Sunday 19 April 2015

Removing dashboard/console/speedo from Chrysler Grand Voyager

This is a break from my normal blog posts, but I'm going to be adding a few car information posts, since I've not bought another of my favourite cars of all time, the Chrysler Grand Voyager. This huge people carrier (7 seats) is a nice comfy big bulk of a car but has loads of gadgets and is just a really nice car to drive!

So onto the tutorial, I found that the speedometer, rev counter, etc, weren't illuminated at night, so looks like the bulbs were out, so to remove it here are the few simple steps. It didn't take long and is nice and straight forward.
First, there is a plastic cover at the base which exposes two of the first screws, this simply pops up so just apply a little force to the centre of this panel:

As you can see, I've popped that up on mine already. Be careful, the UK edition has that LED embedded which is the engine immobiliser light. The leads on it aren't very long, so don't pull the cover off too quickly.
Looking underneath you'll see the LED is on a small connector, so you can take each leg/lead off. Make sure you mark/make a note which colour lead onto which leg as LEDs are sensitive to polarity (+ and -) so make sure you put them back on the right way round!
LED on mine has yellow and grey leads, so I simply removed the grey lead and wrapped that leg on the LED in white electrician tape.

Remove that cover now and put it out of the way. You've then exposed all 4 screws (the top two screws are obvious)

All four are cross-head (otherwise know as Phillips) screws, so nice and easy. Once out you can remove the plastic facia. This is a little tricky due to it's size and the steering wheel getting in the way, it is slightly flexible so let it flex and eventually it'll come out.
There are then 4 screws at each corner of the panel, each of these are cross-head. Careful when you remove them, try not to let them drop. I did with one of mine and luckily it rattled it's way down and out the bottom into the footwell, but I think I was lucky!

After you've removed all four you can then gently start to move the whole panel towards you. The cable/connector for the panel is along the top near the middle, so pull it towards you slightly so you can see it. It uses the standard Chrysler GV connectors where you slide the red tab before you can press the release on it and tease it out. Try to get the connector out in one swift action. I didn't on my first attempt and the car started to light up a lot of panel lights randomly (Ignition off and key out, obviously) so be careful as I'd not want to do that too often in case it confused it!
Once disconnected you can remove the whole panel. Here is the back of the panel for reference and you can see the main connector just offset from the middle slightly.


(As an aside, you can see why my panel illumination doesn't work. There are no bulbs or even fittings where they should be! These are PC74 lights+fittings for reference)

Fitting it all back together is pretty much the reverse. It's not a complex/tricky job, but hope this helps.