I have been playing with leds in my instrument cluster and found a light in the lower left hand corner that says "SPORT" and has an image of a shock absorber. I started looking around and the only mention of this was in a thread from a while back, but not much else so i decided to light up my sport light and see what it looks like.

This is the instrument cluster from the back if you couldn't tell. The sport light is in the lower left hand corner circled in red


Here it is from the front with light coming through.


I decided to take power from the key bezel which wasn't the best idea since it doesn't have enough current to run both so next time i get back there i will figure something else out.


I used a knife to cut the connections to the rest of the circuit board just in case i got the polarities wrong i didn't want to short anything out or worse


THen i soldiered the wires that i connected to the key bezel. I used some 20 gauge telephone wire, a foot and a half or 2 feet should do the job

 

I hooked everything back up and tada! 4DSC or something like that i guess.


I'll get some night shots when i get a chance too.

 

pics in 1st post arent working

 

got it taken care of

 

They work for me. Anyway thats pretty cool. I didn't know there was that little light. 4DSC feeling FTW.

 

Just like the adjustable suspension in the A32. There's a fuse slot for it, and they had it overseas, but nothing here.

 

I did something similar, but used a piece of foil to cover the shock absorber. so when lit it only read "sport". then i hooked one wire to a positve and the other to the VAIS wire off the ECU so , so when the VAIS was activated it would lite up

 

That's actually a pretty good idea.

 

Thats a really good idea! i kinda like the picture of the shock absorber though, it kinda drives the point home

 

so i take it, this mod is along the lines of something "COOL" to do

Looks good though

 

That is really cool...too bad I'm not that tech savy.

 

That's pretty sweet! I don't have the ***** to take apart my instrument cluster, though.

 

yea, unfortunately no actual performance is gained. It isnt a civic after all

The only reason i really did it was because i noticed it when i was back ther and i was bored today

 

Great idea!!...kudos for the ingenuity in getting it to light up...4DSC for real

 

What are the gains in the butt G-meter?

 

 

Yea, cool mod. But I learned the hard way not to screw with the cluster in my VW. It was never the same afterward, so I won't do this mod. But it's a cool idea.

 

neat...

 

i'm pullin at least a g in the corners and it just snowed here i expect to be doing at least 1.4-1.5 g's once things dry out

 

I was thinking about it last night and i thought it would be better to take one of of the twist lock bases and remove the metal contacts and then drill two small holes out the back. that way you could straighten the contacts on the bulb and run them out the back, kind of like the way a christmas light is set up. That way you could soldier your wires directly to the bulb and you wouldn't have to integrate it into the cluster, at least not electrically

 

Yea, I suppose that would work too.

I took apart my VW cluster to put in some custom gauges and afterward, sometimes the cluster would just "die" and the needles would just go to 0 and then randomly (or if you hit it) it would start working again.

Freakin' German electrical systems

 

is this also for the 5.5 gens??

 

hmmm use a red bulb and make into a shift light???????????


not that itwould be bright as a real one but it woudl be cool as a shift light

 

I dont know, i just ordered a 5.5 gen cluster off ebay. I am assuming it will fit and plug in right. anyway, worse case i will put it back on ebay or on the .org. If nobody chimes in before next thrusday i will let you know.

 

won't find it on the 5.5 gen. Also we don't have the separate bulbs for that part of the cluster. It uses built in led's to light up all those icons. I have a spare cluster in front of me and it doesn't exist.

The OP's cluster has 19 bulbs, the 5.5 only has 7.

 

Some help on knowing more info on which wire from the ecu you used to connect would help alot...Like what color it is and i read it right when you said you connected the pos to a pos source and the neg to the VAIS wire that's from the ecu??? Does the ECU have a pos or a neg or both that goes to the VAIS???

How about you make a simple but detailed walkthrough to help us idiot's like myself attempt this...Your walkthrough should answer these questions...

Where is ECU located and what exact wire connections need to be connected...

Thanks alot

Also very smart on cutting the connections on the board with a knife so this is almost an impossible to go wrong procedure...

 

hook it up to anything that has a positive 12 v source with the ignition on. Look in the FSM and check out which pins give power with ignition on.

Wrong cluster but on a 5.5 gen this is what I did to power my led's The 5th pin with the black wire is the -ve. The +ve is on one of the other harness plugs



No reason why you 5th gen guys can't tap into the same power source. Your pinouts might be different so double check the FSM before attempting

 

are the 5.5 gen clusters swappable with the 5.0's? or are the guages or faces at least? From what i could see it looks like they have the same plugs on the back

 

i think the harnesses are the same but the pinouts are different.

 

pin 66 is orange wire is your +ve, but I'm not an electronics expert, having a hard time determining your proper ground wire. But anywhere on the chassis will work.

 

Going back to the original post. Was the SPORT option used in the Infiniti's? I know the M's have it.

 

I believe 5.5s have an extra window under the tach that reads the exterior temperature whereas 5th gens only have one window under the speedo that reads the odo and trip.

 

yea, i was just thinking that part would be inactive or something to that extent

 

yea man, i KNOW THE FEELIN....u just get to tinkering, and before you know it...4 hours has gone by, and your like "damn i did all that"

 

LMAO i cant believe this thread came up.

I found out about the SPORT slot a while ago while doing a gauge face swap for a buddy of mine's. His '00 GLE has the slot, but my '01 SE does not have the sport slot, boy was i mad, b/c i actualy wanted to make it a switched light for something that gets activated, like Dr. Roy did.

ACTUALY.. it would be cool to use it to light up when you have the DR mod turned on, just so you know the auto trans is in "SPORT" mode.. oh gyyeeaaaa. lol

But anyhow, realy cool to see what i could've had. NICE WORK!

 

didnt the 2nd gen maximas have a setting where u could put the car in sport mode ? i think so im gonna look into it some more

 

on the 2nd gens it had factory adjustable suspension and a sport light