Gauge Cluster LED Swap

[Wolfman213]

This How To will inform you on how to swap out the leds in your gauge cluster for a more customized look. This is for 03-08 only. 09+ may be similar; however, I cannot guarantee anything for those years.The leds required for this mod are PLCC2. Whomever you purchase them from, make sure they show you the specs. You want them to be over 100mcd and definitely not over 1000mcd. Also take into consideration that if you are placing multiple colors near each other that some may over power the other such as red over blue.This is a very difficult mod. It took me a total of about 6 hrs counting breaks. Also, I’m just ok at best when it comes to soldering.First things first: We must remove the cluster. I found it best to have my steering wheel in the lower most position. The piece that surrounds the cluster simply pulls straight out. Not much force is required.This now exposed the top screw and the lower spring clips.Start by removing the screw at the top. Now for the spring clips, I used a knife that I had handy, but you can easily use anything else that’s thin but strong enough to push the clip. It’s kinda hard to tell in the pic where the spring clip is, but you should have no problem locating it when you are actually looking at it. The cluster will pop upwards without any additional help. Now you can start to remove the cluster from the dash.03 & 04 has one plug, 05-08 has two. Removing them and removing the cluster is just a matter of working with them till it’s removed.One you have your work area prepped; let’s take a look at the cluster. You will notice that the smoke cover can be removed; this is not necessary to remove this. Locate the tabs associated with the black trim that holds the smoke cover in place. They are the ones that go into the white piece.Start popping them out until you can completely remove the black trim with the smoke cover. Set this aside as you will no longer need this until the very end.Now on to one of the most worrisome parts of the project: the needles. It is a good idea at this time to make a mental note, write it down, take a picture, or whatever means you decide upon to note the needles at their present state of “0”. We will deal with the issues of them later. To remove them, I took an interchangeable screwdriver and used the two flat blades to pop them off. I’m sure there are different methods that would work just the same, to each his/her own.Next we will remove the indicator pieces. They offer a little resistance, but still easy to remove. Now you should see some diffusers. Which one you will see will depend on what year you have. 03-04 just has a piece that covers the tach, which can simply be pulled out. 05-08 has a white diffuser that covers the entire cluster.The 05+ diffuser is actually screwed in on the back. Be sure to remove the screws holding it in prior to trying to remove the diffuser.Now that the majority of the leds are showing, it’s time to deal with the most stressful part of the swap: Removal of the LCD Screen. This requires a lot of patience. Haste can lead to a broken LCD screen or bent pins. I’m sure that they don’t just sell this part, therefore, if this gets broken, you’re either looking at a new cluster or hoping to find a cheap used one.The method I found to be the best is to use the diffuser as a fulcrum. I started on the left side as it was the easiest side to lift the diffuser. SLOWLY start rocking the diffuser back and forth. Make sure that you push the little tabs on the bottom down to prevent any issues. Eventually the screen will come out intact with no bent pins. Now you can relax a little. 2 of the 3 most stressful things are now over with!!To gain access to the board, there are 4 more screws to remove. If you have tan 03 or 04, all of the screws on the back hold the white trim piece in. Here is a look at the board with the back side removed.Before finally separating the white trim from the board itself, there are 3 tabs holding it in place. They don’t need to be moved that much, just enough for the board to clear them. Carefully remove the board and now place it face up for and marvel.TachSpeedoFuel/TempFirst order of business is to note which leds you want to remove first. I changed all of mine, but if you just want to change say the color of the number or just the dummy lights or LCD backlight, make sure you either take picture references or simply hold the indicator pieces and make reference.Now to the fun part: Removing the leds.First and foremost, I would like to say that I’m no soldering expert and I’m sure that there are things that could be done differently and/or better in that aspect, but I’m just going to write how I done it. If you do not feel comfortable with this part find someone that is or at least someone that can teach you the proper way instead of following my in experienced way.This part is actually more of a pain than putting the new ones back on. It seems that the leds have a small amount of adhesive that connect them to the board as well as the obvious solder. For the removal, I used a 15 watt iron (I read the lower the better for the board but who knows), a pair of tweezers that had a tooth like grip on the end, and a 30 watt iron (only used on the difficult leds on the 04 cluster). I simply heated up the solder and used the tweezers to pop it off the board. This requires going from side to side in order to finally remove the led. Sometimes you may hear a snap, crack, or pop and unless you just poured you a bowl of Rice Krispies, this is fine as the adhesive is basically being broke off. In some cases, the metal contact on the led will stick in the solder. Make sure you remove it as it will just get in the way once you go to put the new leds on. Now whether you plan to remove all of the solder or just leave it on is up to you. I simply left the old solder there. On some difficult leds, I did use a solder sucker to get rid of some of the initial excess.If your eyes start messing with you or your hands get cramped up, take a break. It’s definitely needed and will probably help keep your sanity.So you’ve finally removed your led and are now starting at a blank board. So now where to start?One thing I didn’t do that my dad informed me would be rather smart is to clean off the adhesive that connected the leds to the board. This will help allow the leds to rest properly instead of having a bur causing them to sit askew. Once that is completed, let’s get ready to start placing some leds.Best thing to do is break it into 3 or 4 sections:1) Tach2) Dummy light center (can be combined with section one)3) Speedo4) Fuel/TempSince the led aren’t physically l
abel, it’s best to do one color at a time to prevent cross contamination of colors. ***Very Important*** When putting the new leds on the board they go one direction only. Next to each led is a line and a triangle/arrow. The direction of the arrow is where the notch in the led should face. The PLCC’s all have a notch in one corner to signify polarity.I started off by heating up the existing solder and placing the led on there. Once one side is secure, I did the same with the next side. Once I felt the led was secure and placed properly, I then added new solder and made sure the contact was covered and everything looked good. Once you’ve finished a color in a section, move to the next color and complete. Repeat these steps until you have your board complete again.If you’d like, you can now place it back in the car and make sure everything that you change lights up.Now let’s put it all back together again. When putting the board back in the white trim piece, make sure that the tack needle section is seated properly otherwise you will not be able to get the needle back on. Make sure everything line up properly and ensure that the tabs have all snapped back into place holding the board. Place the black backing on and screw into place. Now you have some options on whether or not to replace the diffuser. I opted not to. It does tend to lead to some “hot spots” but I’m content with it at this time. You can experiment around and see what you like the best. The one diffuser that is a must is the one that does behind the LCD board. Set it in and carefully put the LCD panel back in making sure you do not bend and wires and everything ends up flush. Now comes the indicators. Make sure that they all snap back into place. Now part 3 of the stressful parts: Putting the needles back on correctly. The simplest method that I figured is to put the needle back on according to your reference. Try and rotate it past your “0” point. If it rotates past “0”, then pop the needle off where it’s at. No put it back on and repeat. Keep following this pattern until you are at your referenced “0” and it will no longer turn past “0”. Take another breather and now that all of the hard stuff is over, go ahead and crack the ice cold beer open. You are now ready to put the black trim and smoke cover back on. From here, put the gauge cluster back in the dash and make sure that you remembered to plug in the connector(s).Now for some issues. Due to the nature of leds, you will pretty much loose the red indicator ring unless you are going with red or a close variant. Also make sure that your constant color does not blind you. Since I chose blue, I didnn not put the diffuser back on since it was white, it would absorb a lot of the output and therefore it would be much harder to see. Now say if I went with a red, which has a much brighter output, I would have put the diffuser on to avoid “hot spots” and to prevent to overall brightness from affecting me.Now that you have finished it, it’s really not that hard going to be that hard to go back in and change things up. Experiment around with color combinations, diffused or not, and what every else you want to attempt.**Disclaimer**This is a highly intrusive and risky mod. Mainly things can go wrong and be rather costly. Genvibe and myself do not bear any responsibility for any misfortunes that you may incur during you mod.After Pics:The pics don’t do it justice. I don’t have that great of a camera and the blue tends to look a little white and some other colors don’t quite show up as good in the pics.

[Wolfman213]

btw, this is my first "how to" so if anyone cares to give me any pointers on formating and anything else, please feel free.

[lovemyraffe]

The "how to" was great IMO. I just want to add that when I played with my gauges, the needles kept moving. It freaked me out at first, when the tach gauge needle dropped and I was running 1300 rpms at 80 mph. After a few readjustments things went back to normal.

[bodhi_tree777]

looks good man. Your "before" setup is different than mine, I've got sort of an orange glow to everything. Wonder if that would change the process?I'll try to get a pic of mine here in a bit.And yes, I'm interested

[Wolfman213]

if what I'm thinking is right from seeing the 04+ and the 03 that amishbuggy done, the 03 gets all the coloring from the leds only where as the 04+ actually uses transparent red "film" for the red ring around the numbers. chances are it won't be any different, but actually you will probably have a better turn out bc you won't lose you "ring" like I did and you will still be able to choose any color

[bodhi_tree777]

i'm thinking it might be a good idea for me to wait until I get a new head unit so I can try and match the cluster with the display on that (instead of picking a head unit to try and match the cluster )

[Old Tele man]

...although BLUE is cool (and my favorite color), I actually prefer the Pontiac RED....I remember when the Studebaker AVANTI had red-lighted SW-gauges, the first production car to do so as I recall.

[Sublimewind]

NICE... All surface mount LEDs, sucky... quick tip, super glue them down first, makes soldering them SOOOO much easier.. lol. I see I would have used the diffuser one the blue ones... I see a lot of hot spots... Good show man.. I don't know If I would go that far, but my radio matches perfectly with the red, so it's cool for me to leave it..

[Wolfman213]

Quote, originally posted by bodhi_tree777 »i'm thinking it might be a good idea for me to wait until I get a new head unit so I can try and match the cluster with the display on that (instead of picking a head unit to try and match the cluster )Yeah esp if you are looking for a theme the HU would be a first IMO.Quote, originally posted by Sublimewind »NICE... All surface mount LEDs, sucky... quick tip, super glue them down first, makes soldering them SOOOO much easier.. lol. I see I would have used the diffuser one the blue ones... I see a lot of hot spots... Good show man.. I don't know If I would go that far, but my radio matches perfectly with the red, so it's cool for me to leave it.. Good tip on the super glue! AFA the diffuser goes, I'm probably going to be playing around with things next weekend. Probably swap the needles back out as the ones I have on right now I scraped the orange backing off of. The current ones don't light up quite like I would want them to. I'm def going to place the diffuser on and see what it looks like at that point. I may even try to toss a red led in either every other one or two and see if with the diffuser present, I can possible get a purple effect without the red dominating too much. the only issue if that the red of twice as powerful as the blue and i will have hit and miss red rings.