Dashboard Replacement 2013 GMT900 Yukon/Tahoe

[t_bergman]

I wanted to share with the community my process of how I replaced the dashboard in my 2013 Yukon XL 2500; there seems to be a lot of good info already shared but I was never able to find a complete guide to the process. This is simply how I was able to accomplish the replacement and is not necessarily the right or wrong way, if you are unsure, please consult your local GM service center.

Before you get started, ensure that you have the following:

• The entire day free, I started at 9am and it took all the way until 6pm with an hour for lunch. I took my time and labeled every set of screws which came out and cleaned/vacuumed the parts as they went back in.
• A 2nd person to help lift out the old dash, lift in the new dash, and provide moral support.
• 10mm, 7mm, T6 torx, Phillips head, and ratchets with extensions. I have the following from Home Deport which includes everything needed except the T6. https://www.homedepot.com/p/Husky-Mechanics-Tool-Set-290-Piece-H290MTS/312945780
• Some sort of foam to shove into the front defroster while working, on a completely unrelated subject I now have a video borescope and flexible magnetic tool grabber.
• Be prepared to break something, the plastic pieces are older at this point, and I was mentally prepared to break something accidentally which I’d needed to order for replacement later.
• A large working space, I wanted to be able to spread everything out as I took things apart and pulled the two other cars out of the garage to do the work.
• Large lights and battery-operated lights to see everything. I have this two piece set from Amazon that worked great. https://www.amazon.com/dp/B07G9X19G1
• A good trim removal kit, I bought a second to ensure I could pry with even force on the larger pieces. https://www.amazon.com/dp/B07HRNKY8P
• A couple large beach towels, I covered my seats and center console to ensure I didn’t scratch the leather.

YouTube Videos watched and reviewed during the process:

• specifically at 6:30 to watch how they got the dashboard back into the vehicle.

The GM part number for the dash is 23224747, this is a non-center speaker ebony interior and 23224733 for the extension. I went with a Dorman product for the extension which is 926-336.

Before I began, I separated the key from the remote and shifted into M while also setting the parking brake. I then disconnected the battery and held the horn for 30+ seconds to ensure there was no more electricity in the system prior to removing the air bags.

Getting started you can see that I have the cap on, I initially thought I would need to cut horizontally the cap in two, but I started to pry it apart using a larger trim tool and the glue used was easy to get apart.

Before fully pulling the cap, I removed both A pillar trim pieces.

There are two bolts located in the assist handle on the passenger side which needs to be removed, take care on both sides as the speaker wire does not have a lot of maneuvering space.

 

[t_bergman]

The cap pulled the extension off with it, when pulling be careful as you don’t want plastic pieces falling into the dash cavity and then rattling around later.

With the dash cap off, I started by removing the center dash trim piece. This is where the extra time tools came in handy as I was able to pry from multiple places. The piece goes from the DIC (don’t forget the wire) to the far right of the wood trim.

Take the single screw out and pull the passenger’s air vent out. I ended up cracking the silver trim on the bottom in a spot as this was a very tricky removal.

 

[t_bergman]

There are then two more screws behind the wood trim piece which need to be removed.

Remove the silver trim piece then the four screws around the radio stack.

After that it’s onto the radio stack, loosen all the screws and start from the radio (4 screws) and work down to the cigarette plug. They fit together as you’ll see.

 

[t_bergman]

The following are pictures of how the wiring is laid out behind the radio, HVAC controls, and power/options panels.

There will be a single screw behind the stack brining the total removed to 13.

Remove the light and 4x4 controls using trim removal pieces.

 

[t_bergman]

Pull the driver's side vent out using trim removal tools, I found using two tools to pry out the top and bottom worked best.

Moving over to the passenger side, there is a trim piece above the glovebox which needs to be removed. This picture is with the piece already out of the truck.

Pull the three screws out holding the dashboard in found behind this trim piece.

Remove two screws from the passenger side fuse panel after removing the fuse panel covering.

Moving back over to the driver's side, the bottom trim piece near your knees will come out with two phillips head screws and a 10mm bolt from the underside. The bolt is located in the circle, the phillips head screws are easy to identify.

 

[t_bergman]

More pictures of the knee trim piece and removal:

Take out the two screws at the drivers side fuse panel.

Now onto the dash cluster, remove the two screws in the following two pictures.

 

[t_bergman]

Get your Torx #6 our and there are two screws which are underneath the hump to this trim piece which need to come up. If you have a shorter screw driver that will be ideal as the steering column will get in the way of longer tools.

You can see the shifter in the above picture for reference of position.

Once the trim piece is removed your cluster will look like this:

The cluster overall has four screws which need to come out, top and bottom two. The top two are easy whereas in the post below I will show how the trim around the gauges needs to be removed to get to the bottom screws.

 

[t_bergman]

Once the top two screws are out, the black trim piece which separates the individual gauges needs to be pulled from it's clips. I've circled the clip in red which is on both sides. I found it easiest to use a 90 degree trim tool in the engine temp and fuel gauge locations and pull towards myself.

Left side:

This will allow you to remove the cluster and you should be left with a view like this:

I took the opportunity at this point to remove the black trim from the cluster as you'll put them in separately and clean the glass with RainX glass cleaner to ensure it stays clean.

Now to the extension area on the drivers side, there are two harnesses you'll unclip from each other and each has Christmas tree type plugs which attach them to the dashboard channels. On the back of this first harness you need to remove the grey clip as the new dashboard does not come with it.

The last picture on this reply shows the grey clip, one harness connector and I am holding the larger harness connector.

 

[t_bergman]

Moving over to the passenger side there are three connections to remove, they also have Christmas tree type connections which need to be removed.

If you have a very small flathead screwdriver it will greatly assist in taking apart the connection with the green wire.

Heading over to the driver's side again, below the 4x4 and light controls, remove two screws. You're probably wondering why I bounce back and forth between the two sides? I have a bad back and getting up and walking around the car does some wonders when you're hunched over in a single position.

Within the cluster, there are now two more screws to remove. This is the bottom left where the cluster used to be. Screw 21 (front) was removed with the cluster.

Same thing on the right, remove screw 26, 24 has already been removed.

Remove screw 11 just beneath the shifter.

 

[t_bergman]

We've moving over to the passenger front airbag, as I mentioned above I've disconnected the battery and held the horn for 30 seconds to ensure there isn't any power in the system anymore.

There are four silver bolts which you can see through where the wood portion of my dash trim used to be.

Here is the left side:

Here is the right side, you can see one bolt removed and one still needing to be removed.

Pry around the top of the airbag trim piece and it will lift out of the hold. Disconnect the harness.

You will be left with a view like this:

Remove the two bolts that have now been exposed.