general problems of the 2004 Chevrolet Cavalier - part 1

I have had my used chevy Cavalier 2004 car for almost a year. As I have been driving the engine has just stopped. This has happened 4 times in the time span of 5 months. No one ( auto shops) can find the issue. They have zero answers. This is dangerous and has caused accidents. I would be banned from the internet if I said what I really want to say to chevy. The most recent time this happened was yesterday. . . Aug 3rd 2017.

Cluster panel temp gauge was fluctuating now the gauge is staying in one spot so have no idea if temp is good or not. What if something is wrong with the engine I will not know without this working. Have taken to two garages they both say its the cluster panel. Stationary and while driving ,gage stays the same. This started about a month ago with only 68,500 miles on it.

Spedometer has stopped functioning. Safety issue because I can no longer tell how fast I am driving.

My cluster stopped working a while ago. Since I didn't get a recall on it I was unaware of people did complain about it until my car caught on fire where the cluster is and all the wires are totally burned up. I am furious. I read other complaints and some people had the same problem. I could not read all of them so, I don't know how many caught on fire. Thank god I didn't get injured or death. Chevrolet should be held responsible for this. Please help.

My temperature gauge has malfunctioned and is stuck at 195 degrees when I turn my car on. It then rises just as normal but stops at 260 degrees which is in the red zone.

Instrument panel does not work. Therefore do not know the speed in which is being traveled, temperature of engine, amount of fuel or anything. Check guages light comes on and goes off like every week. Have no clue why it stopped working and personal mechanic is appalled at the issue.

2 issues. First, temperature gauge read higher and higher each time the car was started until the needle went all the way around to the speedometer and kept the speedometer from reading the speed. Entire gauge cluster was replaced. Second issue was passenger front seat belt would periodically lock, not allowing the passenger to use the seat belt.

While driving at 35mph, the speedometer began to malfunction giving faulty readings. At times, it registers at 0mph - even when you're driving. The tachometer began to do the same thing (faulty readings) two days later. The speedometer now works but periodically gives faulty readings while driving. The tachometer no longer works at all and constantly shows a faulty reading (below zero). After a visit to three different local mechanics and a gm dealership - I'm told there's only one way to fix the problem. Replace the instrument cluster completely. This is a costly repair and quite common with these vehicles in their experience apparently. Not having an accurate and reliable display of your current speed is certainly a major safety issue. It's amazing to me that this has not yet been investigated with all the complaints regarding faulty gauges/instrument panels on this vehicle. This vehicle needs to be investigated and recalled.

The gages show nothing no speed no gas no mileage nothing. I have seen a lot of complaints of this matter why is there nothing being done about this problem. I was always a chevy person but now I am moving on to something else. Chevy does not like to fix there problems they leave it up to the people to spend tons of money to fix the prob when they know what the prob is. This is uncalled for.

2004 Cavalier, 2. 2l dohc, 5-speed manual transmission. While driving at 60 mph vehicle felt as if cruise control was engaged. Rpms would not fall off as fast as usual when foot taken off gas, and when I depressed the clutch (which was just replaced last week due to another known issue that chevy refuses to recall) rpms went above 4,000. Tapped gas pedal thinking maybe it was stuck and it only revved higher and did not come down on its own. Rpms continued to climb as I came to a stop, around 6,000 by the time I pulled over. Shut the car off and immediately back on, no problems for the rest of the trip home (another 8 miles). I cannot risk my car revving at 6,000 rpms in stop and go traffic which I'm in every weekday and I can't shut it off and turn it back on to fix the problem, so I have to find out what causes it and fix it ASAP. Thanks for another spendy repair, chevy.

All of the trouble lights come on including the service light with a wrench. Then, all of the gauges drop to nothing; you don't know how fast you're traveling, what your fuel capacity is, the temperature gauge drops to nothing along with the tachometer dropping to nothing. In the odometer and "error" message replaces the odometer reading. The gauges will intermittently go off and on or all of them will drop of with no reading. The other evening, I was coming home on a winding back country road and all of my lights went out. I have to limit my driving to daytime driving and only use the running lights as it appears to only aggravate the problem when I use my headlights. Today, everything above happened along with some news things. The vehicle was shut off, the key was removed from the ignition and the running lights remained on as did the warning alarm as though the key were left in the ignition. I left the car only after I pulled the left and right fuse from the panel. When I returned to the car, I inserted the fuses and started the vehicle but was unable to shift the car into gear as the car would not let me depress the button on the shifter to do so. I have to now shut the car off and pull the ignition fuse and then reinsert it to get the car in gear. What the heck?.

The gauge cluster on my 2004 Cavalier has suddnely started malfunctioning. This is a serious safety issue as I do not know how hot my engine is or how fast I am going. The tach and gas gauges seem to still work (don't know for how long though), but speedometer and temp gauge do not. My car has very low mileage and I will just have had it for 10 years as of this month. I am the only owner of this car and it has been well taken care of. I cannot believe that chevy will not recall this faulty gauge panel. This is a safety issue and not a part that should just suddenly wear out on a car. With all of the issues that are suddenly surfacing with gm I am shocked that this has not been recalled before and I know I am not the only person to have this issue. God forbid someone not know this is an issue and they pull over because they think their car is overheating and get out to check only to get hit by another car. I will never buy another chevy again unless they step up and take responsibility for this faulty gauge cluster.

Car shut off no power steering gauges shut off everything turned off but lights stayed on and flashers worked.

My instrument panel is not working properly. The speedometer was indicating incorrect speeds before it stopped working completely. The gas, rpm, and temperature gauges indicate incorrect information as well. This is a real safety issue.

Speedometer quits working; today's example; we were entering an interstate and accelerating to the 65 mph posted speed limit, and the speedometer locked at 45 and stayed there. Did not change and remains there until we got the car home. The worst part is my son, a student driver was driving and had no way to know how fast he was going and had to remain there until we could get off the interstate and exchange places. This is dangerous and needs to be investigated. I researched the internet as well as this site, and see many more with the same complaint.

Speedometer is unreliable. Sometimes it shows faster, sometimes it shows slower. Sticks in place at times. Next, the temp gauge made me think my car was running very hot and I bought a $25 temperature sensor first, that didn't help, so I was going to replace thermostat. Then I learned about this being a problem with thousands of these cars, so I am not doing anything to it until there is a recall. I'll use a gps to tell my speed. I have had two speeding tickets over this because I had no idea the thing was not working right until it got really bad and started sticking in one place for days. Each ticket will give me two points on my license because of this. My insurance will go up. Also, I don't get paid for the time I take off to go to traffic court over these tickets. I am 65 years old and never had a ticket until these two. Thanks, chevy.

Suddenly without warning the whole instrument cluster panel (fuel gauge, speedometer, rpm gauge & temperature gauge all stopped working correctly and then suddenly stopped working at all! found out that this is a common complaint and very expensive to replace. It is very dangerous driving without knowledge of your speed! there should be a recall on this also as it is a very common problem and dangerous.

When I turn on my car defroster, it starts popping very loud. At one time it started popping when I set the car at idle, and when I returned to the car, it was filled with smoke or dust. I had to air out the car for a while before I could drive it. The defroster doesn't pop every time, and it quits after about 30 minutes each time. Also, when I bought the car, it needed a new consol, so I had it replaced. The day-time running lights go out and flash at people. When they go out, the sevice light comes on. I have to drive with my headlights on so the day-time running lights do not flash at people.

My speedometer stopped working. Apparently I'm not the only one this has happened to. . . Read more...

The cluster on my 2004 chevy Cavalier stopped working while I was on a road trip, I have done much research the past few days and came to the conclusion that the cluster in the 2004-05 chevy Cavaliers are defective due to many other people having the same problem. This is a real safety issue because I don't know how much gas my car has, how fast im going and if my cars temperature is to high, if y'all could get to the bottom of this issue it will be greatly appreciated.

The speed cluster acts up from time to time. Sometimes the mph gauge doesn't read or is not accurate or sticks and sometimes the heat gauge doesn't work and sometimes the gas gauge doesn't work. Sometimes I get a brake light that lights up and sometimes the abs light comes on. The entire cluster acts up from time to time with all different things wrong.

Speedometer stuck at 60mph. . . Its not that old of a car and only has 58 thousand miles on it this should be a recall with all the people complaining the same thing happened with the low miles rediculous!!!.

Speedometer first began to malfunction, followed by all other gauges. No gauges work properly now. Speed is unknown, rpms is unknown, amount of gas in tank is unknown, proper function of engine is unknown.

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 guage 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 guage doesn't work and neither will the tachometer. Very dissappointed. 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!.

Gas guage 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 guage is halting the temp guage from rising to normal. Today 1/17/11 started car this morning and speed guage is pointing straight down to steering wheel. Proceeded to drive 8 minutes to work all the time the dash was going crazy the milage spot had the word error on it,& every light was on, on the dashbooard- 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 speedomoter should last for at least 10 yrs, my car is 6yrs old. I bought this car brand new and have followed the reccommended 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.

While driving down a highway the speedometer stayed at 65 mph while he brakes were depressed and the car was slowing. When the car was parked 15 minutes later and shut off wit the key removed the speedometer still read 65 mph. This continued for some time before replacing the speedometer cluster.

All gauges on instrument panel quit working completely at first but now move around backwards or any direction they choose. . . Never correct!!!!! this is very dangerous!!!!!!.

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.

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.

2004 Cavalier gauges go crazy. 110mph in the driveway, tachometer says 9000 rpm when I am idling. Gas gauge is no longer reliable. . Particularly a problem in cold and damp weather, hot weather and on open highway. I never know how fast I am driving, whether I will run out of gas, or if the engine rpm's are so high the motor will explode. . 31,000 miles on the car so it is low mileage.

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.

The contact owns a 2004 Chevrolet Cavalier. While parked the contact noticed the fuel gauge displayed the incorrect reading. The reading would fluctuate from empty and full. In addition, the contact noticed the speedometer did not read the accurate speed while driving. The vehicle was taken to an independent mechanic for diagnostic. The mechanic stated the instrument cluster would have to be replaced but the part was not available for repair. The vehicle was not repaired. The approximate failure mileage was 100,000.

Erratic speedometer reading and occasional incorrect fuel gauge reading, I have on many occasions had the speedometer rise to 110 mph while driving at approximate posted speeds, approximate because I have no way to actually tell how fast I'm driving. After researching I found this is a major issue with many year 2001 and up gm vehicles with only the higher end Cadillac type and larger SUV's being recalled ( which have the same exact stepper motors that are causing the problems ). I guess gm figures it's only necessary to repair the speedometers on the 5000 lb plus vehicles traveling at unknown speeds in hopes of saving the smaller vehicles from being hit by them. I did call the gm dealer I bought the car new from and they said there are no recalls on my Cavalier and it would cost approx. $300 not including labor for an exchange unit or send out and repair of my original.

The instrument panel cluster gauges (speedometer; gas gauge; tachometer) started acting crazy and the dials would jump all over the place. Finally, the dials just stopped working. At the same time my inside dome light stopped working. It would go on when the car was not running so it had to be disengaged completely so it would not run down my battery. Right after that my car turned off while being driven and the keys were still in the ignition. (this has happened three times). This vehicle does not appear under any recalls. I called gm directly but was not able to get any resolution due to language barriers (the reps did not speak english). This was reported to car complaints. Com and hundreds of reports and complaints have been reported for the same thing (especially the cluster and electrical problems) but no recalls have been issued. These are very expensive items to have fixed and pose serious safety issues. Many, many people need help and no where to turn and gm has ignored these problems with the 2004 Cavalier completely. All fuses have been checked and replaced as recommended as well as all other recommendations on how to fix. On behalf of all Cavalier owners who have been ignored please, please help!!!! this has also been reported to motortrend. Com. Thank you for any help you can offer!!!.