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$125 Car Wash (Unsuccessful Trans Gauge Activation)

igotzzoom

SM 2017
SM 2016
Full Member
Joined
May 30, 2016
Messages
90
Location
Orange County, CA
Well, that's the most expensive carwash I've ever gotten. Took my '04 1500 Z71 into the dealership and asked them to attempt to activate the transmission temp gauge that was added to the OE cluster. Talking to the service writer and technician, they seemed very "by the book" and said it matched it to the VIN number, and if the VIN said it didn't originally come with the gauge, it wouldn't activate it. At first, the writer said he might waive the diagnostic fee because it was unsuccessful. Well, so much for that. Still charged me full pop. Well, at least it's the cleanest it's ever been. I knew it was a gamble from the start when I added the gauge on to the cluster that didn't originally have one. But from what I've read here and other forums, it seemed like there was a pretty good chance it would work.

If any of you are, or know well a technician in Southern California that thinks he can do this for less than $200, I'm all ears. My next step is contacting one of those mail-order cluster companies to see if I can ship it off, or they'll swap out the core for an HD cluster with a working trans gauge. Thanks in advance.
 
IF gm cluster with tranny gage for your model year it should just plug in and work as tranny temp is inthe CAN bit stream for the engine computer to know what is happening.
 
Contact http://www.dashdr.com/ he can take care of it for you.

He fixed mine and told me he can reprogram them. Charged me $150 for a full rebuild but don't know what he charges just for a reprogram. But he certainly can do it.
 
redheadedrod said:
Contact http://www.dashdr.com/ he can take care of it for you.

He fixed mine and told me he can reprogram them. Charged me $150 for a full rebuild but don't know what he charges just for a reprogram. But he certainly can do it.

Thanks for the tip! I've contacted U.S. Speedo in Flint to see what they can do, but looking at all options at this point.
 
Dash doctor is in Grand Rapids, MI. I drive by the guys house every day to work. Not that it matters.

He also fixed my mirror that wasn't displaying temp.

Rodney
 
If you don't get this working, another option I found is the Torque app on a Droid. The app is like $5, and you'll need a Bluetooth Odbii adapter ($10 - $20). Works great for me.
 
If I were you, I'd take it back the dealer that charged you a buck and a quarter and did nothing, if he had reflashed the computer with the check mark next to the temp gauge it would be working now so long as the temp gauge itself is working, wether or not it came with it factory makes no difference in the flash.  The sending unit is already in the tranny but is not programmed to send a signal to your gauge.

Didit
 
Didit said:
If I were you, I'd take it back the dealer that charged you a buck and a quarter and did nothing, if he had reflashed the computer with the check mark next to the temp gauge it would be working now so long as the temp gauge itself is working, wether or not it came with it factory makes no difference in the flash.  The sending unit is already in the tranny but is not programmed to send a signal to your gauge.

Didit
Or more accurately, the cluster is not programmed to receive or display the signal. If you take a 3/4 ton cluster and install it the gauge works fine. But as I said, the guy at Dash Dr told me he could reprogram this into the cluster. Guessing it is just a toggled memory location.
 
redheadedrod said:
Dash doctor is in Grand Rapids, MI. I drive by the guys house every day to work. Not that it matters.

He also fixed my mirror that wasn't displaying temp.

Rodney

Awesome tip! He emailed me back immediately! He quoted me a very reasonable price to activate the trans gauge. Unfortunately, taking it out this weekend, so won't have it working in time for Thanksgiving, but plan on shipping the cluster out at soon as I get back!
 
Glad I could help. I was able to drop mine off to him and he completely rebuilt it in 2 hours and I picked it back up. He even redid my LED installation for the blue LED's.

So he certainly does a quick turn around. He told me he spent like $4000 for some special hardware and software to be able to program the clusters.

Anyhow, I love having the temp on my truck. Even though I don't tow often.

Rodney
 
So now that you have trans temp, what temp is good? And when is it too high?

I use my phone to monitor the trans temp. Typically it's around 145 - 160. Last summer, towing the boat with temps around 90 something, I saw 210.

This weekend, with air temps in the 40s, my wife's Jeep Grand Cherokee saw trans temps just over 200. Not towing anything..... But driving at 77 - 78 mph.
 
Mine runs consistently close to 90 degrees above the outside ambient air temperature, year round.

Only when towing my 25' party barge in the heat of July, have I ever seen it pass 200 degrees and then not by much.

My EXT has the factory transmission cooler installed.

Hope that helps.
 
Well, just packaged & shipped off my cluster to Dash Doctor in Grand Rapids. Really hoping this will be the end of this saga. In terms of the dealership, I gave them a 2-star review on Yelp, and the service manager replied on Yelp offering to rectify the situation. I think I'm going to ask for a $75 service or merchandise credit. I also mysteriously got a 2-month SiriusXM trial offer with the email title "Thank You for having your Chevrolet serviced." I think they might be related. I may try to have that extended to 6 mos, if the dealer had anything to do with it. I will give a full update when I get my cluster back. Thanks all for the helpful tips. 
 
Just got a call back from Josh at Dash Doctor in Grand Rapids. He confirmed receipt of my cluster, assured me that the trans temp would work. To be honest, I think I probably should have gone with him in the first place for the whole enchilada. Lesson learned. I'll let you know if it works once I get it back and pop it in. I can't wait!
 
Hope your happy with the end results, however on the dealer end I would have settled for nothing less of a 100 bucks at least, lets face it their time is worth something, even if they din't know how to use a tech II to begin with, they were going by the vin number and did not check the box on trans temp, if they had you would have been done,  Good Luck

Didit
 
Didit said:
Hope your happy with the end results, however on the dealer end I would have settled for nothing less of a 100 bucks at least, lets face it their time is worth something, even if they din't know how to use a tech II to begin with, they were going by the vin number and did not check the box on trans temp, if they had you would have been done,   Good Luck

Didit

Yeah. That's why I'm not asking for a full refund. But I don't think the work they did is worth more than $50, IMHO.
 
Update! Got my cluster back from Dash Doctor in Grand Rapids, and the trans temp gauge works perfectly! It took a little while for the trans to warm up to get any kind of reading on the gauge, but Josh @ Dash Doctor told me to drive it around for a while to give it time to warm up. I'm so glad to have this saga over with, and I will be telling anyone and everyone I know that has GMT800 trucks with non-functioning clusters to send them to him! Thanks so much for the tip!

CBEEB8A5-B8DB-44EA-B6CD-BD0D554654B7.jpg
 
lmbo, good for you and no comment on where to send em!


Didit
 
I would say contact him. I would expect it to be similar but you would have to contact him for a full answer. I suspect the motors are the same but no clue about the trans temp. I would assume he can do them but no way to know for sure except to call or email him.

Rodney
 
02's are different when it comes to the gauge cluster.. The stepper motors twist and lock in, no soldering and I don't think they all interchangeable each one has a letter on it. Not all of the Cluster repair shops list the clusters 2002's, you have to call/email them to see if they have them..

"P" for Oil pressure
"T" for Temperature
"V" for Voltage Gauge
"S" for  Speedo and Tach


Good luck
 
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