I read somewhere that you can swap a cavalier and sunfire cluster out easily. I'd prefer the sunfire cluster as I find it a bit more stylish and I like the red lighting (i'm a pontiac person, who found a good deal on a cavialier btw). Is this true?

depends on what years your looking at. the 00+ are direct swaps. the 95-99 aren't. the wiring isn't the same so you'll have to splice that up. also you'll have to convert the dash or cut it to make the gauge cluster fit.




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if you do it you should get the hvac too mine look great! its all red and looks stock(well it is just not in a cav!)

If you have 95-99, you can go in and open up your guages and change the bulbs. I changed mine to red bulbs. My car is a 99, and I like the guage layout on it. The digital odometer, larger centered speedo, with 100k/60m right at the top, tach to the right, and gas to the left above temp.

I don't have a picture, but I love the way it turned out, the only hard part was getting the stock white bulbs out of the sockets. I ended up breaking 2 of the 4 bulbs, before I noticed the soldered spot, and just cut the little 'bulb wire' and it slipped right out. The bulbs were like $2 for a pack of 2, you only need 4, I bought six, luckily, because I ended up dropping one and breaking it. If you have a manual, you can put a peice of electrical tape on the inside of the 'shift light' spot, I like how that does not light up anymore.

hey guys, i have a 96 sunfire, and i want to get a 96 or newer cavy cluster in there. i already know what i have to do, i'm just wondering if anyone has an guides or guidelines i could follorw to ensure i don't damage my dash pad or cluster. the wiring harnes is pretty straight forward to re-wire if you know anything about wiring and have the original wiring diagram (lucky for me). i just wondering about the dashpad. will it actually look factory or are there some gaps n @!#$ after you remove some of the material. any feed back is greatly appreciated.

Well mine's an '04. So an '04 would be a direct swap and would fit right in the hole for the cluster? I know the Sunfire interior is quite a bit different. But yeah I'm considering getting a Grand Am GT MP3 Monsoon stereo installed into it, so I figured I might as well convert everything over to red.

Thrice . wrote:i just wondering about the dashpad. will it actually look factory or are there some gaps n @!#$ after you remove some of the material. any feed back is greatly appreciated.

95-99 Sunfire cluster is a different size, you can either modify it or the dash to fit. Many people swap in the dash, but you also have to get the door panels if you do that.

Cory Wilson wrote:Well mine's an '04. So an '04 would be a direct swap and would fit right in the hole for the cluster?

00-05 direct swap




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Raptor wrote:

Cory Wilson wrote:Well mine's an '04. So an '04 would be a direct swap and would fit right in the hole for the cluster?

00-05 direct swap

Yup. It takes about 25 minutes start to finish if you know what you're doing and where every screw/bolt is.

For safety's sake. You may wish to disconnect the negative battery cable and wait 15 minutes before starting this project. This will cut the power to the airbag sensors and allow them time to discharge. It's strongly suggested you do this to avoid accidental deployment of the passenger airbag

Quick rundown: You'll need a phillips head screwdriver (a stubby one helps, 2" - 3"), 5/16 socket, 6" - 10" extension, ratchet and a t20 star bit screwdriver (optional, but it helps)

Pop off the drivers side panel (where the fuse box is), it just pulls off. There's a brass bolt there.

Do the same to the passenger side.

Next open the glove box and unscrew the three black screws (T20, but the 5/16 will fit over them) along the upper edge by the dash pad.

Now look under the edge of the dash pad kind of "in" the glove box, there are two brass screws there too. They are a pain to get to, but if you drop them, they should fall out into the floorboard.

Next, unscrew the phillips head screw in the center of the windshield defroster vent on top of the dash and pop the vent cover off.

Next there are two T20 screws inside the vent, right at each side. The one on the right is longer, so remember that when putting it all back together.

Once you get all that undone, the dash pad will be disconnected and you can remove it. Pull up carefully, popping loose the clips holding it down over the cluster and the radio/vents.

With the dash pad off, there are 3-4 T20 screws holding the radio bezel in place. One on each side of the cluster, and then one or two over the center vents (can't remember exactly).

With the bezel loose, you can pull it forward enough to get to the two T20 screws holding the cluster in place. Once the closet is loose, pull it forward and up to remove it from the little grommetts holding it snug.

Now simply unplug the old cluster, plug in the new one and you're halfway done.

Point of advice, if you are getting one from a salvage source (ie: junk yard, ebay, or salvage parts supplier at a parts store, now would be a good time to turn the key to the "on" position and make sure everything works BEFORE reassembling everything.

Hope that helps. There's also a FAQ in the Interior stiucky that has pictures of the screw/bolt locations.



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Just curious, if the Cavalier doesn't have a tach and I replaced the cluster with a sunfire one, would the tach work? (2000+)