DIY: LED gauge cluster
06-12-09, 07:12 PM
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DIY: LED gauge cluster
Here is the complete DIY for those of you that want to complete this one on your own. Total cost is less than $10 for the LED's and resistors via eBay. To complete this, you'll need a soldering iron (fine tipped), rosin core solder, wire nippers, jewelry pliers, a philips screwdriver to take out your cluster and of course LED's and resistors. You'll need 24 wide angled 5mm LED's. I used blue but you can use whatever color you wish. You'll also need 24 resistors...find a resistor calculator online and plug in the values your LED's use and it will tell you which resistor you need. I used 390ohm resistors for the LED's I used.
To start, cut off the anode (long wire) of all your LED's, leaving a 1/4" stem. This is where your resistor will be soldered. Wrap one of the resistor leads around the anode and remove it so you can trim to fit as necessary. This is what my resistors looked like after I wrapped and trimmed them.
Next you'll want to secure the resistor to the LED. Place the wrapped end back on the anode and crimp it to secure it in place so it doesn't go anywhere when you solder it.
Now, you'll want to solder it in place. It is always wise to keep your solder joints nice and clean as it not only looks better, but also makes a better connection.
After it is cooled and all your other LED's are soldered, it's time to shape and trim the leads. I'll let the pics do the talking. You need to bend them so they fit in the back of the cluster and trim them so they can be soldered neatly to the ribbon board.
Now that we have the LED's prepped and done, it's time to take apart the cluster. Start by removing the cluster from your car. Pretty self explanitory here. Keep in mind that when you remove the cluster you must NOT turn over the key or your airbag light will come on and will have to be reset (PITA). Yes, you can drive your car without the cluster (it won't not run) but your airbag light will be on when you put your cluster back in.
Once your cluster is out of the car, time to take it apart. Start by removing the 4 screws holding the back cover on (circled in red). Then remove the 7 screws holding on the tinted front cover (circled below in green).
Once these are removed, you'll need to remove your needles. They just pull off. NOTE: mark or remember the location of the fuel gauge needle before removing as it will need to be reset when put back together. Also, you will notice there is a second brass 'weight' in the back of one of the small needles. This goes on the fuel gauge.
Now you can safely lay the cluster face down on a soft surface to work on it. Starting in the back again, remove the 16 screws holding the circuit board and gauge face to the housing. There are 2 types of screws here so keep them seperated and mark where they go.
Now you can take off the gauge face.
At the top of the cluster on the back side is a set of 3 ribbons that need to be removed. There is a black part that lifts up to allow removal of the ribbons from their holders. Now, you can fold back the circuit board to allow work on the ribbons.
Now that the cluster is apart, we can start soldering the LED's to the ribbon. I didn't take a lot of pics here as my hands were full but I'll try to explain it. All the light holes have a positive and negative side to the ribbons. It is important to solder the right lead on the right side or else the LED won't light. I found that all the holes are positive up top and negative on bottom EXCEPT the temp gauge light which is opposite. The resistor lead gets soldered to the positive and the other lead gets soldered to the negative.
When you solder these, you need to put the LED in place and then solder the leads to the copper part of the ribbon. I did them individually but you can make a 'cluster' of LED's and then solder the cluster to the ribbon. Personal choice here. Again, keep the heat to a bare minimum as you don't want to melt or burn the ribbon. And it helps to have a pair of jewelry pliers here to hold the LED leads while you solder as they like to dance around when you try and solder them. And just like soldering the resistors to the LED's, it pays to keep it nice and clean. So yeah, here's a close-up of what it looks like when you get them soldered (not the best pic as my camera is ****ty but you get the idea)
Keep going until you have all the LED's soldered in. I put my cluster back in after every set of 3 I did to make sure they lit up and to direct the LED's to the spots I wanted them. Here is what it looks like without the face on but lit up.
When all the LED's are in and directed to where you want them, put the cluster back together. Reset the needle positions if you have to so the tach is on 0, speedo is on 0 and fuel gauge is where it was before you took the cluster out. Put it back in your car and enjoy!
To start, cut off the anode (long wire) of all your LED's, leaving a 1/4" stem. This is where your resistor will be soldered. Wrap one of the resistor leads around the anode and remove it so you can trim to fit as necessary. This is what my resistors looked like after I wrapped and trimmed them.
Next you'll want to secure the resistor to the LED. Place the wrapped end back on the anode and crimp it to secure it in place so it doesn't go anywhere when you solder it.
Now, you'll want to solder it in place. It is always wise to keep your solder joints nice and clean as it not only looks better, but also makes a better connection.
After it is cooled and all your other LED's are soldered, it's time to shape and trim the leads. I'll let the pics do the talking. You need to bend them so they fit in the back of the cluster and trim them so they can be soldered neatly to the ribbon board.
Now that we have the LED's prepped and done, it's time to take apart the cluster. Start by removing the cluster from your car. Pretty self explanitory here. Keep in mind that when you remove the cluster you must NOT turn over the key or your airbag light will come on and will have to be reset (PITA). Yes, you can drive your car without the cluster (it won't not run) but your airbag light will be on when you put your cluster back in.
Once your cluster is out of the car, time to take it apart. Start by removing the 4 screws holding the back cover on (circled in red). Then remove the 7 screws holding on the tinted front cover (circled below in green).
Once these are removed, you'll need to remove your needles. They just pull off. NOTE: mark or remember the location of the fuel gauge needle before removing as it will need to be reset when put back together. Also, you will notice there is a second brass 'weight' in the back of one of the small needles. This goes on the fuel gauge.
Now you can safely lay the cluster face down on a soft surface to work on it. Starting in the back again, remove the 16 screws holding the circuit board and gauge face to the housing. There are 2 types of screws here so keep them seperated and mark where they go.
Now you can take off the gauge face.
At the top of the cluster on the back side is a set of 3 ribbons that need to be removed. There is a black part that lifts up to allow removal of the ribbons from their holders. Now, you can fold back the circuit board to allow work on the ribbons.
Now that the cluster is apart, we can start soldering the LED's to the ribbon. I didn't take a lot of pics here as my hands were full but I'll try to explain it. All the light holes have a positive and negative side to the ribbons. It is important to solder the right lead on the right side or else the LED won't light. I found that all the holes are positive up top and negative on bottom EXCEPT the temp gauge light which is opposite. The resistor lead gets soldered to the positive and the other lead gets soldered to the negative.
When you solder these, you need to put the LED in place and then solder the leads to the copper part of the ribbon. I did them individually but you can make a 'cluster' of LED's and then solder the cluster to the ribbon. Personal choice here. Again, keep the heat to a bare minimum as you don't want to melt or burn the ribbon. And it helps to have a pair of jewelry pliers here to hold the LED leads while you solder as they like to dance around when you try and solder them. And just like soldering the resistors to the LED's, it pays to keep it nice and clean. So yeah, here's a close-up of what it looks like when you get them soldered (not the best pic as my camera is ****ty but you get the idea)
Keep going until you have all the LED's soldered in. I put my cluster back in after every set of 3 I did to make sure they lit up and to direct the LED's to the spots I wanted them. Here is what it looks like without the face on but lit up.
When all the LED's are in and directed to where you want them, put the cluster back together. Reset the needle positions if you have to so the tach is on 0, speedo is on 0 and fuel gauge is where it was before you took the cluster out. Put it back in your car and enjoy!
06-12-09, 07:15 PM
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06-13-09, 04:39 AM
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I wont lie you did a lot of work but you shouldn't have cut corners. Since you disassembled the whole gauge cluster you would have been better off just grinding the plastic down to fit 2 rings of leds. By only putting an led into each light socket, you have 8 hot spots. You should have just gone the extra mile for 0 hot spots.
Or you could have just done what me and like 5 other members have done and that is get mazda 3 ccfl angel eyes. Perfect light distribution with a tint of blue. And perfect brightness during the day while being "slightly" too bright at night.
Or you could have just done what me and like 5 other members have done and that is get mazda 3 ccfl angel eyes. Perfect light distribution with a tint of blue. And perfect brightness during the day while being "slightly" too bright at night.
The hot spots you see in the pics really aren't noticable to the naked eye when sitting in front of them. If I were to do anything different, that would be to extend the leads on 2 of the LED's that go towards the 4 of the tach...that seems to be the only 'dim' spot I can see in my cluster but when I change them out to white, then I'll worry about it. For the time being, it's the best $10 and 2 hours I've spent on my car.
06-13-09, 12:50 PM
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Great writeup! We're very close to releasing our first full FAQ draft (I may even have it out tomorrow evening) and this will be added to it. We're actually going to unsticky most everything in the SC forum except for the FAQ and link to the 'top' threads and all the DIYs, etc from that one spot.
Please don't get the thread locked by doing that, thanks 
06-13-09, 05:33 PM
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Guys keep the controversy and drama in PM and out of this thread please.
