DIY - Gauge Cluster LED swap
 

DISCLAIMER: Do this at your own risk, I will NOT be responsible for any damage you may do to your car.


This is my first DIY write up, so sorry if it kind of sucks.

After successfully swapping out my HVAC lights to red following one of the DIY posts, I now wanted to redo the entire gauge to red. The red LEDs I used are the same ones described from the HVAC DIY.

The main purpose of this DIY is to take apart the OEM Gauge cluster and install new LEDs. I will not be going in to the details of how to solder the LEDs. You can find some videos and posts here on how people did it for the HVAC lights. Just as an FYI, this is my second time soldering SMDs on. The first time being the HVAC light swap.

I ordered an extra Gauge cluster off of ebay to do this with.



1.) Gently pry the top two clips.
http://farm3.staticflickr.com/2856/1...8e083ee8e5.jpg


2.) Gently pry the two side clips.
http://farm3.staticflickr.com/2894/1...ec964b9a77.jpg


3.) Gently pry the bottom clips and it should start to come apart.
http://farm8.staticflickr.com/7453/1...426770a9f8.jpg


4.) Once you have the cover off, it should look like.
http://farm8.staticflickr.com/7428/1...8bb0ee506d.jpg


5.) Using post-its I marked the spot of the needles.
http://farm8.staticflickr.com/7380/1...2edaba9743.jpg


6.) using a plastic pry tool, I gently pried off the first needle, from the back of the needle and pried it straight up.
http://farm6.staticflickr.com/5480/1...55eb469d39.jpg


http://farm6.staticflickr.com/5504/1...23b9272bc4.jpg

7.) Once you have all of the needles off, you should see this. Note the reference lines on the Post-its of where the needles are suppose to be.
http://farm4.staticflickr.com/3786/1...8565889e74.jpg

8.) After getting all of the needles off, the face should come off and you're left with.
http://farm8.staticflickr.com/7399/1...460e40af20.jpg

9.) Next remove the two LCD screens. I removed the small one first, by wrapping a small flathead with a tissue and then gently prying straight up on each side of the pins. Be very careful not to break the glass.
http://farm3.staticflickr.com/2856/1...7309ae07cc.jpg


10.) Next I removed the larger LCD by gently prying straight up with the tissue wrapped flathead. Be very careful not to break the glass.
http://farm4.staticflickr.com/3811/1...0de839245d.jpg


http://farm4.staticflickr.com/3675/1...52a6b3f805.jpg


11.) After removing the LCDs, you need to take off the white cover. There are 8 screws holding it down. Remove the 8 screws and then lift off the cover.
http://farm8.staticflickr.com/7332/1...0fee8eba80.jpg

12.) After removing the white cover, you are left with the board and access to all of the LEDs.
http://farm3.staticflickr.com/2881/1...7a313a9f24.jpg

13.) The Blue circled LEDs are all of the white ones on the gauges.
The red circled ones are the default red LEDs.
I decided to change all of these to the same red I used on my HVAC gauges, which is a darker red color vs. the stock red. In addition to all of these, I changed the various indicator lights that I wanted to be red to red.
http://farm3.staticflickr.com/2847/1...da8ebe6f51.jpg

14.) After desoldering and Soldering all of the new leds on. I assembled in reverse order of taking it apart.

http://farm4.staticflickr.com/3735/1...a256be8404.jpg



I haven't switched it out with my original gauges yet. When the weather is nicer outside, I will be using this post as a guide to take out my old cluster and install the new one.

I will update this DIY with before and after shots when the modified one is installed in the car.


Thanks for reading and good luck to anyone who tries this.

There's data that's only stored in the cluster that you're going to need, like the odometer reading. Ask @Acree for more details on the things to look out for if you're swapping out the cluster.

Thanks for the heads up.

Here are the before and after pictures.

Before:

https://v4s.yimg.com/so/7342/12552039395_f4c1afac33.jpg


After:

https://farm4.staticflickr.com/3714/...2ba5152332.jpg

So you wanted a BRZ look?

Nice, but wow that is bright! Is it just the pictures?

Actually never knew what the brz gauges looked like. I swapped the hvac and wanted to get the reds to match exactly. It's a darker deeper red.

It's just the pics. It's a deeper darker red than the original red that was on there.

Nice! thanks

Nicely done!

Nice DIY.

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Would be a good way to get rid of the pesky TPMS light as well....just saying.

Anyone able to chime in and tell me if these will work?

Power TOP SMD SMT Blue PLCC-2 3528 1210 Super Bright Light LED


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I desoldered it... And then just decided to change it to red.

They look like the correct ones.

Odd. I just cracked open my BRZ cluster and it looks like Subaru skimped out on a few LEDs for the BRZ. For example, you have 4 red needle LEDs for your tachometer and speedometer. Mine only has 2. Your tachometer has 5 white LEDs, mine only had 3 red. Oh well. I changed my LEDs to white, but left the digital speedo and odometer red.

https://lh4.googleusercontent.com/-G...323_162531.jpg

https://lh5.googleusercontent.com/--...323_172006.jpg

I also removed the TPMS LED because that thing is stupid. Most of the LED functions are silk-screened onto the PCB.

Is it me or does it look brighter before ?

Nice diy btw

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Looks good! Also looks like if we swapped clusters it would've done the same thing.

Brightness is about the same.
Actually I think the white was brighter at night.

@Blackrsx were you able to get your analog speedometer to reset to 0? Mine, although I marked where it originally was and placed it back in that same spot, seems to want to read 2mph high after plugging it back in. I've reset the needle a handful of times, but every single time it will push the needle up to +2mph instead of 0. I've even set it back to where it would probably read -5mph and the gauge will set the needle back up at +2mph.

I'm going to take it apart tonight to see what's happening. Small issue, but it doesn't matter too much since I use the digital speedo display 100% of the time.

How can you tell +2mph on the needle?

If I'm at a standstill, my digital speedometer reads "0" and the analog needle is between 0 and the first hash mark, which would indicate 5 mph. It's closer to the "0" hash mark than it is to the "5 mph" hash mark, hence +2 mph.

Turns out you can actually see the needle hovering between 0 and the 5 mph hash mark in my 2nd picture.

I think that's just the default position for the speedo needle. Looking at the other pictures in the thread, that's where the needle rests for all of them.

Honestly I don't really notice on my car. I don't even look at the needle there at all, really, b/c in my past Subarus, the speedo was on the right (iirc), and fuel guage was on the left. When driving, I'd be paying attention mainly to the center (tach of course) and right sides of the cluster, so that habit has stayed with the BRZ. I'm way more apt to notice if my fuel guage needle has moved than if my analog speedo even works, lol.

I came from a STI, so I know what you're on about. It's just annoying knowing the needle is higher than it used to be. For clarification, the needle did show the same speed as the digital read out before I went and removed the needles.

That wouldn't have been as much fun though, right? :party0030:

Great work both of you!

I suppose. There's just other stuff that's at that level that's even more annoying, I think: such as fixing back deck rattle, that it wouldn't personally bug me really.

Great write ups both of you. Ironic how the FR-S guy wanted red and the BRZ guy wanted white...

So how hard is it to actually take the cluster out of the car? I would like to do this just to take out the TPMS LED. I'm keeping the red LEDs for the back lights though. While I think the white looks very clean and it's what I had on my GLI, the red is much better for my old eyes at night...

It's not difficult to take the cluster out of the car. Here's what I did:

Tools needed: plastic panel pry tool (or wrap a flat head screw driver with electrical tape), phillips screw driver.

1. Remove plastic surround from radio. In the BRZ it's the silver piece above the center console that surrounds the nav unit. In the FR-S, it's the textured black piece above the center console that surrounds the nav unit. You do not have to remove the extra long piece that is in front of the passenger seat. Use pry tool or flat head screw driver to pop this off from the tops of the knee pad panels of the center console.

2. Remove single phillips screw holding in gauge cluster hood. Look through your steering wheel and you should see the phillips screw head peeking through the top of the gauge cluster surround (the flat black piece with the 3 buttons for mph/kmh, odo, and disp).

3. Remove gauge cluster hood by pulling towards the steering wheel.

4. Pull back the gauge cluster surround.

5. Remove 2 phillips screws at top of gauge cluster.

6. Pull gauge cluster back towards steering wheel and disconnect the wiring harness at the back of the cluster.

Now where can I find the bulbs for the hvac in blue?


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You guys do know that the voltage drop for red LEDs is usually around 1.7V and White LEDs are around 3.3V! That could be why the BRZ and FRS LED clusters have different numbers of LEDs.

Depending on how their wired, doing this might cause damage. I guess nobody has had any issues, but I would definitely have probed the voltage rail and included resistors for proper current limiting. You don't want to overload any LEDs or voltage regulators.

BTW, my speedo is off by +1mph when compared to the digital. Never messed with my cluster so thats from the factory.

I can speak with some authority on this subject. Swapping blue LEDs for red is not a problem.

That is good to know. Must be a constant current source then.

I didn't pay much attention during my circuits course for my mechanical engineering degree.

LOL. My EE professors like to make fun of MEs.

I would recommend staying far away from eBay when sourcing electronic components.

Try these: Link

And nope, it's just a simple resistor LED series string. But the LEDs draw enough current to put out plenty of light. There's no reason to change the resistor in this particular application when going from red to blue. If you were going from blue to red, I would recommend changing resistors.

Great DIY!! I like the look of the darker red for the end result.

Off topic question-sort of.

Never soldered anything before. Any recommendations for a good place to learn besides trial and error?

Find something that has surface mounted components and start soldering away. Learn how to desolder components - this is especially useful when working in the gauge cluster.

My ebay LEDs, while not the best quality, have been working 100% since however many years ago that I ordered them. I think it was 3 or 4 years ago.

But yes. Agreed. Don't buy ebay electronic components. They're terrible and you'll have at least 10% dead on arrival.