After reading all these teasing threads about led gauges i decided to finally do it.
At first i went to wallmart and got some led's in package of four. So when i got home i discovered that they're not bright enough. Couple of times i've seen those keychains with super brigh led's in it, so i went to a dollar store and picked up 4 of them. soldered them to resistors that i already had and it worked like a charm!(i know i could've gone the way buying superbright leds throgh the internet i'm just too lazy )
I took all the information from this link
http://www.petah.org/maxima/gauge.htm
Anyways i would want to mention some things that i've done to this project that might help someone in future.
Heres pics.
i decided to go with the fuse in case something goes wrong(soldered all led's positive wires to one end of the fuse and one thick wire to the other used 15amp fuse )

Big hassle was where to get power for led's but keep them working on full brightness so i split the wire going to the dimmer switch (it's green) it has consistant 12 volts when lights are on it doesn't lose voltage when you want to dim all the lights in the dashboard.

And finally final product
All lights on-full brightness


Just needles


Spent around 10 hours total mostly because because i live in apartments so it was kinda time consuming running back and forth. In real life needles are more whitish (i'm a bad photographer lol)
I'm very pleased with it. Totally worth time spent on it.
Good luck!
Thanks!

 

u got some blue hot spots, u might as well have made it just all white or blue, cause the red doesn't mix with the white too well there are some spots where its purple and it just looks out of place...

 

I was thinking about it i'll drive it like that and then i will replace the bulbs on white or blue one's should be easy i don't have to take apart dashboard again compleatly

 

really really clean overall. well done

 

Looks pretty good. Nice job.

 

Zdorovo, kak dela ? looks awesome, QUESTION:

i live in canada and i have seen a pack of 4 LEDS at wal-mart, a choice of 4 whites or 4 blues, i need to replace my hazard switch light and the ashtray light, maybe the rear defroster switch light as well, would those work fine ?

i am thinking of using white for the defroster , but when u press it the second lamp would be blue ( indicating it is on ) although i think blue looks ricey and doesnt suit the mid luxusry maxima sedan type of cars

 

it looks good man.. even though youve got a couple of hot spots.. looks like you used blue for the needles.. i used white.. heres a pic of mine..

 

those look clean as well. if you all want to get away from hotspots, get the intelliglow needle kits. (pic is the link) i have the blue ones on mine

 

Looks pretty nice. That hotspot on the 200km is very noticable tho. Otherwise, I like the idea you guys have with the orange and white. Looks cool. I'm trying to decide what I want still. I've wanted a full red redo in the interior but idk. I was thinking of just getting brighter green leds since most HU's wouldnt go along with the red leds. But I like the white and red gauges. Someday I'll actually decide lol. So for the needles you guys just tapped into the green dimmer switch for power and that's it?

 

Yes those should work fine just remember to use stock resistor that is already inside of the switch. I want also mention that i didn't sand the needles thats why there's not too much glare around them. Anyways i got a question to those who did sand em how do you guys see where the needle at when driving daytime isn't it transparent?

 

It's still a needle. You don't think you could see it? I'm thinking of painting the needle red transparent paint. I don't know yet.

 

actually what i did with mine.. is just sanded it down.. and then painted the underneath of them white.. the gauge faces arent a true white.. more like an off white.. so they stick out just enough to tell.. it was kinda different at first.. but i have gotten used to them now.. and dont even notice..

 

good idea 97. Would kind of paint did you end up using?

 

actually.. haha.. i used white out.. because it had a little sponge thing on the end and was perfect to fit under the needle and paint it..

 

How does the light show up? It can't go through white out.

 

id worry about getting a socket for that fuse before fixing the hotspots.

 

love your gauges what size bulbs did you use and whats the mcds? how did you power your leds? i powered mine by putting the wires under the light sockets for the guages and twisting it in place. i have done this mod using 3mm leds 4000mcd and there are not that bright.its also a pain to position them under the needles with analog odometer and sometimes if you put the bulb to close to the needle it jams up the needle from operating then you have to take it all apart and reposition it.

 

i just did mine like 2 weeks ago with some 5mm 5000mcd leds from ebay. I replaced each 194 bulb with one led and then also added an extra led behind each needle. Im sorta disappointed that they are not too bright. I ordered some ultra bright 25k mcd leds off ebay and plan on making the whole thing one big hot spot. lol. then if its too bright thats what the dimmer is for.

 

thats funny i used 5000 mcd but 3mm. 5mm was toi big to fit in there to me, i have the analog odometer so theres less space in there to fit a bigger bulbs. and i agree 5ooomcd isnt bright enough. how did you power your leds by the way?

 

hey guys off topic question... I have a after market alarm in my car. Black Widow it has the status red led hooked up to it black and red and connected by like a pin connected to the brain off the alarm. I bought one off those led scanners today so today I just cut the stock status light that came with the alrm and a wired the red with the red and black with black and connected it back into the alarm. Plugged it back into the brain and nothin.... But the thing is there is a white wire also... Where do I wire that too???... It says in the instructions that I should wire it to the negative wire off the alarm but what color is that??...... THen it says to have the scanner on only when the engine is off wire it to a radio fuse..... But doesnt the radio fuse turn off when the car is off??

 

thats really nice. The white ones are too bright.