Currently on my way south to see family for the holidays so I cant open up my cluster to check what it needs.

From what ive been able to find.. theres 6 t5 wedges, 4 for gauges and 2 for turn signals. Are there any other bulbs that can be changed and what type are they?

Id like to order them now so they'll arrive when I get home so I can start asap.
Thank you.

 

Depends how deep into it you wanna go. Just swapping bulbs? or soldering in new items all togather

 

For sure swap bulbs. Am I correct on the number of changeable wedges? What parts require soldering ..? I have some blue leds/resistors laying around.

 

Check out tunermax or metalmax threads on their clusters. They did a full led retrofit. I personally swapped all bulbs as I don't have enough experience soldering in things to the cluster

 

Just 6 bulbs that swap out right?

 

If you have a post 9/00 production date 01 model then it is three for the cluster two for the turns signals.

If you have a pre 10/00 production date then it is four for the cluster two for the turn signals and about 12 others for all of the warning / notification lights.

Your production date can be found on the driver's side firewall in the engine bay; not too far away from the cruise control module.

 

Thank you!

Well my rings were perfectly visible and I loved it! Until I realized the needles barely illuminated.. any way to fix?
Or if youve done blue led cluster yourself could you tell me which bulbs you got, im tired of wasting $$$

Also, after the leds failed.. I put the incandescent bulbs back in. Now it seems that the odometer ilumination bulb and right side illumination bulb (rpms and temp) seem to have a mind of their own. Most of the time they light up fine, other times they dont illuminate at all. Sometimes its just one, sometimes he other, and tonight both were on. But then ill start it up tomorrow and theyll most likely both be on again. Could it be that I need new bulbs and damaged the ones in currently when I first removed them?

 

probably just loose in the socket or the socket is loose in the cluster when you twisted them back in.

 

Ill wait til it warms up before I check, thanks!

Thats what it was thank you!

Well ive ordered 3 different types of leds and none of them lit up my speedometer or tachometer needles. The rings and numbers were a crisp blue and the temp and fuel gauges were a little dimmer than desirable. So ive decided that theres no way around modification. So that being said id like to place the 2 leds in the stock locations. But on top of those id like to add 4 more. 1 in the temp gauge, 1 in the fuel gauge, and 2 directly behind the needles of the tach and speedo needles. Now my question is, whats the easiest way to do this? Id like to have a slight idea of how to do this so I dont start pulling the cluster apart and not being able to drive for x amount of time. Any advice is appreciated

 

If you used multidirectional LEDs you are never going to get lit needles with blue LEDs. However, you should be able to use white LEDs and get the needles lit without doing anything extra. 360 degree LEDs are the only way to go when lighting up the gauge cluster.

 

The issue isnt that I just want an led cluster. The issue is that im converting everything blue (hvac, shifter, door switches). They look good but the gauge colors.. ehhh not so much. so you're saying if I get a powerful enough 360 in blue then it should work?

 

It's power but it is also the nature of the light distribution. Multidirectional LEDs just simulate 360 light dispersion but bescause the light is coming from multiple points there are natural gaps that creates an uneven coverage when used in a tight space like a gauge cluster. Having light coming from a single point that fully cover the gauge area leads to better lit needles and redlines as the light hits the gauge diffusers in the way it was intended. A 0.5 Watt 360 degree LED would work in your application a 1 Watt 360 degree would over the top.

0.5Watt 360 LED in action



It's power but it is also the nature of the light distribution. Multidirectional LEDs just simulate 360 light dispersion but bescause the light is coming from multiple points there are natural gaps that creates an uneven coverage when used in a tight space like a gauge cluster. Having light coming from a single point that fully cover the gauge area leads to better lit needles and redlines as the light hits the gauge diffusers in the way it was intended. A 0.5 Watt 360 degree LED would work in your application a 1 Watt 360 degree would over the top.

0.5Watt 360 LED in action

 

Gotcha, thank you I appreciate the help. So I guess the next big question is where do I find a .5 watt 360 degree blue led

 

^^ he makes them

 

How does one make one? O.o

 

http://forums.maxima.org/5th-generat...uster-mod.html
http://forums.maxima.org/5th-generat...ll-around.html
http://forums.maxima.org/5th-generat...ve-thread.html
http://forums.maxima.org/5th-generat...leds-pics.html

 

Awesome

 

Got the pics on the last link back up if anyone wants to take a look.