Thinking about offloading the Traverse within the next year. Over 165,000 miles, electrical glitches have been a recurring thing, A/C has a slow leak, and so far I've avoided the dreaded 3.6 timing chain problems, but apparently even 2010s are not immune to timing chains wearing out. Mechanically it's OK, but the biggest electrical gremlin it has is the odometer/information display is unreadable during the day. Problem is the dimmer circuitry driving the fluorescent display; the nighttime "dim" mode works, but the daytime brightness is having problems. I dug into the cluster and determined I couldn't fix it without a schematic, especially since the dimmer circuitry is buried under the display with 40+ pins soldered to the board. Solder joints that I can see look fine, although I reflowed a couple to no avail. I'm certain it's a cracked solder joint or loose connection somewhere; for a while before it gave up the ghost completely I could whack the dash when it faded out and it would work again during the day for a while. For now I just cover up the daylight sensor to switch to nighttime mode if I need to read the mileage.
Only viable fix seems to be a replacement cluster. A Dorman reman cluster is $450, and supposedly they can program it with the mileage I give them. Mine won't qualify for the $300 core, because my bezel is cracked (was already cracked when I bought it). Dealer won't program a junkyard one, and they want $600 to replace it with a new one. If trade-in is looking like around $3800 on KBB, would the hit from having a wonky odometer display justify the cost of just buying a reman?
Only viable fix seems to be a replacement cluster. A Dorman reman cluster is $450, and supposedly they can program it with the mileage I give them. Mine won't qualify for the $300 core, because my bezel is cracked (was already cracked when I bought it). Dealer won't program a junkyard one, and they want $600 to replace it with a new one. If trade-in is looking like around $3800 on KBB, would the hit from having a wonky odometer display justify the cost of just buying a reman?