How do you repair a gas gauge on a 98 Malibu that went 360 degrees around?

Answer

This happens to me every time I plug the car battery back in. What you have to do is take apart the dash and move the needle by hand.

Step 1) Tools, all you need is a star screwdriver step 2) unscrew the two screws that attached to the underside of the dash near your gauges. Step 3) carefully start pulling the dash cover back. There are two wires connected to this. The interior light dimmer dial, and the hazard lights. You will need to disconnect those by unsnapping them. The whole dash piece should come off all the way to the 'malibu' sign on the far right. Step 4) remove that clear plastic cover to your gauges. Now I bought my malibu used, so there was no screws on this part, but it looks like there are places for these screws to hold this in. Two at the top, two at the bottom. Getting this piece out is tricky. Try moving the steering wheel down to help. Once this is off, just use your finger to move the needle back. The needle should drop to the pin showing no gas, unless the car is on. Step 5) reassemply, putting the clear plastic cover back on is harder I find, you might have to use more force and try to bend the plastic to fit in a little easier. Make sure that you tripometer button goes through the plastic hole before using any force though. Then if you had 4 screws, rescrew them back in Step 6) Reconnected the wire to the interior light dimmer dial and the hazard lights. Step 7) Snap in the dash and screw in the two screws.

Answer

Very simple to fix you need a small electric wire like telephone line (only the copper part).Using the wire try to flip the needle using the small hole arround the mileage reset button, hope it helps.It took about 30 seconds to do this. it really works.

Answer

I used a coat hanger and stuck it through the odometer hole and wiggled it up there

First answer by ID1088845999. Last edit by ID1072417128. Question popularity: 69 [recommend question]