Well I tried posting this in the lighting section, but that proved to be worthless. Anyways, here's the original post:

So I JUST replaced my alternator and battery the other day and all is well. Battery is up to a normal charge and the alternator is running perfect, but I noticed that when I start the car, my speedometer needle is lit up 100%, however after a while there is one little spot towards the tip that slowly dims down to almost nothing. This happens about 20 min into driving the car. Any ideas? I appreciate all input. Thanks a bunch!

 

the led contacts in the needle seperate when the car/cluster warms up causing the smd's to go out in that spot. when it cools down, they make contact again. nothing you can do other than get a good used needle or send it off to get it redone.

 

Thats exactly right! Time to send them to LexTech, or PM O.L.T.

 

Early in the ice blue thread in 2003 I did a writeup so you don't have to look far https://www.clublexus.com/forums/sc-...-clusters.html

In it you see the needle close up partially lit sitting on a working cluster. If you understand what an old tin can flasher unit does, you'll get the jist.

If you'd have been putting out proper voltage before you replaced the stuff, you'd seen the issue long before now. You've been running low voltage for a long time.

 

Thanks for all the responses, guys. Might have to go with Lextech if I can't round up a good needle.