Instrument cluster?

:o Hey the other day I took the instrument cluster out of the car not hard at all.
But I got to thinking I want the bulbs a diffrent color, after driving around to different auto shops & body shops no one caries these weird bulbs.
So then my wife goes I want my dash bulbs purple so I went & bought light bulb paint (I know this wasnt these best way to do it but she wanted it done like know, HMmm Women). I painted the template that defines each gauge white so the purple would have a chance against the black.!!!!!!;) She has a black on black leather.G20t.

I doesn't looked bad, she likes it plus it's a free mod.

I then did my Pathfinder in titanium silver paint with blue bulbs it looks awsome. Paint was purchased at a paint shop for auto's.

------>"Hey just putting up some free mods".

BTW does any one no know besides the dealer were I can get these bulbs?:flash:

I did the same thing in my car but red!!

it looks like the Audi cluster lighting... I couldnt find the bulbs either.

what in the world are you guys talking about? got any photos?? Id love to actually understand what youre talking about!

I tried to change the colour of the bulbs on my Primera. As standard, they are sort of a light blue. The needles however lights up red. When i removed the bulbs from the back of the clocks, i noticed that the bulbs had a rubber hood, which was coloured blue to give the effect. There are also two different sizes of bulbs which illuminate the clocks and i believe that they're not all 12 volts, so its very hard to find replacement coloured bulbs. The only thing you can do is, like you say, removed the rubber hood and paint the bulb with blue tint, or whatever colour turns you on;) The only problem is, that by changing the colour of the bulbs, you also change the colour of the needle, so beware!

What i wanna know is, has anyone dismantled the clocks to colour code the black surround that seperates each dial. I'd like to do mine in silver to match the rest of the dash.

pictures are worth a thousand words dammit!

:o Ok boogie & I will do our best to put some up just be patient problably this weekend they shall be up!:rolleyes:

I will try to take several pics one during the day the other at night , the night one may not come out do to the "FLASH":bonghitte :bonghitte

P.s. When you are sitting in the driver's seat look at you instrument cluster the one that reads the speed & all your car info that's what we have modified.

I will try to do a write up with some pics & will post in here so other people can do it or if BOOGIE wants it I can let him have the web privleges on his site or G-Forces, any takers.

Hey I'd take it. G20.net is in the middle of a restructuring right now so don't expect any big updates for a while. :(

No probleme I will do the write up an send it to you as a word attacment as soon as I get around to it, sorry couldn't do it this weekend had to go up & check on my new house being built upgrade carpets tiles all the fun stuff that comes along with it!

Will get in Contact with you Jason I will work on it this week!:D

Ick, not Word please. Plain text is fine with a pack of pics if you have them.

:o How about I just email you what I do in an e-mail format you just copy it over with some attached pics!

Sound good!:bloated:

I would appreciate it if any any info and pics could be sent my way as well. Thanks

:sun:

Ok Bud Jason will have it up on www.g20.net & I iwll post it in this forum as soon as I get it organized have to take it all apart again to show every one what we are talking about.:D

I founds some red translucent spraypaint at and Arts and Crafts store. It is made for glass and does not say anything about heat. Do u think this is ok since they are small bulbs, what exactly did u guys use? :smoka:

:o Hey thats what I did whent to MICHAELS art's & craft store I asked were the have the paint for glass/heat 4 bulbs they pionted me to the write stuff I sprayed it on & walla I had like a neon purple dash light cluster I left the gass & other's alone just the RPM's & speed were painted purple.

Word of caution "the strip that is on the back with variouse flat wires running to all the pionts try not to hanlde it to much I know its difficult cause its right in the way but go easy on this are 1 miss handle & it's good by to some function".:eek:

Other than everthing else you can touch. I took the whole thing apart.
;)

Hey, I went to Michaels too here in MA. All I found was a product called Krylon Window Paint. Is this what you used? It doesn't say heat resistant. I appreciate the help.

-Paul

:o Well I got the ride Bacjk from the Wife I am going to take pick's hopefully today after work, and put some jiberish around the pick to help out. with what the pics are trying to say + a shot of the paint I used.

Well sorry for the delay's people but with the scare in the silicon valley of being laid off any min has me troubled especially when I am buying a house & have put dwn a big down payment on a house that hasn't been finished still in the skeleton fase..... :eek: (also my wife last work day was wed).

So I am kinda crapping my pants with fear of loosing my home!:bloated:

I decided that I had waited enough and went out to do this mod myself. After all this it was rediculous to find out how easy it was. I am hoping that the P11 takes different bulbs because otherwise everyone else made this mod 10 times harder than it should be.
First of all, forget the paint. It's a pain in the ass. Go to your local Pep boys or Autozone and pick up red 194 bulbs. The P10 requires 5. Came to about $5.50 for me. Then replace bulbs and vuala!!!!! It is that easy.
What is required:
Tools: Screwdriver
Time: approx. 10 min.
Brains: None, it is that easy
The result is great and this is the easiest thing that can be done. No need to wait any longer. Any questions, e-mail me or post it on the group.

Another

Is the bulb number 194.....the same size as the small ones in the headlights of a P11...

I did my mod on a P10 and used the 194 bulb as u had a picture of. I got mine at autozone. It was about $1.79 for a 2 pack. I needed 5 bulbs all the guages.

Hey B-Boogie......it seems you did this in your P11.......is the bulb like the one in the picture

No the one in the headlight aka clearance lamp is bulb 168, 5Watts.

Yeah.. the one in the cluster is smaller than the ones for your parklight and side repeaters.


When I removed it I didnt think I'd be able to find colored ones so I didnt even bother. I had the paint handy and finished the job in about half the time it would take to run to Pep boys and buy the new bulbs.. :p

Yo help me out here peoples..

I dont know if I'm doing this right or not.. but heres my story.

In order to take off the black casing around the gauge cluster, I had to remove the big brown plastic piece that goes under the steering column and such. Then I had to remove the plastic pieces that "cover" the steering column. After that and with a little maneuvering I managed to get the black plastic case that covers the gauge cluster off (the one with the "Security" light). Then the gauges themselves are covered in a piece of plastic.. and that is connected to a unit of some sorts that holds them all together. Behind them I assume is where the light bulbs everyones talking about are. But when I unscrewed that and tried to pull it out it just stopped.. anyone have any idea why it doesnt pull anymore? I couldnt see behind it, but I think that it might be a wire of sorts that is connected (probably the wire that powers the lightbulbs for the gauges).

Can anyone tell me exactly what I have to do to get that out? I really really wanna make myself some "new" gauges. =]

Thanks!

Yea endfro, behind the gauge cluster there should be three or four wire harnesses. disconnect them. Then, you have to maneuver the cluster out. the best way to do this is tom tilt the top out toward you and it should come out. When you look behind your cluster you should see alot of bulb receptors. The five that you need to change are the 5 biggest receptors. on the g20 that i cahnged, the receptors were brown. Those are the ones that take the 194 bulbs. to take the bulbs out just twist the receptor and they come right out. and don't forget to plug the wire harnesses back in when you put the cluster back!

I got to my gauge cluster yet again, what am i doing wrong? I cant pull the gauge cluster out of the dash.. its connected to the wire harness's still, and i cant pull the cluster out far enough to disconnect the harnesses, is there some sort of trick i have to do?

please post anything that will help asap, ive got my car ripped apart in my garage. :D

Never mind!!

I got all mad and I pulled at the cluster a lot harder than I had been and it popped out!! w00t!

:D

hey guys, just put in blue gauge bulbs. ill take pics tonight. :D its such a bitch getting the gauge cluster out and put back in, you have to angle it right and tug really hard. and in my opinion, you dont even have to take the wire harnesses out to change the bulbs. just angle it and set it on your steering wheel column so you can look at the back. not really hard and cheap too! :D :D :D :D :D

virus, where did you get your blue lights? i was considering going blue, but was also wondered if it would be bright enough?

I got my blue lights in tonight too.. so far they look pretty good. But I still have a problem.

I CANT RECONNECT MY SPEEDOMETER/ODOMETER WIRE!!!

Seriously, I need some help bad here... I cant drive my G without a speedometer/odometer.. and I HAVE to have a car to drive daily for work etc. No saying take the bus, because I work to far from where buses would ever go.

Can anyone help me? I dont know how you guys did it.. but whether I have the wire harnesses plugged in or taken out, theres no room for me to get my hand in there to put it in.

Could someone please please please give me some REALLY detailed instructions on how they got theirs back in? I will give you a 12 piece bucket of extra crispy KFC if you help me out. :D

No seriously though, this is driving me nuts.. even though I get to drive my moms 2000 VW GTI (sweet ass car) for now.. its not my G.. the G is more fun and faster..

HELP ME PLEASE!!!!

ok, just set the cluster face down on the steering column, and it should plug back in fine. one of the reasons that you might not be able to get the harness back in is because the wires that that harness are attached to are also attached to the security light. and if your security light is hanging, it might be pulling on the harness making it shorter than it actually is. so just hold up the part that has the secutirty light in it with your foot or something.

Hey guys...little something about this. I was lookin at putting in an intelliglow needle kit...made my importintelligence.com

http://www.importintelligence.com/

its a link on the upper left portion of the page, go down about two lines...click on that and you'll see what they have...i dunno if thats any different than just replacing the blubs...but one pic in there looks GOOD :)...

plus...they have a bunch of different color replacement faces for the P10!!!

Ok thank you very much for the help. But it didnt work.

Im not sure if you knew exactly what im talking about.. and I really wanna get this fixed bad.. so I'll go over it again. Sorry everyone who reads this.

On the back of the gauge cluster there are 3 wire harnesses with clips connecting to it. If you are looking at the gauges there is one on the left, and two on the right. One of the ones on the right has a black clip, the other on the right is a white clip. On the left its a white clip again.

Right dead center and in the back of the entire cluster is a cylindrical connector that connects to a black cylindrical clip with a pin in the center.. that in turn goes to a wire that goes out a small rubber gasket into the engine bay.. I traced that wire and it goes down behind the engine (on the firewall side) and connects way down there... almost barely reachable.

Now my problem isnt that I cant get the white and black clips connected (the three left and right ones). My problem is that I cant get the cylindrical one connected, the wire isnt long enough.. and I cant stretch it any father..

PLEASE ANYONE HELP ME!!!!

i got my blue bulbs from autozone. got all 5 for $5 USD. cheap and effective, kind of hard to get used to at first.

Endfro,
I guess when you yanked the cluster out without unclipping the harnesses you disconnected it that way. Have you tried to jack up the car and go from underneath?

:( Well Im sorry guy's & girl's but this segment I was going to do is going to have to wait , I broke my digi cam. I was taking pic's of my intake install so I could do both write ups & wass seriously ticked off that Stealin sent my the wrong intake made a wrong move & droped it on to the cold hard concrete my waranty is experied & I will have to purchase a new one. :mad:

Hey atleast on the bright side I am going to receive my hewn intake soon!:D

Thnak's Luke for all your help intake is on the way! sent it late last night hope to be in the truck today will give you tracking when I get home.:bloated:

Swonder67,

Moreace and I talked about it last night on AIM. We couldnt really figure it out. But I think you have the right idea.. when I yanked it out (which I shouldnt have) it pulled it out of the clip. I have looked over the clip, and it isnt broken or anything.

I believe that the wire the clip is on is not long enough.. which is why I yanked it out. Because the gauge cluster wouldnt move forward enough for me to get behind it to properly unclip it. I traced the wire that the clip uses all the way back to the firewall, its not caught on anything, and after the firewall (inside the engine bay) the wire goes all the way down into the engine at the bottom.. I got it to move forward about 1/4 of an inch, maybe 1/2 an inch.

Does anyone have any idea what I can do? When I lie the gauges face down and tilt it up like I was told I could do.. I can feel with my finger that the clip is just long enough to go into the proper spot.. but it isnt long enough to work with.. if my fingers or the clip were maybe 1-2 inches longer I could get it done. But since they arent I cant.

Does anyone have any idea what I could do? Im open for any options at all. Any input would be great!

Thanks!

Well endfro,
Like I said before, the speedo wires are taped to the security light wires. when you take the piece surrounding the cluster off and lay it on the ground it pulls the security wires. that in turn will pull the speedo wires. try to pull the piece that surrounded cluster up, so there will be more slack on the wires

:D :D :D :D

The Infiniti dealership around here just hooked me up phat. They told me that I gotta unscrew the cable from the tranny and push it through the firewall.

The first dealership I called the guy was like "I dont know anything about the G20's.. sorry, you can leave it with me and I can look at it tomorrow." So I'm thinking "Yeah right, like im letting the dealership work on it and screw me over with the price."

So I call the 2nd one and the guys like "Oh you jsut gotta unscrew the cable from the engine, it'll take 5 minutes, then push it through the firewall, put it into the cluster and pull the cable back. If you dont have room to get down there all you gotta do is take out these 3 bolts by the air filters snorkel. That will take you 10 minutes at the most, its really easy."

I was like "Now thats service!!"

What you have to do is unplug the speedo cable at the gearbox, push the cable though the firewall towards dash, conect the cable to the speedo then pull the cable back though the firewall towards motor and plug back into gearbox.
Hope this helps
Grunter

Those of you w/ the P10 automatic. You bought 6 bulbs for this mod, but only need 5. Well I got good new place so that u can now put that last bulb to work.

A little nail polish can do wonders. Not only is my security light red, so is the ring that goes around the ignition. It is a little blurred, but looks good when you see it in person.

Hey that looks sweet!!! I wonder how do you get the bulb out for the steering wheel column....

How do you get the bulb out for around the cig lighter??

Hey man, well you gotta take out the four screws holding the steering hub together. then you should see the bulb connected into a white box connected to a clear piece around the ignition column

Sweet thanks man!!!

Anyone kno offhand about the cig lighter bulb? :)

I didn't know the cig had a light. I don't even own a G20, I got a civic.

Yet u answer all these questions w/ precision and expertise. Swonder, u so smart. :flipa:

Well, I've done alot of custom work on the p10, so I know alot aobut them.

just replaced the shifter light with a blue bulb :D

are the lights behind the stereo and air conditioner the same bulb, 194? hope so. hm what else can i replace.:confused:

Hey, it's gonna be pretty hard to replace those bulbs. I took out the air contioning/heating unit and unless you want to litterally open up the controls you can't get to the bulb. Its not like the instrument cluster where you just twist off the bulb. I am almost positive you would have to open that sucka up

Swonder, u seemed like such a mechanic in previous posts. It is called and HVAC unit. Heating ventilation and air condiotioning. Get w. the program.


Just kidding:flash:

Hey guys...

I thought I would try something different...let me know what you guys think and if its dumb! :)

I dont have a pic...but you can look at the ones of the gauge cluster on the previous page and kind of "use ur imagination" :)

What i did was put RED blubs over where the temp/fuel gauges are...so those both are red.

Then...I put Blue where the Speedo/Tach are...soo all that turns up a nice deep blue.

What I also did was take the little "bulb condom" the blues ones off the old bulbs from the cluster and put one over the clock...so the clock will glow blue, but obviously not as blue as the actual blue bulbs...but its bluer.

Too much? Should I have gone all one color? lemme kno! Any other color combos better?

Sounds interesting. i was thinking of something similiar. I don't really think you can change the color of the clock too much. My imagination is not what it used to be. If there is anyway u could get a pic we'd luv to see it

Was just wondering in endfro ever figured out his speedo situation. I have a 93' and did the same thing. When I tried to remove the cable from the gearbox it just unplugged and I didn't need to unbolt it. I don't know if it should do this or not. Putting it back in is a different story, you have to use the same amount of force to jam it back in as you used to yank out your gauge cluster! LOL

So what size bulbs do the P11's take in the instrument cluster? Thanks.

~Jonathan

Originally posted by pearl-p10
Was just wondering in endfro ever figured out his speedo situation. I have a 93' and did the same thing.

On my G 93.5, there is no speedo cables or tach. The gauges are all sent information electronically.

Heh yeah I figured it out.

Took me and my dad (an ex mechanic) 4 hours to get it to work.

It wasnt an electronic on my 1991 P10.. it was a mechanical cable. It connected right into the tranny. I had to disconnect it from the tranny, and pull the cable up, then reconnect it to the tranny.

The problem that we came across there was the fact taht the cable was notched just right on both ends, and it was really hard to get it in right.

But it works now! woo!

Originally posted by P11GT
What i wanna know is, has anyone dismantled the clocks to colour code the black surround that seperates each dial. I'd like to do mine in silver to match the rest of the dash.

I've never done it, but it looked easy enough when I have the dials out of my car to track down a rattle. It appears that the clear plastic cover just clips on, and once you've removed that, the inner surround removes pretty easy.

How come the surround is black on your GT though Kev? I thought the GT, SRi, and Si all came with a sort of metalic effect one. There is a pic of mine below which is stock colour (although the camera flash has made it look brighter than it really is)...

Now that's what this whole thread was about thank you for puting up a pic. Digi cam still brocken going to buy a new 1 this weekend.:D

Thank you anthony!

Cleaner shot of guages