2003 yukon

[rockola1971]

Holy Train Wreck Batman!

OP So which is it or is it both. You are just having Instrument cluster lighting not working or you are also having the engine just shutoff? Are the gauges all working and just not lit? Is the digital readout in the cluster working and visible?

There are few likely causes for a Instrument Cluster's backlighting not to work and even the gauges and Digital Readout. There is a voltage regulator on the circuit board of the instrument cluster that could have failed, the Instrument Cluster has a connector that connects at its rear into a fixed connector in the firewall. Clean these contacts. The Instrument clusters of our era have silver in the solder and you could have a condition that is called silver migration which is essentially corrosion "growing" off the silver solder and that corrosion will bridge electrical traces that are not suppose to be bridged on the Instrument Cluster circuit board. This will cause erratic stuff to happen or even damage the circuit board and make the cluster useless.
While the BCM might pass information to and from the Cluster it does NOT control the cluster.

A common problem is that the ground that goes from the rear of the engine to the firewall corrodes and makes a poor connection or is bad enough corroded that it breaks which can cause all kinds of BCM problems and can affect the cluster too.

The ground at the drivers side frame rail just under drivers side door can cause problems too if its connection is corroded or broken.

 

[Rawrestore68]

The dash guages, tach, Speedo, and drive position info sometimes are all blank when starting my 2003 Yukon Denali Xl on a cold morning. After engine starts, If I bang on the top of the dash, all functions return to normal Although I have not removed the instrument cluster (on the list), I suspect that a power connection pin or solder joint may the issue. The problem has not occurred in warm mornings. Several of my guages do not always reset upon start but that is separate issue. There are services that will refurb the gauge gauge cluster with new gauge clock motors and replace all illumination lights with LEDs. That’s my next step and they can test the cluster for an intermittent bad power connection. It is scary to try to drive with no guages, but in my case a good bang always resolved the intermittent cold morning problem. Good luck.

 

[Scottydoggs]

thats the cluster breaking on you. either find another cluster and send that one out to be rebuilt, or take the chance on your old one with a rebuild. you sign a odomitier statment tell them your miles on the old broken one and they will put your miles on the used one you send in if you go used route. you can also upgrade the face plate to the SS or escalade and something else iirc via the rebuilder. stepper motors are what work the gauges. known to fail. last time i had a cluster rebuilt i filled my tank and then used my gps for miles driven and mph. you need to fill the tank one time before hand and run it down so you have a avg to go off of. like how many miles will a tank last you type info. then you can drive around and feel ok about not running out of gas. truck will run just fine with no cluster too. blinkers work and all.