Anyone know how to get to the lights for the trip calculator? I bought the replacement led's from LED automotive and I tried to follow their directions but I didn't get very far. I don't want to break any tabs or anything.

 

For the Odometer all you have to do is twist out the three bulbs, take the incadesant bulbs out of the sockets, and replace them with the LEDs, then twist them back into the gauge cluster. There isn't any need to take the whole cluster apart because you won't be able to get to them from up top anyway.

 

You have any pics? It may be easy for you but it's hard for me to visualize it w/out pics or a DIY of some sort. The intructions on their website left me confused.

 

I'll try and snap some pics tomorrow when there's light out.

 

I know this is old, but anyone have pics that could help?

 

here is a rough step by step. i plan on taking my dash back apart to add some leds next week and will try to get a little write up going.
http://www.ledautomotive.com/HowToGu...03TL/index.asp

also sift through this thread and you might find some helpful info
https://acurazine.com/forums/showthr...highlight=leds

 

ok took my dash back apart for some rework. i am going to add 2 additional LEDs at 80mph and the MPH main logo. i'm also kicking around adding some to the gas and temp gauge. below are the pictures of my current LED setup.

cluster removed from dash. had to drill holes to feed the wires out.


each LED has its own + and - wire. then each are grouped and tied into one heavier gauge wire with a plug.


wires are run between gauges anywhere i could fit them out of the LED light




a little reminder when you remove the back you will need to straighten the small clips out and then push on the gauge motor through the holes between the clips. this will pop the gauge loose. (must have clear and black plastic removed from front)


now for my mess!








and i forgot to mention that these lights alone will not create a white face. there is still the tedious task of using acetone (fingernail polish remover) to remove the yellow tint from the backs of the gauges. i will try and get some pictures.

 

Thats the same way I did my gauges, well almost, the circuit for the original five lights blew somehow? So I just used the same power source people used for the reverse glow lights.

 

damn dude, that makes my head hurt, and i've done custom LEDs before but not like that.

p.s. you should open up a shop.

 

clean-
ya the wiring is kind of crazy but wiring them in series would of been to difficult getting them to be the right spacing. i would do this for people but at $25/hr i doubt they would pay me. probably be around $150-200 for labor.
----------------------------------------------------------------------------
i soldered the LEDs and resisitors but couldn't find my wire anywhere. pending on the weather, currently shitty, i'll go to fry's and get some more.

here are the resistors. you will need 1/4 watt 560 ohm


the the finished product. the longer stem off the LED is the + side. note resister end that is soldered to the + side.

 

Fun isn't, soldering all those LEDs?

I've still not finished re-doing my setup. I've got to take my dash apart soon anyway, so I might as well do it all at once.

 

look at that damn fine solder job!
ya i'm just now finally adding this LED. everything was perfect except for this one spot that was dim. bugged the crap out of me. i just finished adding the MPH area LED and now am trying to decide on adding the others around the gas and temp areas.

 

look at that damn fine solder job!
ya i'm just now finally adding this LED. everything was perfect except for this one spot that was dim. bugged the crap out of me. i just finished adding the MPH area LED and now am trying to decide on adding the others around the gas and temp areas.

this shows the green dot matrix stuff removed.
no i do not know why this one stayed cloudy and the others turned clear.







be careful when seperating the clear black plastic from the speedo thin plastic. if you get any remover on the front of the gauges it will smear the colors and it will be ruined!

 

damn that looks like a huge pain

 

And it's pretty easy to get high off the acetone removing the blue filter behind the gauges.

 

seriously, people will pay. if you don't think so, i guess you haven't heard of ClearCorners.
http://www.clearcorners.com/
yea, they have been charging those prices for the last few years and are still in business.

 

wow those prices are nuts. i could do about 2 CLs here in austin then i would have to tap into the accord market. i doubt anyone would want to ship their cluster across country. hell i'm not sure if the car will start without the cluster installed, anyone know?

 

I've been working on another member's interior over the summer. It's not easy working on a car that's half way across the country. I believe he's been driving around w/o any of his gauges. It's really time consuming, considering I had to take apart my dash in order to test everything. Honestly, the time taken to complete everything would have to be considered a full time job. That's time I don't have while I'm in school and working at the same time. If people want to pay me, I might just quit school and convert interiors to LEDs for the rest of my life.

 

What you do, is buy a couple used clusters yourself. Convert and test them to make sure the light is correct and even. Then you sell them to someone and charge a core. When someone buys a new cluster from you for say, $200 + $200 core (or whatever the cluster actually costs) then they send you their original cluster, and you convert that and start the whole game over. You might put a feeler out for it. I think you'd have more people interested in it than you realize. Course you'd have to offer up some kind of guarantee that this thing will last more than 3 days. There are a lot of people on here who make enough money that it would be a waste of their time to spend 5 hours trying to figure out how to do this when they can pay someone else a couple hundred to do it for them.

 

only issue with clusters is the mileage will be incorrect.

 

ya and that's no bueno, enough to turn people away.

basing my pricing off clearcorners.com i should charge about $500 for the gauges alone. alright people lets see the money!

 

Yeah, the mileage factor is the only thing that doesn't work too good with the core charge idea. Although, there are devices that you can change the mileage for the gauges, but those go for thousands. But hey, if you're charging $500 for the gauges alone, you may just have a buisness there if you like spending your days soldering. And if I do this again for someone, I'd probably have to charge that much for it to be worth my time.

 

ok finally done! i added one on the MPH, gas symbol and the temp symbol. the pictures below will tell you what the cluster looks like with just the bulbs replaced with LED bulbs. then the others are with the added LED singles, i.e. the wiring nest.

 

looks g00t. now i need to fix mine as well. i have some LEDs going dead in mine as well.

andrew-

if they are flickering in and out does that mean they are bad or just possibly a bad connection at a soldering point?

 

Sounds like the replacement bulbs are going south, though they could just be loose in their socket. Or is it one of the addition single LEDs? I've got one of the replacement bulbs doing the same thing on mine which will be fixed in the next couple of weeks. I'm trying something new using only single LEDs wired directly to the sockets and completely eliminating the need for the replacement bulbs. Will let you know how that works out.

Those look good, though Kevin.

Anyone with a navi screen know how to take it apart? I see the four screws and the clips on the top, bottom and side, but doesn't seem to want to come up. I'm scared I'm going to break it.

 

when the fuse for the guage cluster blew on my CL ( fuse in slot 10 on drivers side fuse box) the guage wasnt working. only the immoblizer key and battery warning light worked. i also couldnt open the sunroof or the windows. I couldnt shift out of park. so i had to shift to neutral using the shift lock and start my car in neutral. and even then, the tranny was only in D3. so not good having no cluster besides the obvious.

 

how can you even begin to say having no cluster caused your car to function like that... it's because you blew a fuse. while i don't know for sure if the car will work without it, the above is far from proof.

 

The car will function without a gauge cluster. Though there will most likely be something not normally lit up when it's reconnected. Most likely the SRS light. But driving without a gauge cluster can be very dangerous, which should be pretty common sense as you're pretty much driving blindly not knowing your exact speed or how much fuel you have left. And I doubt the poster above's problems were because the lights on the cluster were out. That sounds like a more serious problem to me.

 

MAn that looks TIght!! I would pay you to do mine and shoot i might even drive to austin to check you out and crusie around while you are doing my car!!

I do agree about the warranty thing because that lkind of money will have to last a long time buddy. the last thing you want is people barking up your door because one half of the clsuter has gone out or something!!

 

Im with ^^, Ill pay you guys to do mine and buy you dinner. You interested?

 

i believe we can work something out. gaping is the one that does the entire console, i have yet to tackle that portion. pm me and we can talk.

 

Yeah, if you're in the Houston area, I may be able to help you out. Doing this project long distance is not the easiest, and will leave who's ever car torn apart for a week or two at the very least.

 

i know i can do the gauges in a day though. just have the LEDs soldered up with resistors and wire leads and that's a large portion of time right there cut off.

 

Oh yeah, if everything's soldered already and it just needs assembly, that shouldn't take too long. But doing anything long distance using shipping will take at the VERY least a week. But in order for that to work, you need the prep time of getting everything ready and soldered. That can be done on a weekend, but that's not really my idea of a fun and restful weekend, you know what I mean? You also have to take into consideration you'll have to remove the blue filter behind the gauges, and if you're going to replce the LEDs for the Odometer as well, you'll need to have those ordered before hand or make them yourself before hand. Get Ross to do some of that, though. He likes it.

 

ya it would be a necessity to have all parts in hand. mainly i'm talking about helping these other texas guys out. they can swing in and the gauges can be knocked out. the center console being all LED doesn't really appeal to me knowing what all is involved. the gauges are just plain HOT when complete!

 

I'd rather work on the center console and all the switches, myself. Though, I do admit the CL/TL gauges do look quite amazing with LEDs. They really should have came that way from the factory. The technology was all there, just the design wasn't. And probably the expense wasn't too efficient. The cost of LEDs has come WAY down in the last 2-3 years. I remember when a SINGLE white or blue LED cost $3! Now, imagine what you'd have to charge for those gauges.

 

i never said that i drove around with no cluster. i drove around with a blown fuse causing the cluster not to operate. im simply saying that these symptoms might happen driving around with no cluster.

 

not because the lights were out, but because the fuse for the cluster blew. the solution to my above problems was to replace a 7.5 volt fuse.

 

wow that looks really hard