Hi, this problem is present in many Intrigue's and Alero's, happens when you turn on the ignition and the motor starts turning, if the car doesn't start right up, the neddles to the temp and gas gage and the speedometer go crazy, most of the time when you turn the key off, they go back to the normal positions, but some time they get stuck.

It has happend to my 98 Intrigue 4 or 5 times, and what I do is take the Instrument panel off and manualy reset the needles.

It may sound complicated but it is not, it takes me about 15 min. to reset mine.

I can explain to you step by step how to remove the Instrument Panel, but you'll be better off getting the Haynes Repair Manual for your Alero, you'll find clear and simple instruccions and pictures to help thru. Besides, I can almost guarantee that it will happen again.

Good Luck

The stepper motor in the intrument cluster has died, it need to have that stepper replaced. Sorry it is not a user servicable part but ther are places that can do it if you take the panel in or send it off.

You can Remove and replace the panel yourself

The cluster has failed. Best and cheapest thing to do on a car that old is to try to find one in a junk yard with about the same miles. The only people who can work on them are licensed. Even the dealer has to send them out to be repaired and the dealer is about the only one that can send them. It is not terribly hard to replace and most junk yards charge about 50 bucks.

Hope this helps