Rochester

iTrader: (3)

Really? OK, then. It's back on the list. I'll be ordering bulbs May 1st.

Polarity... I forgot about that nit and LED's. How did you determine correct orientation without reinstalling the cluster?

And nelledge, none of your photos are coming through in this thread. (yet)


I'd like to see the difference between "cool white" and "warm white".


Thanks for taking a second look at the redline, SeedyROM.

TunerMaxima3000

iTrader: (4)

I too see no pictures attatched nelledge.....

Look forward to pics when you get them posted.

nelledge

iTrader: (6)

I'm sorry fellas. It appears I had the photo marked 'private'. I could see the photo, so, I assumed everyone else could as well. It should be all set now. If it does post, it will post a bajillion times since everyone quoted the image.

nelledge

iTrader: (6)

1. Replace bulbs with LEDs.
2. Position cluster so that you can plug the 3 harnesses back in, and then do that.
3. The dimmer switch needs to be plugged in as well. (obvious, when you think about it)
4. Power the parking lights and check cluster.
5. Keep note of any areas not lit. Remove those sockets, twist them 180, and plug them back in. (Initially, I was doing this to the LED instead. I realized how stupid it was a few times in.)
6. Check again until all four are lit.

I had to slightly bend the internal tabs of one socket to make a tighter fit for the LED, but it's fairly straightforward. I have some pretty nice hot-spotting on my HVAC panel, but it's better than not seeing half of it in the dark. Plus, the HVAC isn't in my face like the cluster so I'm glad for the change. The cluster looks great just like SeedyROM initially said. Hot-spotting is equivalent to OEM, but much brighter (and bluer in my case).

Rochester

iTrader: (3)

Thanks for fixing the pics, nelledge.

I'd like Tuner's opinion on second-best recommendation for these drop-in's: cool white, or warm white. "Second-best", because the best approach would be to have Tuner do a full, customized LED conversion. Obviously.

UGAd13

Great pics everyone! Correct me if I’m wrong, but these are all pics of the 5.5 SEs gauges (except for Tuner’s custom job), right? I was hoping to post up pics of the drop-ins for the 5.5 GLE but USPS didn't deliver my frickin' package this weekend. Hopefully I can get to this before next weekend (hard to with a full time job and a 14 month old…).

Skorp1on

i ordered my bults in cool white as well. personally, i don't care about too much about the redline being there or not. now that nelledge's pics shows, even better. just have been sick of the dimmed look of the stock incandesent. one of the bulbs for the my AC cluster went out, so it gave me an excuse to order the "drop-in" LEDs for the gauge cluster as well.

OnOiShNo0dl3Z

iTrader: (2)

thanks for fixin that nelledge. Looks sweet. I think i'm Actually gonna do this one lol.

Any chance you could post pics after you fix the lower bulbs so the LED display is on? I want to see how that looks.

nelledge

iTrader: (6)

You're welcome! I've got class all day, but I'll try to find a few minutes to mess with it tomorrow. It should end up looking like they do in the photo Seedy has at the beginning of the thread.

Eirik

iTrader: (2)

I'm not a fan of the blue look (the fact the gauges turn from black-on-white in the day to white-on-black at night never fails to make me go, "Oooh, that's cool."), so I'm psyched that TM released one of his secrets! His warm-white shots were hot. Um, can't write that without some pathetic pun, sorry.

Whatever, mark me down as doing this in the months to come, with the warm white, because a brighter cluster would be nice. I would do it in a few weekends, if my stupid rear caliper hadn't locked up on me yesterday. Grr, happy Easter, goodbye monies.

TM: I did have one question though... How come all those gauges you were working on had letters in between the speedometer and odometer??

UGAd13

not TM, but Auto vs 6 speed I assume.

datsunzcar84

iTrader: (1)

That's the guys that have auto trans . It a indicator for what gear the tansmission is in.

TunerMaxima3000

iTrader: (4)

Pics you posted look amazing Nelledge, can you get us a bigger pic of the gauges though? Thanks very much! The Climate contol turned out very well too, which bulbs did you put in there the T5's? I haven't tried to fit the T5's in there because of the hospotting, do they fit?

Won't point out the grotesque comment

And no problem, just make sure you post back with pictures when you do it!!

I assume this is a sarcastic jab at the Autotragic Owners, myself included

I was never going to keep this car for that reason, I bought it to sell it (great price, low, low mileage).
Once I had my son I decided to keep it, and you guys wouldn't have a lot of information/DIY's posted if I sold it, so don't hate on me

Back OT.

Rochester

iTrader: (3)

Bump for Tuner.

Eirik

iTrader: (2)

and at the people who apparently think I've gone through life without seeing a single automatic transmission. The only ones that don't have an indicator on the dash have one on a box near your knee, stupid Allison heavy-duty $hite. Cough. I mean, I grew up in Ethiopia and we only have Corollas with 3-speed manuals.

Pfft, not hating, it's good you had yourself a baby and settled down here.

What? On THESE forums? Ha!

TunerMaxima3000

iTrader: (4)

Sorry Rochester. If you're asking my recommendation between the Cool White and the Warm White, I would say, wait until Eirik Posts his pics. I am fairly certain the Warm white will be 'dimmer' than the Cool white.

That said, I'm also fairly sure that the Warm white will not come out 'blue', and will also illuminate the Red zone better.

It's all theory right now, until someone puts the Warm white HP3's in the GLE Cluster.

If you want my answer right now, I say:
If you want it a bit brighter than stock, but the same colour, get warm white.
If you want it brighter still, and don't mind losing the red zone and having it a little 'blue' as a trade-off for the brightness, get the cool white


Yeah I chuckled a bit at the replies to your comment. No offense guys, but really? I mean, if he had a post count of 4, or 24.... maybe, but really?

UGAd13

With the posts I've seen lately in the 5th gen forum can you blame me? It seems like we're becoming as bad as the 4th genners.

Rochester

iTrader: (3)

Thanks, Tuner. Good advice, again. With 100 posts here, I've been losing track of what's what.

Eirik, you're up with your warm-white, drop-in LED's. The world is watching, buddy. (No, not really. Just 3 or 4 car geeks.)

nelledge

iTrader: (6)

Thanks! Here's a larger photo of the inst. cluster by itself. Keep in mind that I have to reverse the polarity on the digitals at the bottom. I was so enthralled with the change with the upper bulbs I didn't pay attention to the bottom. Plus, it was sunny bright. Also, the photo was taken with a point and shoot Nikon and has no editing enhancements or corrections whatsoever. Aside from the blurring, this is identical to what it looks like in person.


As far as the HVAC, I just used the bulbs Seedy referenced from superbrightleds: NEO4-WHP. Plug and play. No clearance issues. Like I said, some hot-spotting, but I could care less on the AC panel.

SeedyROM

Great followup nelledge, looks exactly like mine (even the redline). I really should try to get some more photos that show it like yours. I'm also very excited to see Eirik's results with the Warm Whites.

As for the climate control, are these the lights you used from SBLEDs? I never even thought to update those but if they are easy to get to, I might as well.

Drakaine

Seedy I like it man its clean, good looking out. My bro wants some now haha. Tuner3000 that looks awesome man, can you get it to be as bright all the way around the gauges instead of just in certain areas?

Rochester

iTrader: (3)

Aye. I'm also interested in hearing you guys discuss the climate control lighting. Bulbs, locations, dis-assembly and reassembly.

TunerMaxima3000

iTrader: (4)

Thanks for the PN. I'm going to check with SBLEDs now, I hope they can ship to me reasonably. I'm going to try some of their products if they can.

Alright, cameras, pictures, bleh. This is so subjective it's REALLY hard to make any comments. On the one hand, you have the OP pictures. Impressive, and to be honest, pretty close to what I expect to see. If I took a picture of your gauges (seedy) with my camera (same one I took the picture of MY gauges with), it would turn out close to the same.

The pictures in the OP, and the ones I posted, are not an accurate depiction of what it really looks like. They are a bit dimmer, and show hotspots more. They focus on where there is the most light, so if there isn't much light in the redzone, it wont show in the picture (even if there is some light there).

Now, we have Nelledge's pictures. They are overexposed. This means they look much brighter than they are in person.
.....I know you said the pictures show it like it is Nelledge, but I am sorry to say that's not true man, I would lay money on it. There's no way that 2x 3 SMDs on either end of the gauges light up the whole cluster that bright, and that evenly. That picture looks brighter than the ones I did that have over 40 SMD's in them, it's just not accurate. Maybe it's cause it's blurry, but it's overexposed.

The truth is, I suspect the HP3's the OP and Nelledge used are somewhere in between the two pictures in terms of brightness. The simple fact is, without a very expensive camera and someone who knows how to use it, these pictures are just a rough reference.
Don't bank too much that your gauges will look the same in person (including my pictures) but expect that you WILL be able to see the redline, just not super-bright.

I'm not saying that your gauges don't look good guys, I know they do, especially compared to stock, and for the money, it's incredible.
But we need to keep things in perspective and make sure everyone knows what they're really looking at, and that's pictures taken with cheap cameras that don't show us what the gauges look like to the human eye.

Same goes as above here. My camera couldn't take a good picture of those gauges. They are actually much whiter, brighter, and there are no hot-spots visible to the human eye. The camera just can't capture it the same way it looks in person.

DLO

iTrader: (4)

Went with the warm whites and am very happy with the results...

It comes out pretty close to pure white, kind of a cool grey. Eliminates the amber/yellowish hue of stock. VERY even light distribution, little/no hotspotting in person, pic exaggerates it. the shimmer around the edges are my chrome gauge rings btw. Dimly shows redline. Acceptable temp gauge that, though dim, seems at least slightly brighter than what I see in the cool white pics. Needles have a sharp glow. Overall has kind of an understated class to it that should have been OEM imo.

Also did the A/C lights red to match my headunit...

2 red neo4s for the upper bulbs, and 1 cool white for the slider area. More noticeable hotspotting, outshines my headunit, probly switching to cool whites or just back to oem. Anybody know of a drop-in for that mini green bulb for the a/c slider?

SeedyROM

Tuner, you're right about cameras and subjectivity. What I meant by his looking like mine was more of an overall thing. His dark spot in the right corner, the bright spots near the bulbs themselves and the redline actually being somewhat visible.

I guess I shouldn't have said "exactly" like mine because of the overexposed photos (as you said) so I hope everyone understands what I mean. Everyone should be clear, the redline does not disappear completely nor is it really "bright". It's just there

SeedyROM

Great post DLO! Looks like Tuner nailed it on the head about the warm coming out much closer to white. It doesn't even really look all that much dimmer (though cameras vary) and looks the way OEM should have been.

SeedyROM

Just to confirm, 3 total neo4s for the climate control? Also, how hard was getting back there and installing them?

nelledge

iTrader: (6)

I can take the time to write up instructions for the climate control bulb change if people want. It's pretty straightforward. I thought I got the bulb number from Seedy but I guess it was from another member. They also came from SBL. Sockets included. Twist and change.

SeedyROM

That would be fantastic and I'd add it to the first post (as I already did for your cluster writeup).

nelledge

iTrader: (6)

The only true objective way to have this done is for each of us to use the same shutter speed, aperture, light intensity values, etc. I have expensive cameras at my disposal, but it still will remain subjective. It'd be cheaper to just pay the few extra bucks for the LEDs, install them, and see for yourself.

I understand that photos are subjective, but I think Seedy had it right when he said the hot-spotting is no more worse than with stock incandescent bulbs. TM3000, I think you'd be truly amazed if you saw the results of these plug-n-play LEDs in real life.

nelledge

iTrader: (6)

In that case, I'll take the HVAC out again and take pics to complement a write up. Give me a day or two. I'm married. I can't drop everything I'm doing and run out there anymore like I used to.

SeedyROM

No rush at all nelledge, this is all just a big experiment/documentation for the archives when people search on "dim cluster"

DLO

iTrader: (4)

Yeah 3 neo4 bulbs total. its not bad, comparable to the gauges in effort.
Remove dash trim, unbolt and remove a/c unit from headunit frame, remove the only four screws on the back to open the unit, twist out old bulbs, twist in new leds, and put it all back together... If you can change a headunit, you can do this with ease. in any case, i gave a quick and dirty version, i'd wait for/find a write-up to be safe

Rochester

iTrader: (3)

There it is! That's the look for me, gents. Brighter than stock, with glowing red needles. Nice! The blue-ish thing was just a bit too much styling for my particular tastes. But this, I like.

Good post, DLO. 15th post? Welcome to the Org, champ.

Rochester

iTrader: (3)

"Are you taking pictures of your car again? What the hell is it now?"

It's all good.

OnOiShNo0dl3Z

iTrader: (2)

NICE DLO!!! I mentioned in another thread months ago about trying warm white expecting results to look like that. I just wasn't able to find the bulbs anywhere or the time to do it. I expected it to glow white and it looks like your results are awesome. It's EXACTLY what i want!

Can you give a direct link to those and where they direct fit plug and plays? I'm assuming you didnt do anything about the blue film right?

Edit: Just looked around. Are they the ones on superbrightleds.com part number 74-WWHP3

Edit 2: Now i look like an idiot. Saw it on front page haha. Thanks

zero2sixtyZ

iTrader: (30)

Hoping for more details on the climate control bulbs before I make my order... Anyone with auto climate control do this yet?

SeedyROM

First post updated with Warm White and Cluster/Polarity instructions. Good work guys!

TunerMaxima3000

iTrader: (4)

Nice man! Turned out great, just as planned.

The drop in you're looking for... what do you mean exactly? A stock replacement, or a brighter than stock replacement?

There is a VERY well written write up on this, one of the most well constructed write ups for the Maxima ever actually IMO. I will post it soon need to find it.

Yes, I fully agree. I just wanted to make sure everyone reading was aware of that, that's all.

I am actually really, really impressed with how well it worked out, I was quite surprised. I understand how these things look and are portrayed in pictures, and as such I can imagine what it looks like. I would like to see one in person, I was going to order them just to check, but they won't ship outside of the U.S. under a certain order amount.

Perhaps someone can buy a few for me and ship them up in the mail? Any takers? I would like to play with a few of them.

TunerMaxima3000

iTrader: (4)

One of them, this will get the Climate Control free:

http://www.shareamemory.com/radio/03..._rem/index.htm

I'll edit the other one in once I get it.

EDIT: Ok finally found it. This is the good one: http://home.comcast.net/~kcmurphy72/i30/HVAC.pdf

P.S. The ACC, and Manual Climate control use the same 3 bulbs, they aren't different.

P.P.S. I still haven't found a plug and play bulb that will work in the Climate Control without major hotspotting. That's why I made my own setup for them. See sig.