Brought to you by 1AAuto.com, your source for quality replacement parts and the best service on the Internet.
Hi, I'm Mike Green. I'm one of the owners of 1A Auto. I want to help you save time and money repairing or maintaining your vehicle. I'm going to use my 20-plus years experience restoring and repairing cars and trucks like this to show you the correct way to install parts from 1AAuto.com. The right parts installed correctly: that's going to save you time and money. Thank you and enjoy the video.
In this video we're going to show you how to replace the multifunction switch on this Chevy Venture, the same as any '97 to '05, the Venture, the Transport, Montana, Silhouette, also a couple of other GM vehicles.
The tools you'll need are a 7 mm socket and driver which is pretty common; a T25 Torx bit or driver; an E5 Star socket; a bent tip awl or similar tool . you might be able to make something out of a paperclip actually ., and a flat blade screwdriver. A couple of these tools are a little specialized, but they're not very expensive.
Start out by disconnecting the positive battery cable here on this vehicle. I'm going to fast forward here. Normally you would want to disconnect your negative, but on these vans it's a whole lot easier to get to the positive. Just make sure your wrench doesn't touch anything metal so that you don't get any sparks.
Okay, we're going to take the dash front apart; because, it makes getting the steering column trim a whole lot easier to get apart and really a whole lot easier to get back together. Where you want to start is underneath, there are two trim pins. You can see one right here and one right over here. Reach on each side of those pins and then pull down firm to release them. Now with those pins out of the way there's three 7 mm screws, one there, one there and then one right over here. For those I'm going to use a 7 mm socket with a driver. Once again we'll fast forward through just taking those three screws out. Once those screws are removed, you just want to grab onto the top of your trim and pull it out and away.
Now you're going to want to remove this trim panel around your radio and you kind of pull up on it. You want to lift it up and then out and then pull it out right there and let that hang like that. Now you want to move your steering wheel down and you want to remove the trim around your dash, which you want to grab the side here and pull the top down and then pull the top out first. Now you want to pull the bottom out on the left side, the middle and over here. Something to note, I forgot to say this. Obviously, you want to bring your gearshift lever down. Pull your trim out and then pull the top up and out. Down here, you've got to pull it around the headlight switch and up and off. Put that to the side as well. Put your steering wheel back up. Up underneath are the two Torx screws, one there and then one there. We'll speed it up and those are T25 Torx screws.
Once you remove those you want to grab your tilt lever and just pull it straight out. It just pulls right out. You can grab your trim panel right below your signal here and pull it down, and then you can see it hinges back. It's the same thing on the other side. From underneath you want to remove two E5 star shaped screws. One right there that's easy to see and then there's one up in there, once I slow the camera down, where is it? Right there above the wires where I'm pointing. So, you want to remove those two screws. What you'll need to remove those screws is a small E5 star shaped bit or socket. When you remove this one, you want to hold on to this piece of plastic right here and not let it turn.
Now that those are off, you can see that your top cover is loose. What you're going to want to do is put your tilt lever back in. Tilt your column back down like that. As you lift the cover up and with a flashlight shining in there, you'll see a small hole right where that arrow is pointing. Then you're going to want to use a bent tip awl or maybe you could even modify a paperclip and put it down in that hole. I probably should have videoed this from the other side, but you want to put your awl in. Put it into that button. Turn your key to the start, to the run position first and then to the start position, push your key in towards the center of the steering column. Push down with that awl and then pull out and then pull your awl out and pull the lock cylinder out. What I'm going to do is remove the plastic cover and then put the lock cylinder back in so I can show you without that cover in the way, so you can get a little better idea. It's a little tricky, but once you get it, it's easy. You put it back in and again turn your key all the way to the start position, so as far forward as it goes. Then put that awl down in there and pull out. You'll feel it kind of come out a little bit and then release the awl and it will come out all the way.
Before we disconnect or unbolt the switch, what we want to do is disconnect the wiring harness. There's a junction block here and that's a 7 mm bolt. We want to start by removing that 7 mm bolt. Take a 7 mm socket on a driver. Stick it up in there. Fast forward a little bit. Now if you turn it, the bolt actually forces the harness apart. Then once you have that disconnected, use a flat blade screwdriver. Pry up on the connection a little bit and slide it forward and then do the same thing with the gray one. Pry down. Slide it forward. Then we're going to cut these wire ties that are holding it. There's one here and one right up here and then there's also another clamp that looks like you can just kind of put down, force it up and probably release that one.
Also you need to disconnect your cruise control, if you have cruise control. You can see there's a little green locking tab there. Try to push that out with the screwdriver. Once that tab is out you can use your screwdriver again to basically kind of push that tab out. Then that's your feed for your cruise control disconnected. I'm going to remove the T25 screws that are holding the switch assembly in place. That one is pretty easy. This one's a little different; because, the screw comes in from the front here. Without taking the steering wheel off it's a little difficult to get to, but I'll show you how to do it. You want to take one of these bits. It's a T25 bit and a 1/4 wrench. Hold it and use the open end. I'm going to fast forward through here. This is probably the most difficult part of the whole installation, is just kind of getting your thumb in there and holding that Torx bit against the screw and then undoing it with the wrench. It's just a little tedious. I will clip these wire ties. There's our switch assembly coming up and out.
Here's our original switch and lever. Here's a new switch and lever from 1A Auto. You can see everything is the same on the replacement. The plastic is a little bit darker, but that's really not usually a big deal, especially if your old one is not working. Your new one will be. We're going to end it here, part one. If you want to see the rest of this re-installing the switch just see the same title, but part two.
We hope this helps you out. Brought to you by www.1AAuto.com, your source for quality replacement parts and the best service on the Internet. Please feel free to call us toll-free, 888-844-3393. We're the company that's here for you on the Internet and in person.