Hello everyone. I posted a while back about my problems and some people thought I had a bad BCM but I think I would have more symptoms than this if that was the case.

1) My instrument cluster will reset while I am driving. The guages will sweep and all the warning lights come on and the car will ding as if it was just started however the car never stalls and the radio stays on along with everything else. This seems to happen totally randomly and it did it today for the first time in months.

2) My high beams will randomly turn off and come back on. This hasn't happened in months but I am worried it will happen again. I did notice that when you pull the high beam lever it doesn't feel quite normal.....almost like i have to use more effort to make it click than I did before.

If anyone has any suggestions I would really appreciate it. The car is a 2002 Monte SS. Thanks!

 

Hi MonteMan92, I have had the same issue with my 2004 Intimidator. Once, while driving on the interstate, mine exhibited this problem and the battery indicator in the message center stayed on. I immediately pressed the Onstar button, but they couldn't find a problem code. I stopped about 5 miles later when I saw a Walmart and had them check the battery, but it tested fine. When I got home I took it to a Chevy dealer, but they said that there was nothing they could do unless any lights were on. It has done it a couple more times, but it never seems to cause any problems.

 

Thanks for the info! It's nice to know I'm not alone with this strange issue. Like you said it never seems to cause any problems or effect anything so I guess I won't worry about it. The weird thing was mine never did it until I upgraded my onstar to digital but I am pretty sure that has nothing to do with it. I guess I will just ignore it. I have never had my battery light come on though. I think my high beam issue might be my multifunction lever. Thanks again!

 

My instrument panel has also been doing some weird stuff lately. I described mine in the post down below. Mine has also started since I had my Onstar upgraded to digital but I don't know how that would affect the instrument panel. I'm still thinking the BCM is going on the fritz since I also have a few other electrical issues going on inside the car.

Wayne

 

I just now saw your reply to this. I think it is kind of weird we both had problems with our instrument panels since the onstar. So far my onstar has been working great. I now have a new problem tho. I noticed that my cruise light has been lighting up with the other warning lights when I turn the key to the on position. I knew that wasn't normal so I hooked up my scanner and I got the code P1554-Cruise Control Feedback Circuit. Does anyone know what this means? The dealer thinks it may be my PCM since my guages reset and everything.....I'm starting to get annyoed with these problems. So far no more headlight problems tho.

 

I have not had any problems recently as far as the instrument panel goes but I'm still getting the red Onstar light on the rear view mirror occasionally. I took it in to the dealer a little over a week ago and even though it has an Onstar code stored in the computer, all of the tests they ran that go with that code came back normal so I don't know what to think. The code had to do with the cell antenna system not getting a signal for over one second. I made sure that the connection at the rear window antenna and the connection at the module in the truck were tight as well as I cleaned the little post inside the coax that goes to the module because it looked a little tarnished. We will see what happens.

I also had to replace my battery because me battery symbol came on in the message center. I had the battery tested and it tested bad. We will see if a new battery helps anything.

Wayne

 

Were you able to get your onstar fixed? I'm still having issues with my instrument cluster resetting. It is driving me insane. Has yours acted up since your new battery? I've replaced my ignition switch and cleaned the ground wire under my air box and the darn thing still randomly resets when it wants. Also the backlights for the rpm and temp guage only work when they want. It's driving me insane.

 

So far I have not had any instrument panel issues or Onstar problems lately. I can't remember if I haven't had problems since I took my BCM down and cleaned the contacts on the BCM and the plug in itself with electrical contact cleaner or since the battery replacement. I think cleaning the contacts on the Onstar cables has fixed that Issue.(keeping my fingers crossed) CRC is the brand of electronic cleaner I used and I think you can get it at Walmart or the parts store.

I would find a diagram for all of the grounds on these cars and check and clean all of them. I have found out over the years that grounds in an electrical system are extremely important for everything to work correctly and can cause all kinds of problems when they don't.

I don't drive my car that often so it's hard to determine if anything if really fixed or not. I've had the car for a little over three years and have only driven it about 12,000 miles.

Try cleaning the contacts on your BCM and it's plugin and all of the grounds you can find on the car and see what that does. Good luck.

Wayne

 

Thank you for the info! I hope your problems are fixed. My onstar has been great since I had it updated but this darn cluster is driving me crazy. My battery is about 6 years old and I heard a bad or dying battery can cause issues like this too. I measured the voltage at the battery with the car running and idling and it was 13.5 volts. I am not sure if that is within the normal range or not. I have read it should be at least 14 volts with the car running. Maybe at new battery would fix it but I don't know if I would get that lucky or not. I will have to get a diagram of all of the grounds. I think I can get that from a program my father has on his computer for working on cars. I really want to get this cluster issue figured out. It's my only issue with the car.

 

My battery was bad after only three years but that is probably because I didn't drive the car as much as I probably should have. Sitting around is hard on batteries unless you have a trickle charger hooked up. These newer vehicles also use battery power when they sit because of all of the electrical crap that is on them that run even when the car is off. I would replace the battery and see if that helps because at six years old, yours probably doesn't have much life left.

Wayne