well i did have a 92 needle to compare it to but after i got my cluster back my speedo was still off. and i never tested it on my tach.

i know its not the car because i tested an unmodified cluster and everything was dead on perfect. i am going to add some counterweights to the back of the needles to balance them better, but this was a step in the right direction.

 

Here is my idea for a way to rebuild the needles, maybe some people here have some input.

Get some thin clear plastic rods that can fit in the groove in the back of the needle. They can be acrylic or PVC or whatever is clear and has a nice outside finish. Then grind some small grooves in the backside of the rod, this will scatter the light upward. Then Mask off a little strip on the top of the rod where the it will line up with the front of the needle. Paint the rest with chrome reflective paint. Then connect the end of the rod to a small LED, it can be SMD or whatever will fit on the needle. Coat the connection with clear nail polish to index match the LED to the Rod better.

Now if it works right the light from the LED should travel through the tube (similar to a fiber optic) and get scattered off of the rough bottom and out the non-painted strip and through the needle face.

I believe this is how many "Modern" needles are lit, I think it is not a problem of getting lots of LEDs in there but cleverly guiding the light from a single LED.

DISCLAIMER: I have not done any of this. If I can find a set of spare needles in a junk yard I plan to try.

 

Have you weighed the Lextech's needle? If i remember it right, it's like 1/4 heavier than the stock needle. That's why it's off. Lol.

 

the idea is good and that is actually what lextech tried to do. they put 1 bulb in the base pointing to the tip and some sort of reflextive thing going through from base to tip. if you look at the review thread there are some pictures there of a cleared out needle but there was reflective stuff before i took it out.

 

I'm pumped that someone actually dug into this and is doing some much-needed R&D. You may be working on it now, but what's your solution for the screen lighting of the climate control? I wonder if another led strip like what was used in the cluster would work?

 

Not sure. I put it in behind the screen and connected to a battery and you can see the leds through the screen. Maybe just resolver some regular bulbs in this case

 

well one month after getting my climate control back from Lextech the bulbs that illuminate the buttons are failing. 2 gone and 2 more flickering. (No surprise).

I'm going to replace them myself this time but before I pull the climate control unit can someone tell me the bulb size and style so I can order them first.

 

Hey, I have a really dumb/simple question - how easily do the needles come off?

I'm a bit leery of pulling too hard and breaking something. Should they slide right off, is there any resistance, etc.

 

Just pull gently

 

neo-wedge not sure of exact size order 1 of each there are only 3 sizes

 

I am digging up this thread, has anyone done any more DIY can we improve this one in any way. i know people still have there issues. plus i just bought another SC and I might try some back lighting on it if not needles since thankfully they still work well.

 

Unfortunately I don't think you will be able to just replace them. They modify the inside so heavily it's pretty much non serviceable.

 

I'm going to be running LED strips around the gauges for backlighting as well, I just need some clarification. Since the controller only has one connection for one LED strip and cutting the strip of 30 LEDs in half makes two strips of 15 LEDs, how will I connect the other strip of LEDs to the same controller? Perhaps I need to run 2 controllers? Also, where did you run the IR receiver for the controller? There isn't much length to the wire for the IR receiver to begin with. Lastly, to power this kit do I just wire the controller directly to a switched 12v source? No need to use the AC adaptor I presume. What would be a good place to tap a switchable power source from?

 

i did my needles full with 12 LEDs on the big ones and 8 on the small ones, running in parallel of 4 LED groups, no resistors, been a year and no problems yet. the LEDs can handle a pretty wide range of voltage, pretty sure each PLCC2 LED can handle up to 3.6V, which in a group of 4 is 14.4 which i think is fine.