TL Type S guage cluster retrofit into a 99 TL-P (revised)
05-15-2005, 11:49 PM
#1
DIY Mad Scientist
Thread Starter
TL Type S guage cluster retrofit into a 99 TL-P (revised)
I posted this before but I've made some significant updates that I didn't have time to do before. Most who know me, know that I have a knack for picking DIY projects that somehow become much more difficult than I expect... This was when I had my 99 TL and a warm up project to my Nav retrofit... (which was much easier in fact, just more time consuming...)
Original idea:
Purchase Type S instrument cluster.
Basically plug and play with 2 known issues
1. D4 would skip over to D5 (according to the service manual)
2. VSA would light up continuously and TCS was covered up (bulb positions were different)
Unfortunate and unexpected issues after initial test install...
- Mileage not corrected (showing 16k instead of 72k)
- Heat gauge goes above H after 30 seconds
(thought it was a faulty heat gauge, turns out the Type S guage is not compatible with the TL-P signal)
Great idea... turned out not so great...
Since I wanted to retain the mileage and have the white gauges and eat my cake too... I thought I would keep the original 99 TL-P circuit board (which housed the mileage chip) and just swap out the guages and figure out how to align the gear display (D4 / D5). I figured swapping the Type S brighter LCD would be pretty easy...
Here is the Type S cluster disassembled. The white pieces sandwich the circuit board
Swapped the gauges around in hopes that they would just plug and play...
The gear display alignment was the easy part... after swaping the gauges, neither the fuel worked (no movement at all) nor the Heat gauge (shot up to past H immediately). I then discover that the TL-S Fuel and Heat gauges have different pinouts / orientation on the circuit board... not to mention that the LCD screen pins were soldered directly on the circuit board which made the LCD swap a challenge.
Solutions
LCD
The LCD screen was the "no turning back" mod. I took a small pair of pliers and clipped all 30 pins on my original TL-P cluster board. Then I proceeded to clip all 30 of the TL-S pins. The Type S LCD pins were cut longer and the the TL-P circuit board pins cut longer so that the two would overlap and be easier to solder.
The Philips screws were solder filled and required desoldering. I put the Type S screen in the TL-P board and re-soldered all 30 pins and just prayed that it would light up properly which, thank god it did...
Gear Display
This was an easy trick... The little bulbs on the circuit board are housed with rubber on the bottom. I used the TL-S housing which had 1-D5 spaces and I simply spread the N and the D4 bulbs apart and placed the housing over top, forcing the bulbs in the right slots and leaving the D5 cavity without a bulb. Only issue is that the one of the clips in the rear will not close 100% upon re-assembly (I can live with that)
Fuel and Heat gauges
These were by far the most difficult to correct. The gauge pins go through the circuit board, flower out in the rear (rivet style) over a round circuit connection point and is soldered on.
I had already corrected the Fuel pins but you'll notice that the Temp pins are still different.
To correct the pinouts, I had to desolder and remove all 6 pins (3 each), use a knife and dig up the round contact in the rear and remove them all.
Then I reinstalled all the pins which now do not connect to anything. They are now a bit wobbly but work just fine.
To figure out which pins were what, I had to trace the circuit board until I knew basically if it was ground or some sort of signal. I then took both bare boards and hooked them up to the car, used a volt meter to confirm 100% what the pins were. I found 1 x ground, 1 x 12volt (ignition), and one negative signal (bingo!). I wrote the -ve numbers down and tried the other board... (bingo!) correct signals located.
The fuel gauge from the TL-P and TL-S are actually different and the TL-P gauge did not have a proper ground but since I knew the correct signal wire, I just ignored the odd connector and patched a ground in to bring it back to life.
I mapped everything out and soldered trace wires in the rear to correct the pin layout.
After all the wires were done, I put the assembly (bare bones) back together to test
Bare bones testing. Notice the nice bright LCD display.
and to only realize that the signal on the temp sensor was much higher than normal, i.e. when the car was cold, it showed about 1/8 temp and when the car was warmed up, it was almost past the H. I realized that the only solution was to adjust the signal (which was resistance) of the TL-P to match the Type S temp guage.
I tested the resistance of both the Type S and TL-P temp signal and found an approx. 180ohms difference. I went out to Fry's and purchased a 250ohm trimmer which is a mini potentiometer (POT) that will adjust from 0 - 250 ohms of resistance. This allowed me to literally calibrate the temp needle by simply turning the trimmer with a small screw driver.
Had to bypass and reroute the temp signal to the trimmer
Trimmer connected. It's the little blue square attached to the black wires.
Another shot of the trimmer. Wires attached to the bottom.
Had to be careful reinstalling the housing.
Assembled with trimmer exposed for fine tuning. (small blue square)
TCS / VSA
Finally to correct the TCS / VSA location issue, I severed the VSA connection on the circuit board with an Xacto knife and simply soldered a trace wire from the TCS over to the VSA bulb connector. So now the VSA acts as my TCS light.
Cluster assembled and reinstalled.
Fully installed. This is the temp right before the fan kicks in and brings the temp back down.
Original idea:
Purchase Type S instrument cluster.
Basically plug and play with 2 known issues
1. D4 would skip over to D5 (according to the service manual)
2. VSA would light up continuously and TCS was covered up (bulb positions were different)
Unfortunate and unexpected issues after initial test install...
- Mileage not corrected (showing 16k instead of 72k)
- Heat gauge goes above H after 30 seconds
(thought it was a faulty heat gauge, turns out the Type S guage is not compatible with the TL-P signal)
Great idea... turned out not so great...
Since I wanted to retain the mileage and have the white gauges and eat my cake too... I thought I would keep the original 99 TL-P circuit board (which housed the mileage chip) and just swap out the guages and figure out how to align the gear display (D4 / D5). I figured swapping the Type S brighter LCD would be pretty easy...
Here is the Type S cluster disassembled. The white pieces sandwich the circuit board
Swapped the gauges around in hopes that they would just plug and play...
The gear display alignment was the easy part... after swaping the gauges, neither the fuel worked (no movement at all) nor the Heat gauge (shot up to past H immediately). I then discover that the TL-S Fuel and Heat gauges have different pinouts / orientation on the circuit board... not to mention that the LCD screen pins were soldered directly on the circuit board which made the LCD swap a challenge.
Solutions
LCD
The LCD screen was the "no turning back" mod. I took a small pair of pliers and clipped all 30 pins on my original TL-P cluster board. Then I proceeded to clip all 30 of the TL-S pins. The Type S LCD pins were cut longer and the the TL-P circuit board pins cut longer so that the two would overlap and be easier to solder.
The Philips screws were solder filled and required desoldering. I put the Type S screen in the TL-P board and re-soldered all 30 pins and just prayed that it would light up properly which, thank god it did...
Gear Display
This was an easy trick... The little bulbs on the circuit board are housed with rubber on the bottom. I used the TL-S housing which had 1-D5 spaces and I simply spread the N and the D4 bulbs apart and placed the housing over top, forcing the bulbs in the right slots and leaving the D5 cavity without a bulb. Only issue is that the one of the clips in the rear will not close 100% upon re-assembly (I can live with that)
Fuel and Heat gauges
These were by far the most difficult to correct. The gauge pins go through the circuit board, flower out in the rear (rivet style) over a round circuit connection point and is soldered on.
I had already corrected the Fuel pins but you'll notice that the Temp pins are still different.
To correct the pinouts, I had to desolder and remove all 6 pins (3 each), use a knife and dig up the round contact in the rear and remove them all.
Then I reinstalled all the pins which now do not connect to anything. They are now a bit wobbly but work just fine.
To figure out which pins were what, I had to trace the circuit board until I knew basically if it was ground or some sort of signal. I then took both bare boards and hooked them up to the car, used a volt meter to confirm 100% what the pins were. I found 1 x ground, 1 x 12volt (ignition), and one negative signal (bingo!). I wrote the -ve numbers down and tried the other board... (bingo!) correct signals located.
The fuel gauge from the TL-P and TL-S are actually different and the TL-P gauge did not have a proper ground but since I knew the correct signal wire, I just ignored the odd connector and patched a ground in to bring it back to life.
I mapped everything out and soldered trace wires in the rear to correct the pin layout.
After all the wires were done, I put the assembly (bare bones) back together to test
Bare bones testing. Notice the nice bright LCD display.
and to only realize that the signal on the temp sensor was much higher than normal, i.e. when the car was cold, it showed about 1/8 temp and when the car was warmed up, it was almost past the H. I realized that the only solution was to adjust the signal (which was resistance) of the TL-P to match the Type S temp guage.
I tested the resistance of both the Type S and TL-P temp signal and found an approx. 180ohms difference. I went out to Fry's and purchased a 250ohm trimmer which is a mini potentiometer (POT) that will adjust from 0 - 250 ohms of resistance. This allowed me to literally calibrate the temp needle by simply turning the trimmer with a small screw driver.
Had to bypass and reroute the temp signal to the trimmer
Trimmer connected. It's the little blue square attached to the black wires.
Another shot of the trimmer. Wires attached to the bottom.
Had to be careful reinstalling the housing.
Assembled with trimmer exposed for fine tuning. (small blue square)
TCS / VSA
Finally to correct the TCS / VSA location issue, I severed the VSA connection on the circuit board with an Xacto knife and simply soldered a trace wire from the TCS over to the VSA bulb connector. So now the VSA acts as my TCS light.
Cluster assembled and reinstalled.
Fully installed. This is the temp right before the fan kicks in and brings the temp back down.
05-16-2005, 12:58 AM
#4
nice, but i still say its easier to install the reverse indiglo gauges 
But if you love to work with PCBs like me, and you I assume, go for it
But if you love to work with PCBs like me, and you I assume, go for it
Trending Topics
05-16-2005, 08:50 AM
#8
Senior Moderator
WoW Great JOB! and great write up! now i wonder what teh differences in the 2000 are?? looks like i might try this.???? (along with some led's)
05-16-2005, 10:42 AM
#9
DIY Mad Scientist
Thread Starter
Thanks a bunch for the kudos guys! 
I'm not charging anything for the converion... cause I'm never going to do THAT again!
My Type S cluster was from an 03. The 00 has D5. Though I can't confirm but it's possible that the 00 and up share the same gauge wiring. If you are doing an 00' you can probably get away with just purchasing the gauges from Acura rather than trying to source the entire cluster.
I didn't end up using the circuit board anyway and that's the expensive part. The only thing that you wont get are the nice white LCD numbers. It will remain the same slightly orange color but much better than the 99 which was so dim, you couldn't see it in the daylight.
LMK if you want pointers, etc. This was done over a year ago but I still remember the details...
I'm not charging anything for the converion... cause I'm never going to do THAT again!
My Type S cluster was from an 03. The 00 has D5. Though I can't confirm but it's possible that the 00 and up share the same gauge wiring. If you are doing an 00' you can probably get away with just purchasing the gauges from Acura rather than trying to source the entire cluster.
I didn't end up using the circuit board anyway and that's the expensive part. The only thing that you wont get are the nice white LCD numbers. It will remain the same slightly orange color but much better than the 99 which was so dim, you couldn't see it in the daylight.
LMK if you want pointers, etc. This was done over a year ago but I still remember the details...
06-27-2007, 12:27 PM
#11
DIY Mad Scientist
Thread Starter
Since I still get some messages to this thread, I figured I would re-insert the photos. This was done about 4 years ago and I've long since sold the the car (with cluster) and my memory has mostly faded so this is really the only documentation of the effort...
Originally Posted by lithiumus
I posted this before but I've made some significant updates that I didn't have time to do before. Most who know me, know that I have a knack for picking DIY projects that somehow become much more difficult than I expect... This was when I had my 99 TL and a warm up project to my Nav retrofit... (which was much easier in fact, just more time consuming...)
Original idea:
Purchase Type S instrument cluster.
Basically plug and play with 2 known issues
1. D4 would skip over to D5 (according to the service manual)
2. VSA would light up continuously and TCS was covered up (bulb positions were different)
Unfortunate and unexpected issues after initial test install...
- Mileage not corrected (showing 16k instead of 72k)
- Heat gauge goes above H after 30 seconds
(thought it was a faulty heat gauge, turns out the Type S gauge is not compatible with the TL-P signal)
Great idea... turned out not so great...
Since I wanted to retain the mileage and have the white gauges, and brighter LCD display and eat my cake too... I thought I would keep the original 99 TL-P circuit board (which housed the mileage chip) and just swap out the gauges and figure out how to align the gear display (D4 / D5). I figured swapping the Type S brighter LCD would be pretty easy...
Here is the Type S cluster disassembled. The white pieces sandwich the circuit board
Swapped the gauges around in hopes that they would just plug and play...
The gear display alignment was the easy part... after swapping the gauges, neither the fuel worked (no movement at all) nor the Heat gauge (shot up to past H immediately). I then discover that the TL-S Fuel and Heat gauges have different pinouts / orientation on the circuit board... not to mention that the LCD screen pins were soldered directly on the circuit board which made the LCD swap a challenge.
Solutions
LCD
The LCD screen was the "no turning back" mod. I took a small pair of pliers and clipped all 30 pins on my original TL-P cluster board. Then I proceeded to clip all 30 of the TL-S pins. The Type S LCD pins were cut longer and the the TL-P circuit board pins also cut long so that the two would overlap and be easier to solder.
The Philips screws were solder filled and required desoldering. I put the Type S screen in the TL-P board and re-soldered all 30 pins and just prayed that it would light up properly which, thank god it did...
Gear Display
This was an easy trick... The little bulbs on the circuit board are housed with rubber on the bottom. I used the TL-S housing which had the extra D5 spacing and I simply spread the N and the D4 bulbs apart and placed the housing over top, forcing the bulbs in the right slots and leaving the D5 cavity without a bulb. Only issue is that the one of the clips in the rear will not close 100% upon re-assembly (I can live with that)
Fuel and Heat gauges
These were by far the most difficult to correct. The gauge pins go through the circuit board, flower out in the rear (rivet style) over a round circuit connection point and is soldered on.
I had already corrected the Fuel pins but you'll notice that the Temp pins are still different.
To correct the pinouts, I had to desolder and remove all 6 pins (3 each), use a knife and dig up the round contact in the rear and remove them all.
Then I reinstalled all the pins which now do not connect to anything. They are now a bit wobbly but work just fine.
To figure out which pins were what, I had to trace the circuit board until I knew basically if it was ground or some sort of signal. I then took both bare boards and hooked them up to the car, used a volt meter to confirm 100% what the pins were. I found 1 x ground, 1 x 12volt (ignition), and one negative signal (bingo!). I wrote the -ve numbers down and tried the other board... (bingo!) correct signals located.
The fuel gauge from the TL-P and TL-S are actually different and the TL-P gauge did not have a proper ground but since I knew the correct signal wire, I just ignored the odd connector and patched a ground in to bring it back to life.
I mapped everything out and soldered trace wires in the rear to correct the pin layout.
After all the wires were done, I put the assembly (bare bones) back together to test
Bare bones testing. Notice the nice bright LCD display.
and to only realize that the signal on the temp sensor was much higher than normal, i.e. when the car was cold, it showed about 1/8 temp and when the car was warmed up, it was almost past the H. I realized that the only solution was to adjust the signal (which was resistance) of the TL-P to match the Type S temp gauge.
I tested the resistance of both the Type S and TL-P temp signal and found an approx. 180ohms difference. I went out to Fry's and purchased a 250ohm trimmer which is a mini potentiometer (POT) that will adjust from 0 - 250 ohms of resistance. This allowed me to literally calibrate the temp needle by simply turning the trimmer with a small screw driver.
Had to bypass and reroute the temp signal to the trimmer
Trimmer connected. It's the little blue square attached to the black wires.
Another shot of the trimmer. Wires attached to the bottom.
Had to be careful reinstalling the housing.
Assembled with trimmer exposed for fine tuning. (small blue square)
Did some in car testing with my multi-meter to ensure the trimmer was working ok.
Setting the temp was just a matter of using a small flat head screw driver and adjusting it to the right levels as the trimmer was installed in series of the temp signal.
TCS / VSA
Finally to correct the TCS / VSA location issue, I severed the VSA connection on the circuit board with an Xacto knife and simply soldered a trace wire from the TCS over to the VSA bulb connector. So now the VSA acts as my TCS light.
Cluster assembled and reinstalled.
Fully installed. This is the temp right before the fan kicks in and brings the temp back down.
Original idea:
Purchase Type S instrument cluster.
Basically plug and play with 2 known issues
1. D4 would skip over to D5 (according to the service manual)
2. VSA would light up continuously and TCS was covered up (bulb positions were different)
Unfortunate and unexpected issues after initial test install...
- Mileage not corrected (showing 16k instead of 72k)
- Heat gauge goes above H after 30 seconds
(thought it was a faulty heat gauge, turns out the Type S gauge is not compatible with the TL-P signal)
Great idea... turned out not so great...
Since I wanted to retain the mileage and have the white gauges, and brighter LCD display and eat my cake too... I thought I would keep the original 99 TL-P circuit board (which housed the mileage chip) and just swap out the gauges and figure out how to align the gear display (D4 / D5). I figured swapping the Type S brighter LCD would be pretty easy...
Here is the Type S cluster disassembled. The white pieces sandwich the circuit board
Swapped the gauges around in hopes that they would just plug and play...
The gear display alignment was the easy part... after swapping the gauges, neither the fuel worked (no movement at all) nor the Heat gauge (shot up to past H immediately). I then discover that the TL-S Fuel and Heat gauges have different pinouts / orientation on the circuit board... not to mention that the LCD screen pins were soldered directly on the circuit board which made the LCD swap a challenge.
Solutions
LCD
The LCD screen was the "no turning back" mod. I took a small pair of pliers and clipped all 30 pins on my original TL-P cluster board. Then I proceeded to clip all 30 of the TL-S pins. The Type S LCD pins were cut longer and the the TL-P circuit board pins also cut long so that the two would overlap and be easier to solder.
The Philips screws were solder filled and required desoldering. I put the Type S screen in the TL-P board and re-soldered all 30 pins and just prayed that it would light up properly which, thank god it did...
Gear Display
This was an easy trick... The little bulbs on the circuit board are housed with rubber on the bottom. I used the TL-S housing which had the extra D5 spacing and I simply spread the N and the D4 bulbs apart and placed the housing over top, forcing the bulbs in the right slots and leaving the D5 cavity without a bulb. Only issue is that the one of the clips in the rear will not close 100% upon re-assembly (I can live with that)
Fuel and Heat gauges
These were by far the most difficult to correct. The gauge pins go through the circuit board, flower out in the rear (rivet style) over a round circuit connection point and is soldered on.
I had already corrected the Fuel pins but you'll notice that the Temp pins are still different.
To correct the pinouts, I had to desolder and remove all 6 pins (3 each), use a knife and dig up the round contact in the rear and remove them all.
Then I reinstalled all the pins which now do not connect to anything. They are now a bit wobbly but work just fine.
To figure out which pins were what, I had to trace the circuit board until I knew basically if it was ground or some sort of signal. I then took both bare boards and hooked them up to the car, used a volt meter to confirm 100% what the pins were. I found 1 x ground, 1 x 12volt (ignition), and one negative signal (bingo!). I wrote the -ve numbers down and tried the other board... (bingo!) correct signals located.
The fuel gauge from the TL-P and TL-S are actually different and the TL-P gauge did not have a proper ground but since I knew the correct signal wire, I just ignored the odd connector and patched a ground in to bring it back to life.
I mapped everything out and soldered trace wires in the rear to correct the pin layout.
After all the wires were done, I put the assembly (bare bones) back together to test
Bare bones testing. Notice the nice bright LCD display.
and to only realize that the signal on the temp sensor was much higher than normal, i.e. when the car was cold, it showed about 1/8 temp and when the car was warmed up, it was almost past the H. I realized that the only solution was to adjust the signal (which was resistance) of the TL-P to match the Type S temp gauge.
I tested the resistance of both the Type S and TL-P temp signal and found an approx. 180ohms difference. I went out to Fry's and purchased a 250ohm trimmer which is a mini potentiometer (POT) that will adjust from 0 - 250 ohms of resistance. This allowed me to literally calibrate the temp needle by simply turning the trimmer with a small screw driver.
Had to bypass and reroute the temp signal to the trimmer
Trimmer connected. It's the little blue square attached to the black wires.
Another shot of the trimmer. Wires attached to the bottom.
Had to be careful reinstalling the housing.
Assembled with trimmer exposed for fine tuning. (small blue square)
Did some in car testing with my multi-meter to ensure the trimmer was working ok.
Setting the temp was just a matter of using a small flat head screw driver and adjusting it to the right levels as the trimmer was installed in series of the temp signal.
TCS / VSA
Finally to correct the TCS / VSA location issue, I severed the VSA connection on the circuit board with an Xacto knife and simply soldered a trace wire from the TCS over to the VSA bulb connector. So now the VSA acts as my TCS light.
Cluster assembled and reinstalled.
Fully installed. This is the temp right before the fan kicks in and brings the temp back down.
03-10-2008, 01:29 PM
#13
DIY Mad Scientist
Thread Starter
BTW, if anyone is still doing this mod, I have a spare Temp and Fuel Type S gauge that I can sell for a reasonable price. I believe it was $50 from the dealer on special order. PM me.
11-01-2009, 05:59 PM
#15
Haha wow I was actually considering doing this mod before I looked at all this course since I have an 02 I am sure it would be easier cuz it should all line up exactly right? I'd just be changing out the face plates? Also I wanted to change the display from gross yellow green to a brighter more solid green to match my footwell lights how hard do you think that would be
11-04-2009, 09:48 PM
#17
Senior Moderator
Haha wow I was actually considering doing this mod before I looked at all this course since I have an 02 I am sure it would be easier cuz it should all line up exactly right? I'd just be changing out the face plates? Also I wanted to change the display from gross yellow green to a brighter more solid green to match my footwell lights how hard do you think that would be
03-18-2010, 04:42 AM
#19
Instructor
iTrader: (5)
Join Date: May 2003
Location: Diamond Bar, CA
Age: 38
Posts: 155
Likes: 0
Received 0 Likes
on
0 Posts
Great job on the cluster mod.
I would really want to change the LCD cause its too dark on my car which I also have a 99 but I want to keep the gauges.
Is it possible to just change the LCD?
I would really want to change the LCD cause its too dark on my car which I also have a 99 but I want to keep the gauges.
Is it possible to just change the LCD?
03-18-2010, 08:52 AM
#20
Senior Moderator
03-18-2010, 10:52 AM
#21
DIY Mad Scientist
Thread Starter
Make sure you cut yours off a little higher and cut the new one off a little lower so the pins overlap and you can solder them. Once you line up your new LCD in place, the pins will push against each other anyway so soldering is a piece of cake.
03-18-2010, 12:41 PM
#22
Instructor
iTrader: (5)
Join Date: May 2003
Location: Diamond Bar, CA
Age: 38
Posts: 155
Likes: 0
Received 0 Likes
on
0 Posts
No sir, I just changed them to LEDs and they're still kind of dark.
Last edited by AcuraTL99; 03-18-2010 at 12:43 PM.
03-18-2010, 02:32 PM
#23
DIY Mad Scientist
Thread Starter
Nope, I remember clearly that only the 99s had that issue. They did a bit of an overhaul of the cluster in 00 so at the same time they updated the LCD.
I should have taken a pic of what it looked like before, but I'm sure you are very familiar.
In my last photo you can see the sun shining right at the LCD but you can still clearly see all the data. In the 99, when the sun was on the LCD, you couldn't see anything...
I should have taken a pic of what it looked like before, but I'm sure you are very familiar.
In my last photo you can see the sun shining right at the LCD but you can still clearly see all the data. In the 99, when the sun was on the LCD, you couldn't see anything...
03-18-2010, 06:09 PM
#25
Senior Moderator
12-10-2010, 01:37 PM
#28
DIY Mad Scientist
Thread Starter
Hmmm... must have changed the hosting of the pictures several times... I'll find a new spot to host them up more permanently and update the thread again.
The following users liked this post:
jo3lo22 (06-26-2012)
07-05-2012, 02:57 PM
#33
DIY Mad Scientist
Thread Starter
Crap, seems like there has been a year of reminders to update the pics... I still have all the pics. Let me see if I can find a spot to host them without disruption and I'll put them back up again...
07-13-2012, 11:00 PM
#34
DIY Mad Scientist
Thread Starter
OK. I've finally uploaded my original pictures again so the thread is now with visuals again!
Original idea:
Purchase Type S instrument cluster.
Basically plug and play with 2 known issues
1. D4 would skip over to D5 (according to the service manual)
2. VSA would light up continuously and TCS was covered up (bulb positions were different)
Unfortunate and unexpected issues after initial test install...
- Mileage not corrected (showing 16k instead of 72k)
- Heat gauge goes above H after 30 seconds
(thought it was a faulty heat gauge, turns out the Type S guage is not compatible with the TL-P signal)
Great idea... turned out not so great...
Since I wanted to retain the mileage and have the white gauges and eat my cake too... I thought I would keep the original 99 TL-P circuit board (which housed the mileage chip) and just swap out the guages and figure out how to align the gear display (D4 / D5). I figured swapping the Type S brighter LCD would be pretty easy...
Here is the Type S cluster disassembled. The white pieces sandwich the circuit board
Swapped the gauges around in hopes that they would just plug and play...
The gear display alignment was the easy part... after swaping the gauges, neither the fuel gauge worked (no movement at all) nor the Heat gauge (shot up to past H immediately). I then discover that the TL-S Fuel and Heat gauges have different pinouts / orientation on the circuit board... not to mention that the LCD screen pins were soldered directly on the circuit board which made the LCD swap a challenge.
Solutions
LCD
The LCD screen was the "no turning back" mod. I took a small pair of pliers and clipped all 30 pins on my original TL-P cluster board. Then I proceeded to clip all 30 of the TL-S pins. The Type S LCD pins were cut longer and the the TL-P circuit board pins cut longer so that the two would overlap and be easier to solder.
The Philips screws holding down the LCD screen were solder filled and required desoldering. I put the Type S screen in the TL-P board and re-soldered all 30 pins and just prayed that it would light up properly which, thank god it did...
Gear Display
This was an easy trick... The little bulbs on the circuit board are housed with rubber on the bottom. I used the TL-S housing which had 1-D5 spaces and I simply spread the N and the D4 bulbs apart and placed the housing over top, forcing the bulbs in the right slots and leaving the D5 cavity without a bulb. Only issue is that the one of the clips in the rear will not close 100% upon re-assembly (I can live with that)
Fuel and Heat gauges
These were by far the most difficult to correct. The gauge pins go through the circuit board, flower out in the rear (rivet style) over a round circuit connection point and is soldered on.
I had already corrected the Fuel pins but you'll notice that the Temp pins are still different.
To correct the pinouts, I had to desolder and remove all 6 pins (3 each), use a knife and dig up the round contact in the rear and remove them all.
Then I reinstalled all the pins which now do not connect to anything. They are now a bit wobbly but work just fine.
To figure out which pins were what, I had to trace the circuit board until I knew basically if it was ground or some sort of signal. I then took both bare boards and hooked them up to the car, used a volt meter to confirm 100% what the pins were. I found 1 x ground, 1 x 12volt (ignition), and one negative signal (bingo!). I wrote the -ve numbers down and tried the other board... (bingo!) correct signals located.
The fuel gauge from the TL-P and TL-S are actually different and the TL-P gauge did not have a proper ground but since I knew the correct signal wire, I just ignored the odd connector and patched a ground in to bring it back to life.
I mapped everything out and soldered trace wires in the rear to correct the pin layout.
After all the wires were done, I put the assembly (bare bones) back together to test and to only realize that the signal on the temp sensor was much higher than normal, i.e. when the car was cold, it showed about 1/8 temp and when the car was warmed up, it was almost past the H. I realized that the only solution was to adjust the signal (which was resistance) of the TL-P to match the Type S temp guage.
I tested the resistance of both the Type S and TL-P temp signal and found an approx. 180ohms difference. I went out to Fry's and purchased a 250ohm trimmer which is a mini potentiometer (POT) that will adjust from 0 - 250 ohms of resistance. This allowed me to literally calibrate the temp needle by simply turning the trimmer with a small screw driver.
Had to bypass and reroute the temp signal to the trimmer
Trimmer connected. It's the little blue square attached to the black wires.
Another shot of the trimmer. Wires attached to the bottom.
Had to be careful reinstalling the housing.
Assembled with trimmer exposed for fine tuning. (small blue square)
TCS / VSA
Finally to correct the TCS / VSA location issue, I severed the VSA connection on the circuit board with an Xacto knife and simply soldered a trace wire from the TCS over to the VSA bulb connector. So now the VSA acts as my TCS light.
Cluster assembled and reinstalled.
Fully installed. This is the temp right before the fan kicks in and brings the temp back down.
(I'll add this pic back in when I find it...)
Original idea:
Purchase Type S instrument cluster.
Basically plug and play with 2 known issues
1. D4 would skip over to D5 (according to the service manual)
2. VSA would light up continuously and TCS was covered up (bulb positions were different)
Unfortunate and unexpected issues after initial test install...
- Mileage not corrected (showing 16k instead of 72k)
- Heat gauge goes above H after 30 seconds
(thought it was a faulty heat gauge, turns out the Type S guage is not compatible with the TL-P signal)
Great idea... turned out not so great...
Since I wanted to retain the mileage and have the white gauges and eat my cake too... I thought I would keep the original 99 TL-P circuit board (which housed the mileage chip) and just swap out the guages and figure out how to align the gear display (D4 / D5). I figured swapping the Type S brighter LCD would be pretty easy...
Here is the Type S cluster disassembled. The white pieces sandwich the circuit board
Swapped the gauges around in hopes that they would just plug and play...
The gear display alignment was the easy part... after swaping the gauges, neither the fuel gauge worked (no movement at all) nor the Heat gauge (shot up to past H immediately). I then discover that the TL-S Fuel and Heat gauges have different pinouts / orientation on the circuit board... not to mention that the LCD screen pins were soldered directly on the circuit board which made the LCD swap a challenge.
Solutions
LCD
The LCD screen was the "no turning back" mod. I took a small pair of pliers and clipped all 30 pins on my original TL-P cluster board. Then I proceeded to clip all 30 of the TL-S pins. The Type S LCD pins were cut longer and the the TL-P circuit board pins cut longer so that the two would overlap and be easier to solder.
The Philips screws holding down the LCD screen were solder filled and required desoldering. I put the Type S screen in the TL-P board and re-soldered all 30 pins and just prayed that it would light up properly which, thank god it did...
Gear Display
This was an easy trick... The little bulbs on the circuit board are housed with rubber on the bottom. I used the TL-S housing which had 1-D5 spaces and I simply spread the N and the D4 bulbs apart and placed the housing over top, forcing the bulbs in the right slots and leaving the D5 cavity without a bulb. Only issue is that the one of the clips in the rear will not close 100% upon re-assembly (I can live with that)
Fuel and Heat gauges
These were by far the most difficult to correct. The gauge pins go through the circuit board, flower out in the rear (rivet style) over a round circuit connection point and is soldered on.
I had already corrected the Fuel pins but you'll notice that the Temp pins are still different.
To correct the pinouts, I had to desolder and remove all 6 pins (3 each), use a knife and dig up the round contact in the rear and remove them all.
Then I reinstalled all the pins which now do not connect to anything. They are now a bit wobbly but work just fine.
To figure out which pins were what, I had to trace the circuit board until I knew basically if it was ground or some sort of signal. I then took both bare boards and hooked them up to the car, used a volt meter to confirm 100% what the pins were. I found 1 x ground, 1 x 12volt (ignition), and one negative signal (bingo!). I wrote the -ve numbers down and tried the other board... (bingo!) correct signals located.
The fuel gauge from the TL-P and TL-S are actually different and the TL-P gauge did not have a proper ground but since I knew the correct signal wire, I just ignored the odd connector and patched a ground in to bring it back to life.
I mapped everything out and soldered trace wires in the rear to correct the pin layout.
After all the wires were done, I put the assembly (bare bones) back together to test and to only realize that the signal on the temp sensor was much higher than normal, i.e. when the car was cold, it showed about 1/8 temp and when the car was warmed up, it was almost past the H. I realized that the only solution was to adjust the signal (which was resistance) of the TL-P to match the Type S temp guage.
I tested the resistance of both the Type S and TL-P temp signal and found an approx. 180ohms difference. I went out to Fry's and purchased a 250ohm trimmer which is a mini potentiometer (POT) that will adjust from 0 - 250 ohms of resistance. This allowed me to literally calibrate the temp needle by simply turning the trimmer with a small screw driver.
Had to bypass and reroute the temp signal to the trimmer
Trimmer connected. It's the little blue square attached to the black wires.
Another shot of the trimmer. Wires attached to the bottom.
Had to be careful reinstalling the housing.
Assembled with trimmer exposed for fine tuning. (small blue square)
TCS / VSA
Finally to correct the TCS / VSA location issue, I severed the VSA connection on the circuit board with an Xacto knife and simply soldered a trace wire from the TCS over to the VSA bulb connector. So now the VSA acts as my TCS light.
Cluster assembled and reinstalled.
Fully installed. This is the temp right before the fan kicks in and brings the temp back down.
(I'll add this pic back in when I find it...)
07-14-2012, 08:01 AM
#36
DIY Mad Scientist
Thread Starter
I know what you are talking about and to do that you'd intercept the VSS signal BEFORE it reaches the instrument cluster.
07-14-2012, 02:14 PM
#38
Senior Moderator
10-17-2013, 08:02 PM
#40
Any way we can get these pictures back? i just swapped an 03 base tl dash/cluster into my 1999 accord v6, (wired 03 tl cluster pigtails into accord wiring harness) everything works except d4 light, outside temp, fuel gauge, and temp shoots to the top like op says his does on first page. im guessing if i plug in a 99 tl cluster everything should work fine? i still wanna swap in the type s cluster or at least just the faces if possible
i know im bumping an old thread, but at least i searched to find it
i know im bumping an old thread, but at least i searched to find it