanic, it was the ignition switch again. This repair completed on 3/30/11 was with an ignition switch that was purchased from a chevy dealer hoping this will make a difference. I have had several cars and not one time have I ever had to replace an ignition switch in any of them much less twice in just 2 years 3 months like have had to with this car! This repair cost me $280 this time and the incovenience of finding an alternate way to and from work. I am disgusted at the faultiness of this car's electrical system. I have had other electrical issues including having to replace the entire instrument panel when the car was only 2 years old and replacing the electric window switch twice. I truly feel chevy needs to address my issues.
Entire dash cluster doesn't work!! Speedometer says going 80mph when sitting still. Temp gauge says it's overheating when car is off. Gas gauge is now going haywire. Going on vacation is hard when you don't really know how fast you're going. Something needs to be done about this because a cluster for this car is $270. Then pay someone to put it in. There are too many 2004 cavaliers having this issue for this to not be recalled.
2004 chevy cavalier ls sport when turning on the car the speedometer shoots up past 80mph at standstill. This occurs at least twice a year. Never know how fast you are going unless you actually sit there and count. Takes about 4 or 5 days before the speedometer makes its way back to 0mph.
Tl* the contact owns a 2004 chevrolet cavalier. The contact was driving approximately 70 MPH when she noticed that the speedometer, fuel gauge, temperature gauge and RPM gauge failed intermittently. The vehicle was not taken to the dealer for the failure. She contacted the manufacturer and was advised there were no recalls on the vehicle and that they were unable to assist. The vehicle was not repaired. The failure mileage was 100,000 and the current mileage was 130,000. Updated 04/15/11*lj updated 05/02/11
2004 chevrolet cavalier. Consumer states temp gauge looses its bearings and ends up over in the speedometer area and speedometer will not go pass 11 MPH
Gas gauge malfunction 1month ago, went half way to the right of full upon fill up, have been keeping track of gas by trip miles.this fuel gauge is halting the temp gauge from rising to normal. Today 1/17/11 started car this morning and speed gauge is pointing straight down to steering wheel. Proceeded to drive 8 minutes to work all the time the dash was going crazy the mileage spot had the word error on it,& every light was on, the dashboard- all of them. Apparently this has been a problem for sometime with this car. Gm is aware and doing nothing.I have found out by looking it up on the internet tonight. Through my research im guessing I need a dash cluster at the cost of 500.00. I feel a speedometer should last for at least 10 yrs, my car is 6yrs old. I bought this car brand new and have followed the recommended service.
My wife's 2004 chevy cavalier has a wrong speedometer indication. It says the car is going 60 MPH while not being moved at all. When the car reaches high speeds at the freeway it says the car is going at 120 MPH and hits the top of the gauge. The oil temperature indication also shows 190 degrees with engine not running, and with engine running it goes to red band indication.
I own a 2004 chevrolet cavalier ls with 36,531 miles on it. Yesterday, I went to drive the car and had "no speedometer" function ---------- the needle just sat on "0 MPH" no matter what speed I drove. I feel that this is a major safety issue and needs to be addressed. I have also read of the many hundreds of reported failures of the same kind concerning the instrument panel in these and many other gm products built during the years 2000 through 2005. Why are the trucks/ SUV's instrument panel problems a recall and the documented problems of the cavalier (for the same years) not a recall? It appears to me that the relative cost of each vehicle plays a part in your decision and possibly the end of the manufacturing run of cavaliers in 2005 has skewed your judgment. I find this instrument panel problem a serious driving concern for all who share the road. I also have been in discussions with others who have experienced this problem and there is a suggestion from the gm dealers that the problems of the "old gm" are not the problems of the "new gm (2009). Since my taxes pay your salary to keep me safe (without bias) and my taxes and future earnings make me a shareholder of the old/new gm, it would appear to me that this big problem could be solved between the parties because we are all on the same side and in the same family. Shame on you for not declaring this a "recall" for the cavalier instrument panel. I still have the car and have not had the problem repaired. I also will not allow my family to drive this vehicle any more and I am not sure I will pay the approximate $500.00 to have it repaired. This reminds me of the lack of a recall for the 3.4liter v-6 motor that I had in my 2003 buick rendezvous with all of its associated problems with head and intake gaskets..... I paid the $1,500.00 to have the intake gasket replaced....... Hope the new gm gets its act together fast........as for me I will be spending my hard-earned dollars on japanese .
2004 chevy cavalier instrument panel not working correctly. Temperature gauge has flipped and is blocking my speedometer needle from reading correctly.
2004 chevy cavalier speedometer instrument cluster fails. Speedometer reads incorrect speed and fails. It is very dangerous not knowing how fast you are going, I received a speeding ticket as a result. I replaced the instrument cluster with one from a junk yard. The problem is temporarily fixed. There are many other people with the same issue.
The trunk latch on my cavalier won't latch. This is the second time it has broke with the same problem. I replaced the trunk latch about three years ago I rarely use my trunk. Also the defrost,vent knob quit working it turn but won't switch to defrost or the different vent settings. The cd player won't take, or play cd's. There was a fly on my windshield right around a year after I bought the car and I barely tapped the windshield and the windshield cracked all over.
All gauges in my cavalier have stopped working (speedometer, temp gauge, RPM's..) the car dies randomly while driving, dies when stopping. I actually tried to pull my car over because it was acting like it was going to die and while I was pressing the brakes it was trying to go!! Very scary!!! Could have wrecked!
2004 chevy cavalier speedo sticking. It started around 5 months ago it says your going 110 MPH when only going 30 MPH. Now it all over the place and the tach doesn't always work right either so you cant go by that. It is very dangerous trying to guess your speed. I have looked all over the internet only to find many people having the same problem. Chevy should have a recall if someone freaks out on a highway alot of people could really get hurt or even killed. Im sure if someone from chevy teenager had a cav doing this or got hurt because of this something would be done. Please do something to get this fixed. It doesn't seem to be a big issue but when people get hurt then it will be.. Please for the safety of people on the road tell gm they have a problem.
The RPM and the MPH gauge are not working.
In the winter my chevy cavalier's speedometer started to be disfunctional, it would read say 30mph while I was in park. Over the summer the problem got worse and I had to resort to using a GPS to know my speed. The problem isn't limited to the speedo though, I have also experienced this with the temperature gauge.
My dashboard doesn't work properly. All of the gauges, with the exception of the odometer, does not work. This includes fuel, speedometer, RPM, and temperature gauges. It started with my temperature gauge. I thought the car was overheating when it really wasn't. Then my fuel gauge went out. Then it was the speedometer and RPM gauge. All of the gauges, except for the RPM, move up and down, but none of them are accurate. The speedometer can get stuck at 0, 60 or move off of the gauge entirely. It is obviously not very safe not knowing how fast you are going, or if your car is overheating or not. It is my understanding the entire dashboard has to be replaced, but I am not 100% certain.
The speedometer on my 2004 chevy cavalier started going wacky. At first it started racing as you were driving. Showing 65 or 70 when you were going maybe 40. Now it raced past 110 and dropped down between 0 and 110. Looking over the different websites, I see this is a common problem, yet it is not on a recall list. Why? This can be extremely dangerous, not to mention you are looking for a ticket by guessing how fast you are going. My car only has 54,000 miles on it, and I sure wasn't expecting any major repairs and that mileage.
2004 chevy cavalier. The speedometer does not work properly. When starting the car (before shifting out of park) it will read 40+ MPH. I once started it after it had been sitting in a hot parking lot for 8 hours and the needle was maxed out (again, before it was even shifted out of park). I have read that this problem has been experienced by many people with chevy cavaliers (not just 2004 model). We were told that the only fix for this was to replace the entire cluster, which will cost $500+.
Defective instrument panel the instrument panel operated correctly until 2007. The speedometer began to operate incorrectly at random times. The needle would indicate high speed when stopped or when moving at slow speeds. The needle would continue to indicate an incorrect speed until the vehicle had been turned off. This continued to happen more often from 2007 until 2009. In 2009, the speedometer needle no longer indicated a correct speed at any time. The temperature gauge then began to indicate engine temperature to be above 300 degrees while driving. The temperature gauge continued to operate incorrectly. As a consequence, the speed of the car cannot be properly estimated. Any problem with the radiator would not be easy to identify for lack of knowing engine temperature. Attempts to fix: the instrument panel has been electrically disconnected and checked for a faulty connection. No faulty wiring has been found.
Over the past 2 years the speedometer on my 2004 chevy cavalier has stopped working at different times. The speedometer will go up past 100 MPH when it is parked and will take 2+ weeks to reset itself and start working again. This past month the gas gauge and tachometer have also stopped working, this in addition to my speedometer being out have left me without know how much gas I have left, how fast I am going and multiple other issues.
2004 chevy cavalier speedometer does not state the correct MPH you are going will stick anywhere, the temperature gauge also has stopped working. It can be reset (the speedometer) once the car cools off but when you are driving and have no idea what speed you are going it is a major problem that needs to be corrected by chevy.
Instrument cluster on 2004 chevy cavalier just goes haywire this is a safety concern. Why was there no recall. Faulty motors were put in.
Gauges in car is not working. Read on your site there is another 65 people who have the same problem.
Gauges on front panel are not working. Gas, speed, temp. I have contact chevy dealers and they said it is not recalled. Read on many sites on the internet that other people are having the same problem.
Instrument cluster on my 2004 chevrolet cavalier started malfunctioning in late december 2009. First the gas gauge stop working, then the temperature gauge beacuse the gas gauge interfered. Now july 10 2010. The speedometer has also stopped functioning properly because the temperature gauge interfered with it. This is very dangerous. I emailed gm but no response. Was told by gm dealer it would be over $700 to replace it. Not fair at all, this should be a recall by gm because of the safety issue.
On june 15,2010 my entire cluster gauge started acting funny. I did some research to find out I was not the only one who owner a 2004 cavalier and the gauges go all haywire. I feel this is a safety concern and should be reviewed.
At about 50,000 miles the tachometer on the dashboard cluster began to fail, becoming wildly uncalibrated and showing RPM well above actual. This was followed by the speedometer suffering the same defect. When driving, stopped, in park, or even engine off, the speedometer will read inaccurate: 30mph, 90mph, sometimes pinned 360-degrees off the gauge. A quick temporary fix is, while the car is off, to remove the dash cluster fuse and reinsert it, which resets all the gauges at 0. This is only temporary because within days, if not earlier, the gauges become uncalibrated again. Recently at about 60,000 miles the speedometer has also randomly begun to report speeds well below actual speed. I.e. When traveling 45mph the speedometer will read 25mph.
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