hi everyone - i've been wishing for white gauges ever since i bought my gle 2 years ago, and i'm torn between buying a cluster from a wrecked se, and getting white stickers. can anyone here tell me if the import intell's look exactly like a stock se face? i can't find a good close-up pic of a 1995 se gauge cluster to compare. se owners, are you out there? can ya help a guy out?
thanks for the help & have a nice day.
maury

 

Get the cluster.

The stickers are nice and all, but you have to take off your needles to put them on.

 

If you decide that you want a set of the White Import Intell's I have a brand new set that I would give you a deal on. $20.00 shipped.

 

The stickers sucked...such a pain..get the cluster.

Erik

 

i have SE gauges now, but just ordered some indiglo's... something to change the dash up a little.. what do you all think of them, and how hard to install??

 

I agree get the cluster.

 

thanks guys, for your insight and help. i'll go with your advice and look for a cluster. now the real question ... can a guy like me do this cluster swap, or must i pay joe garage to do it for me? i know i'd be patient and careful. i have the haynes and it warns that this job is tough for the home mechanic. have any of you successfully done the swap & found that it's easier than it seems? i've done stuff like change my mafs & clean throttle body/iacv - but i've never dared touch the car's interior. that would suck so bad if i f up my dash or something. thank you all so much - i will be so psyhced if/when i get the white look!
maury

 

Don't do it. LOTS of wiring. Unless your an electricion, or good in car electronics, get it done.

By the way, good choice on getting the factory SE gauges. They look SOO nice and clean!

 

umm... ive never done this before, but i would think that its just a simple matter of taking the plugs off the old cluster and plugging them into the new one.. am i wrong?

 

If the gauge cluster is the same year as your car and the same transmission, then it should be simple to swap the cluster. The only thing that you have to worry about it the milage difference.

Go to http://www.maximadriver.com in the how2 section to see how to take out your cluster.

 

Well, actually I donno. On harolds 5spd conversion page it shows teh whole gauge cluster taken off, and there were tons of wires hangin everywhere. I just assumed it would be difficult and time consuming.

 

thanks clee, but what does it matter what transmission i have? i don't understand
maury

 

Well ... I'm assuming the manual doesn't have a light for O/D.

But I'm not sure... I have an automagic.

 

oh - good point. can anyone here with a 5-speed se verify this? if there's any way to tell, that is.

 

Whoa, wait a minute! If youre gonna do all this work just to get white gauges, then get indiglos!!!! They are very simple to install, are white, and look NICE at night. You can have it any shade of green or blue you want, and you can have it at any brightness! On E-bay they are only like 70 bucks.

DPW

 

can you get indiglos to look exactly like stock se gauges? cause that's what i want. not blue, not green, etc. thanks anyway

 

I have the importintelligence.

If you do the stickers... take your time. They look nice, but it is a pain to do the calibrations, but if you do it right it looks better than the stock SE whites which are pretty plain. The importI ones do this white black white sequence on the numbers thats pretty cool.
I would suggest that if you plan to do a needle mod to do it at the same time. I did the intelliglow, sweet looking...not too rice-y.
and it keeps a lot of class in the dash that a lot of gauge mods dont provide...
It's all about the presentation!!!!!!

 

so the importinteli. are just stickers? i thought there a plastic filiment that you just replace ? and are they just like the se faces ?
cuz i am going to get some at importinteli. mainemax if your selling them can you tell me what they look like cuz i'll take them off of u for 20+ ship

 

How much is a good price for used SE cluster?????
I want to make sure not paying too much for it

 

I installed the SE gauge cluster; the entire job takes about 20 minutes. On a skill level of 1-10, it's a 2. If you can change a flat tire, you can do this. I paid $150 for it. '95 thru '97 will be a direct replacment, '98 and '99 have a LED odometer instead of the mechanical type.

If you've got a 5-speed, just remove the OD light before you install the gauges.

 

You have mail

 

But how do you maintain your original miles on your car? If you change it, you are changing the miles on your car right?

 

If you want to keep your old odometer, that's a much more delicate operation. I won't attempt it. You may be able to find a speedometer repair shop to change it for you.

 

You know that your car loses like 2/3 of its value when you mark the yes part on the original odometer statement when you trade your car in

 

You know that your car loses like 2/3 of its value when you mark the yes part on the original odometer statement when you trade your car in. and if you don't, and you get caught...well thats fraud... just deal with the needles and take the plastic faces off the used cluster.

 

i too have done a gauge cluster swap. my 96 5 spd was basically plug and play. the hardest part is just removing the plastic to get the cluster out, but once it's out, it should be simple. btw, i'm talking about the analog gauge cluster (not digital cluster).