subtledreamer

First off, special thanks to teknoking, fsttyms1, and the now-gone hzm82 for helping me out with the install! You guys are greaattt.

Took me a long time to complete this DIY project, but alas it was both satisfying and educational~ way better than spending money to get it done at the shop! :P

[edit]

I have additional pictures at each step so just ask if you need them!

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Some pics for your viewing pleasure.

Here's what the package came with: 3 gauges, inverter (green-blue) w/ light intensity knob, and power cable without a friggin power connector (cheap asses)


Took out the black trim and unplugged all the AC/emergency light/trip select-reset/TCS/moonroof plugs.


Circuled in blue is where I am jacking power for the gauges. It's the headlight plug so when I turn on my lights the gagues turn on too.


Took out the gauge cluster, added double sided tape on the stock gauges, and (very carefully) slipped the new ones in. Man, I was super scared of messing up the needles.


Put everything back on... and viola! The ever-favorite blue color on my gauges! (notice i cut the trim around the gears because the gauges are made for 2000-2003 TLs w/ 5spd tranny and i have a '99 with only 4spd)


night shot (light intensity at about 60%... it gets pretty damn bright at 100% at night!)


doing some reving.

blackonblack02

Wow that looks great! Nice job man. Where did you get the guages? Do they come in any different colors?

subtledreamer

Thanks!
I got them off ebay: http://cgi.ebay.com/ebaymotors/ws/eB...RK%3AMEWN%3AIT

50 bucks shipped (stupid CA taxes).

Yes there is a switch to go between blue and green but the green looks . Only the center ring changes color and the markings change from that nice, deep blue to a watered-down blue. Let me hop down and take a picture...


green...

Da_iLLeZt_TL973

looks SICK i ordered mine......where did u mount the switch...how long did it take u to install em??

@cUr@-TL

it would look a lot better if there was no center rings... they just dont look right.. the blue digits look nice tho.. is there a version available without the center rings??

subtledreamer

Nah they don't come without the center rings, unforunately. I agree, they would look better without them but I can live with them.
fsttyms said somewhere that he made a separate switch for the center rings (can't find the picture) although I don't know how he did that.
haha as of now, the swtich is just stuffed behind the kick panel on some wires. Soon I'll have to think of a place to mount it, but it won't be anywhere near the cruise buttons the control unit looks like crap.

Took me... about 4, 5 hours total? I was stumped mid-way with the power connector thing so it took longer than expected.

subtledreamer

haha as of now, the swtich is just stuffed behind the kick panel on some wires. Soon I'll have to think of a place to mount it, but it won't be anywhere near the cruise buttons the control unit looks like crap.

Took me... about 4, 5 hours total? I was stumped mid-way with the power connector thing so it took longer than expected.

shogun

anyone with these on for a longer time frame (say 1 year or more) see any discoloration or changing of colors? i got the full glow set and it seems like the darkest blue i normally use is starting to be a hair greener on the middle gauge. i thought about reverse as i like them better but i dont like the blue numbers when not lit (if only they were black). oh well i might take mine out..

the pics look really nice too subtle nice work

OntarioTL

Looks sweet!!! Good job.

I thought about getting those but since I can't find any with KM/H as primary, I just went with LED's.


OntarioTL

dark inspire

awesome bro! im gonna have to do that one of these days! btw where did hmz82 go?

subtledreamer

Just did a little searching/stalking ... looks like he came back after my PM to him on A-I forums!

I hope I don't get pwned for bringing this up but anyway,

A member of the board was asking for guide/instructions for something and hzm82 posted a link to A-W forums to help out the guy. one of the mods gave him neg rep and deleted his post because we are not supposed to link to "rival" forums. hzm got pissed since he was just trying to help but instead got biten back instead so he left.
personally i think he only deserved a warning... but what can i do... oh well.

btw thanks for the comments guys!

alleyesonmeee

Very nice...I might order myself a set! Can you take a picture of them during the day for me?

subtledreamer

senks! here ya go, not the best pic but you should get the idea.

alleyesonmeee

Thanks looks good!

fsttyms1

great job. i have to pull mine apart. the tape let go and my speedo needle is sticking

IndyTypeS

great work and the blue looks awesome!

Dan Martin

Very cool and nice writeup.

Jput

the numbers look good but i agree that the center looks kind of odd

songoku

Looks good, but it would be better if there was no round light around the needle.

moahdriven

i was gonna go buy a power connector for mine soon, i believe 2 pin right? Where do the wires from the power connector connect to. In the DIY it says the female connector goes to the #3 outlet in the fusebox, but it never said nething about where to connect the power connector

AzNAzz

nice i jus bought one just now... so.. can you write me a DIY? please?

samkws

nice one buddy

how much you paid that for?


i am thikning of swapping the Type S guages too, but will do that later~

subtledreamer

thx sam!
50 bucks including s/h and stupid california taxes from ebay.
Actually I thought about swapping to TypeS gauges but I realized it'll be too different with the raised redline, VSA instead of TCS, and especially the D5/D4 thing (wont be able to simply cut the markings off). Also it's ~200 bucks from people who do sell them... out of my budget.

And blue lighting > yellowish white

You've got PM.

dark inspire

man this is definately gonna be my next mod!

samkws

nope
77 US shipped for sunnyside acura
80 US shipped for delray acura

samkws

a raised redline is what i am looking for

i would be thrilled to have a tach that redlines at 6900rpm

and our TL-P can hit 6900rpm with SS mode

dark inspire

yeah but the lights dont match up, ur gonna have to do some ghetto-rigging. do a search there are diagrams why TL-S guages wont fit in a TL-P

subtledreamer

Just because the gauges show a higher redline does NOT mean you can rev past the rev-limiter... It's not built into the gauges.
The appearance of a higher redline is misleading and dangerous if not anything else... you'll end up hitting the rev-limiter and/or shifting at a higher rpm than usual. In the long run it can really hurt your engine!
After reading about how bad it is to hit redline often, I have not went past 6500 since then.

yeah and as dark said... i believe some of the lights don't match up perfectly.

samkws

the limiter is at 6900rpm, same as TL-S

if you are in full auto it will shift around 6200rpm, but with SS you can hold up to 6900rpm, and that's where the power comes from~

i hit that once a while and it's fun~

oh reallie? i will do a search b4 i get them then~ thanks

dark inspire

yeah man, jus cuz the Guage has a diff redline, doesnt mean it makes the engine more powerful. id suggest gettin the Procarparts guage instead like subtledreamer, way less hassle. i believe they have two types, the reverse glow, like his, and then jsut teh ordinalry glow guages. take a look

fsttyms1

the gauges wont give you a higher redline. the limiter kicks in at its normal spot of around 6500.

samkws

diff redline does not really matter, i always hit til 7k rpm anyways~

as long as they work then i would be fine~

AzNAzz

so anyway, subtledreamer... i had nothing to do tonight and i stumbled across your page from your site w/ pic of your maine trip. sorry for being nosy but i was bored. but how come most of your family shots had something to do with lobsters?

subtledreamer

Because when we were in Maine all we ate were lobsters and.... more lobsters! my family loves seafood and especially lobster so that's why quite a number of pictures. And i mean come on, not most of them had to do with them... there were a lot of scenery pics as well!

AzNAzz

where were u in the pics?

eyesnake02

hey guys found a guage without the middle circle but I dont like the color much.

http://cgi.ebay.com/ebaymotors/ws/eB...category=33677

subtledreamer

somewhere it's not too hard to tell which is me haha

Yeah but I don't like how the whole gauge face glows... kinda ricey IMO.
Thanks for pointing that out though.

vfrdirk

Are the two lighted parts (center ring and remaining area) separate circuits? If you really wanted to rice it out, you could rig a switch to illuminate the center ring when V-TEC kicks on...

Oh, the rice of it all!

Dirk

johnny--2k

Im gonna have to try this!

SMILEY

They do look nice. I don't know why they don't make them for the type S. Anyone try these? http://cgi.ebay.com/ebaymotors/ws/eB...category=43952

They are total $24 shipped and it looks like I can cut out the triangle for the VSA... hmm...