[badkelly]

i asked before, but want to make sure before i buy; will a gauge cluster from a 2010 forester simply plug into another 2010 forester? i ask because on my suburban, you have to have it reprogrammed for the security when you replace the clusterl.

this is from the prior issue where i screwed up the fuel gauge needle on the wife's forester and found a new cluster from another forester in michigan. i pulled the needle to do a minor mod and now the fuel gauge reading is off (it bounces and knocks the reading off by +50% when you turn the igintion on or off). the mileage is unknown, but i can work with that; i simply want to get the gauges all working correctly again and am pretty sure the dealer here won't smile on my toying with the cluster in the first place and will charge me full price to fix it (whatever that would be).

also, it's $195 or best offer.

 

[SubieOutlaw]

Could you not ask your local dealership to be sure? They would know about any reprogramming that might be required.

 

[badkelly]

we're an hour from the nearest dealer. actually, that dealer is not very well reputed; everybody that has bought from them has regretted it and griped about the terrible service they get, so we go on into denver subaru buying and service. i'm going to call on monday and ask. i wish it was like my suburban (or any of my gm's) where you can pull the needles and swap gauge faces, or swap out the needles for something cooler.

in fact, my little sister kept running out of gas because she'd let her gas gauge get too low on her tahoe, so i snuck in there and pulled the needle and set it about 1/8 inch up so when she was reading empty, she was still at about 1/8th of a tank. cured her running out of gas woes

 

[good dog]

+1 on talking to the dealer you have had some servicing with first. Preferably ask to talk to the service manager, rather than the service writers, without offending them. Explain that you received an unsatisfactory response from the selling dealer after having this problem initially. Explain your familiarity with adjusting the needles on the Tahoe and Suburban, hence your attempt on the stock gauges.
Basically admit you should have gotten a second opinion before attempting a fix. Here you are building a better relationship with the servicing dealer rather than the selling, if they see the gains in making a customer happy (they come back), they'll likely do something for you, hopefully a goodwill gesture in the form of a warranty claim.

Most dealerships aren't required to send warranty parts back unless they are being audited for warranty claims (that means their claims are being questioned), so they can easily replace a "broken gauge assembly".

Give it a try, do a little research via the dealers website, so you know who you are asking for when you do call, and if the service manager is unavailable ask for them to call you when they are.

Good luck and keep us posted here.

 

[badkelly]

nah, i totally screwed it up. i'll just learn my lesson and eat this one. i was actually trying to bypass the tire pressure light that was coming on twice a day, even though i had 37lbs in all tires.

 

[good dog]

Yet another problem the selling dealer said couldn't be fixed.:biggrin: Your call though.

 

[badkelly]

well, the doors said 29, the tires said 40. i called about 3hrs after we bought it to tell them and he gave me this big lecture about tire pressures and airing them cold and all that, then said they were supposed to be at 35. it's been an ongoing thing and i got tired of looking at it and took matters into my own hand.

and screwed it up

 

[badkelly]

well, i called and the service guy couldn't quite grasp 'i took the gauge cluster apart' at first til i referenced the ease with which you could disassemble a gm gauge face to swap out gauge faces and needles. so he talked to his lead tech and i got the answer i expected: you'll have to bring it in because i can't say for sure without looking at it.