Upgrading the gauges has been on my to do list from the beginning, in fact it was the first thing I wanted to do. However with so many things going on and lack of information on the topic it stayed toward the back of the list. After sitting in my friends newly acquired 07 tl base the other day I was reminded of how much nicer and updated they look. I just had to bump this project up as this is truly a mod you can appreciate looking at everyday!

I bought a set of 07 gauges on ebay for sunday 135 shipped and they arrived today! 10 minutes later I had my old ones popped out and these popped right in completely plug and play! So far everything is fully functional, the only issue I need to work out in the airbag light is on, which I anticipated from my research on the forum. Supposedly a communication difference made in 07 and possibly corrected by swapping the airbag control modules.

Also just to note as you may notice I did buy auto gauges & I have a manual. Manual gauges are rare and hard to find, but even if they were available I wanted the auto gauges for some other project ideas I have. Such as displaying what gear i'm in like the auto does in manual shift mode. Some probably disagree but I think this would be nice and truly beneficial at times for a fairly new manual driver.

Physically the size of the 07 gauges are identical to the 06, even the plastic over the front is identical which I swapped out because mine had been recently polished and the 07 had some minor scuffing.

P.S. if anyone has a rattle sound from their gauges it is likely caused by the broken tab rattling in the clip socket (see red arrow). This exact same clip was broken on both my gauges prior to disassembly. This leads me to believe it is s weak point, plus I've heard people mention they all of a sudden develop a rattling sound from the gauge area this is definitely a potential culprit.

Well thats it for now i'll post more pics as I continue to work on them.

Oh also Please if anyone has a 07/08 electrical manual can you please scan & post the wiring diagrams from the gauge?? I really don't want to buy another service manual!

 

nice work!

whats your new mileage? lol

 

you mention it displays gears, lol does it work!?!?!

 

^its supposed to display gears in an Auto(when in manual mode). I think Roger is going to try to make it display the gear his (MT) will be in.(at any point while driving)

Looks Very Good Roger!

Do u have any plans for your old cluster?

 

^thats what I was asking!

DOes it work!>?!?!

 

nice! did you get a cluster near to your mileage?

 

I haven't messed with it yet I need to buy a 07 electrical service manual first before I start messing with it. I was able to find one 9,000 miles higher then my current mileage so I'm at 72,000 now : ( might take it out for a few thousand while i work on it so it can catch up.

 

I guess I'm the odd man out, I like the 04-06 cluster better

Still looks nice though, good job Roger

 

mileage is stored in the cluster on these cars??

 

nope, I was thinking the same thing. It doesn't look bad, but I like mine better. Also wondering about the mileage question.

 

Oh man the 07 gauges don't photograph well but they are so much nicer in person. Especially the MID its sharp and clear and not pixilated like the 06. Everything else in my interior is blue & white so the blue rings really set it off (for me at least )

 

I can tell about the MID, it does look clearer. Everything in my interior is blue and white also
I actually like that my gauges have more blue than white. Don't get me wrong, I like yours also (because I love the blue/white theme, sorry type-s ers), but the 07-08 blue ring isn't as pronounced as the many blue lines in the 04-06's.
Now about the mileage issue, none of your pics show the MID in the mileage or mileage/temp screen. Is your mileage now gone, and the new clusters mileage in it's place?

I'm actually relieved I don't want to change mine. There is already way too much stuff I want to do to my car , but can't right now.
As it is, I'm a little upset that I have yet another project on my to do list because of you.
If I hadn't seen your damn garage, I wouldn't want to totally overhaul mine.

 

Roger-throw up an old pic of your custom gauges from your '06 cluster to show the difference! I like the new, but doubt I could find an '07-'08 cluster with 56K on it! Don't get me wrong, I like what I have, but I do agree with the cleaner MID display!

 

These are so much better

Than these ..................

My favorite color is blue, but I even find the 04-06 gauges too over done with blue and well I just think the 07-08 base and type-s clusters look more clean and classy.

 

I tried to take some better pictures for you all. Its really one of those things thats hard to photograph especially the blues are deeper than shown in the pictures. I didn't mind the 06 gauges at night, still like the 07 better but to be honest its during the day seeing the silver bezels on the 07 gauges that I really like the most.









Notice anything here?

 

vietxquangstah - thats a great pic of the 07 gauges, thats almost exactly what they look like in person , very crisp & clean.

 

Well done, Roger. That really looks good.

 

I think the newer ones look cartoon-ish

 

you changed some of the blue bulbs to white

 

+1, they look awesome too, matches the interior and takes out the stock green look.

 

True but most of that I did a year or so back.
I'm talking about the navigation joystick which I illuminated from behind (OEM is not illuminated )

 

Nicely done.

 

Now all the blue and white bulbs I like,



dammit Roger

 

Just remember, when you sell your car make sure to check the mileage discrepancy box on the title

 

Thats awesome. I would love to do it but I'm sure going from 04 to 07 won't be as easy as going from 06-07. We don't even have TPMS

 

04 / 05 from what I've read will work but the TPMS will flash and beep constantly. I'm working on a bypass for this for another member.

 

Please share the info on how to do this.

 

subscribed, definitely will want to do this to my '04

would also love to incorporate the TPMS as well, but a receiver, 4 initiators, and a bunch of wiring is needed.

 

hey rodger55 do those buttons use led bulbs and how did u get rid of the amber light on the lcd on the gauge cluster?

 

Looks nice bro

 

Was the air bag light issue ever solved?

 

Haven't had any extra time to work on this project. The light is still on but the weird thing is the other day I swapped back in my old one temporarily for a day and the airbag light was on now with my old gauge! Maybe its stored in the ecu now not sure yet.

 

^I suppose the old black electrical tape over the light trick could solve the problem.

 

Has anyone found a fix to the airbag light staying on?

 

The airbag indicator on 04-05 is a wire that goes directly into the cluster, where-as on the 07-08 it comes into the cluster over the F-CAN.

Good luck fixing it, your SRS control unit would have to communicate on the car's F-CAN so even if you change to the 07-08 SRS control unit the wires probably aren't there for it to properly connect to the F-CAN on the car.

That and I'm not a fan of playing with an airbag system that can cause someone to lose their life or render the system inoperable.

Also on the 04-05 AT the trans range switch goes into the cluster for the gear position and then the PCM has a wire going into the cluster for the sport mode shift position. In 07-08 it only has the range switch going into the cluster, there isn't a wire for the PCM. So they must've changed the way that works as well, it's probably feeding it over the F-CAN on 07-08 is my guess.

Another difference is in 07-08 there is an AC pressure switch wire that goes into the cluster on 04-05 this is not there.

Another difference is in 07-08 it has a different setup for the DRL indicator from the fog indicator that is on 04-05.

 

Did not know the airbag indicator would be that serious. Im afraid to do this mod now. I have a 06 btw.

 

Yah, the cluster has another wire that is different too.

On 04-05 the OPDS (Occupant Position Detection System) that goes into the cluster and again on the 07-08 cluster that wire is not there.

It looks like on 07-08 the SRS unit communicates to the cluster by the F-CAN and it's different on the older cluster.

It looks like those wires are only operating the indicators though and not messing with the way the SRS operates.

However if you were to try to 'fix' the indicators by installing the 07-08 SRS unit it's probably not going to be 'plug & play' and I don't know how it would mess with the SRS on the car.

 

Was popping out the old dash to fit in the new dash hard? I want to change my leds and i can't seem to find a diy.

 

https://acurazine.com/forums/3g-tl-2004-2008-93/diy-instrument-cluster-removal-tear-down-843053/

My main concern were the airbags. If this mod has nothing to do with the bags working properly, I should be ok with the swap?

 

I duno really, given roger had issues after he put his original cluster back in so something other than just the indicator illumination circuit could've effected his SRS somehow.