Hey guys, I just have a few questions regarding the Cobalt's gauge panel. I know some Cobalts come with white faced gauges, while others have black. My car has black gauges, but I like the look of the white ones a little more. Now before anyone suggests I search to find my answer, I thought I'd mention that I already did, but I have questions which weren't answered in the threads that came up in the search.

First off, do the white faced gauge clusters even exist up here in Canada? All the ones I've seen have the speedometer reading in MPH, with KM/H being the small set of numbers. If these clusters were never offered on Canadian Cobalts, then that ends that.

If they do exist up here then we can proceed. I read alot of threads asking about whether the cluster swaps will work, and I think the concensus is that they will work as long as the increments on the gauges (both speedometer and tach) in both clusters match. Basically that means that a cluster for a 2.2L car only works in a 2.2L car, a 2.4L cluster only works in a 2.4L car, etc etc. So that part I'm aware of. What I'm still curious about is where the mileage is actually stored. Is it in the cluster, or is it in the computer? If you swap a cluster into your car, will it read your mileage, or will it read the mileage from the car it was removed from?

That's basically it. Oh and I know that many places sell gauge overlays that can get me the white faced look without needing to swap the entire cluster, but I feel it's easier to just unplug one cluster and plug the new one in rather than taking apart the only cluster I have to install overlays. Any help is appreciated.

 

Anyone know anything?

 

Well the mileage is stored in the computer, so that shouldn't be an issue. I'm not sure about the swapping back and forth and all that. But I'm 99% sure if you put a cluster from another car into your the mileage would still be correct from your car, not the other car.

The cluster isn't hard to take apart. I installed my gauge overlays in about 30 minutes.

 

I wouldn't be saying your 99% sure there...

I came from the Colorado forums when I traded the truck for my G5...and we had to take our clusters to the dealership BEFORE we swapped them so they can look at the mileage on your cluster and Program it into the new one... Each on of them clusters had their own mini computer in them that calculated miles by the MPH you did. If you go on EBAY and search for Colorado or H3 gauge clusters you'll see a lot of them have mileage already on them.

So If GM did this with the Colorado, I wouldn't doubt that they did this with every other truck/car out there.