2001 Dodge Caravan Pulling the dash on the Grand Caravan

GORILLAHAWK

MEMBER
2001 DODGE CARAVAN
6 CYL
2WD
AUTOMATIC
88,999 MILES

The battery died the other day and then we noticed that the speedometer needle was actually under the stop pin rather than above it. If these are related events or not, I'm not sure. But what I do know is that I now have to pull the dash to get to the speedometer and fix it. How do I pull the dash?

Wednesday, May 20th, 2009 AT 11:46 PM

1 Reply

CARADIODOC

MECHANIC
34,330 POSTS

The speedometer is not cable-driven and not a regular voltmeter. It is a stepper motor which has four electromagnetic coils that are pulsed by the computer circuitry in the instrument cluster. All you have to do is drive the vehicle on the highway at a speed greater than half the maximum on the gauge. At that point, the magnetic pointer will look for the shortest way to the desired reading so it will come down from the stop.

If that doesn't work, the Chrysler dealer can connect their hand-held scanner, the DRB3, which can run all the gauges through their range and back down to zero. Aftermarket scanners can not do that function.

Caradiodoc

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Friday, May 22nd, 2009 AT 2:07 AM