Our 2003 Jeff Gordon Monte has some type of electrical issue, we believe in the dash.

It all started when our son was borrowing the car. First the hazard light button has come loose and fallen partly into the dash. Second and most important...the gauges all click and the needles move backwards while the key is off. This causes a brand new battery to completely die overnight. The guy who normally works on our vehicles says he will not work on it due to the dash being a pain to remove and reinstall.

We need some advice on what could possibly be causing this in hopes we can fix it ourselves. We have also been told that after removing the dash it causes the cars security system to turn on and it takes a special tool to reset the security so the car can be started. I have never heard of this but I figure it could be true.

So any help you all could give would be greatly appreciated before we tear in the car.

Thank you
Scott and Michelle

 

here is a youtube to check on this

 

A bunch of videos here too.




https://www.google.com/search?source....0.4XHfouILLmk

 

Hi Kowboy, first of all it is fairly simple to remove the dash, you need to pry off the bezel where the key goes, being careful not to break the little retaining tabs that hold it on. Next take off the cover under drivers side dash, it is just snapped in with clips you have to push with your fingers, one on each side. Unplug the switch from the back to take this piece off. Then you need to remove 5 or 6 -7mm screws, most you can see along the bottom edge of dash, and one is inside the fuse box on the drivers side and one is inside the glove box door. Now you just need to pry the dash out it is held in with snap clips. Tilt the steering wheel all the way down and you might have to turn the key on to acc so you can move the shifter back. With a little twisting the dash will come out. If your mechanic thinks this is difficult he doesn't sound like a guy I would want working on my car.

 

Once you get the dash out you can unplug your flasher switch. I had this problem and on mine the black plastic broke off of the inside dash. An easy fix is to get a jar of ABS cement, it's in the plastic pipe isle at Home Depot and puts the switch back in very well, just be sure you center the switch properly before the glue dries as it melts the plastic together. Not sure about why the gauges are going backward, have not heard of that, but once the dash is out you can take out the gauge cluster with a few screws to remove.