2003 Tahoe cluster draining battery?

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jose6326

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so i have been having issues with my cluster and sorry for the long post


here is a bit of history on the cluster

the PRNDL backlight was not working so thanks to this great site i reflowed the 7 resistors and got it working
then reading through other posts i found out i can change the LED's so i bought some cheap ebay LED's that came with soldered in resistors
installed those in the cluster and they worked fine

the stepper motors i think were going bad because you can hear the gears every time i would turn on the ignition when the needles would move. but i havent replaced the motors yet.


so in the last 3-5 months the LED's have been flickering like an equalizer to music and sometimes it would shut off completely even though the gauges worked fine

then intermittently the gauges would just go crazy or it would not work at all even if my tahoe was running or not. at times when i got in my tahoe i can hear the stepper motors operating but the needles would not move. when i would park and turn the key to off position and open the door the LED's would turn off but the stepper motors would operate.

then in the last 2 months twice my tahoe would not start because the battery was dead. i charged the battery and tested it and was still good i also tested my alternator and still good.

so just this past week i left work as i drove off about a block away my LED's brightened up, the PRNDL shut off, gauges stopped working and i felt the engine loosing power . so i was able to get off the street and the engine died. tried starting it back up and the starter relay began to click telling me the battery died but no battery light turned on. so i got a jump, started right up, drove home, shut it off and started it back up with no issues. drove around to run some errands and no battery issues.

this past weekend i decided to remove the cluster so i can drive without it so i dont risk it dying out again
before i did i started up the engine to make sure the battery wasnt dead which it was not.
when i disconnected the cluster i noticed the fuel gauge needle moved so i reconnected it so it would go back to normal position when i turn the key to the on position
well for some reason the battery went dead not even 5 minutes after i had the engine running and the from the first time i disconnected the cluster

has anyone experienced this issue?
i am going to remove the LED's and order new stepper motors and hopefully this fixes the issue
if someone can provide a link to stepper motors and other LED's with no issues i would appreciate it

also, can i add an extra stepper motor for the trans temp since there is a spot and solder points for it on the cluster?
will it be operational?


again sorry for the long post
 

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