[ed_joseph]

I've searched throughout the archives but have only found bits and pieces. I don't know about you guys but is the instrument panel lighting dim in your XE (even with dimmer at max lighting)?

I bought some blue "superbright" 12V LED from eBay but the same problem persists. Still dim and dull and the LED doesn't illuminate the entire panel. Are there other lights hidden elsewhere? Even the odometer screen looked blue and couldn't read the mileage from it. It looked nothing like the others who posted their nice bright panels.

I've also read about taking the cluster apart (including removing the needles) and sanding off certain parts (not sure which). I got to this part but found that removing the speedometer needle quite difficult. it budged but I wasn't able to fully remove it so I snapped it back to its original position. Now it doesn't work.

I apologize for being long winded but I want to make sure i'm as clear as possible on the issue(s) at hand.

So...how do I fix:

a. the lack of lighting in the instrument panel?
b. the stuck speedometer needle (I still would like to remove them and work on the back end to make the panel brighter)

Thanks again

 

[i68k]

for your cluster, the led has a backlight that lights up the led screen. not many people have problems with dim clusters, so its hard to say the best way to make it bright. on the back of the cluster, are little brown and green sockets, that twist out and have bulbs in them. maybe the bulbs are old and are starting to accumulate that black crap on the tip, dulling the cluster. there's a couple of sockets for backlighting, and 2 for your blinkers. try pulling one of the blinker sockets so you get the idea, just make sure you twist them back into place, so the contacts are in position.

usually when you sand down the overlay, its to change the color of the overly from say orange numbers to blue numbers. but if you didnt care about the color, this might help. im not sure the real way to remove the needles, ive never removed them, only put them back on

when you removed the needle, you took all the calibrated tension off the needle pin. the easiest way to fix this is to reinstall the cluster without the clear plastic. this way, VERY CAREFULLY while driving at constant speed, push the needle onto the pin. example, if you were cruising at 40mph, you point the needle to 40mph and press it on. make sure your overlay is completely flat, or needles may hang on the overlay.

EDIT: hopefully someone can tell you what rpm in which gear is what mph, inaccurate ex [email protected]=30mph, this is not close, but just so you get the idea.

 

[ed_joseph]

for your cluster, the led has a backlight that lights up the led screen. not many people have problems with dim clusters, so its hard to say the best way to make it bright. on the back of the cluster, are little brown and green sockets, that twist out and have bulbs in them. maybe the bulbs are old and are starting to accumulate that black crap on the tip, dulling the cluster. there's a couple of sockets for backlighting, and 2 for your blinkers. try pulling one of the blinker sockets so you get the idea, just make sure you twist them back into place, so the contacts are in position.

usually when you sand down the overlay, its to change the color of the overly from say orange numbers to blue numbers. but if you didnt care about the color, this might help. im not sure the real way to remove the needles, ive never removed them, only put them back on

when you removed the needle, you took all the calibrated tension off the needle pin. the easiest way to fix this is to reinstall the cluster without the clear plastic. this way, VERY CAREFULLY while driving at constant speed, push the needle onto the pin. example, if you were cruising at 40mph, you point the needle to 40mph and press it on. make sure your overlay is completely flat, or needles may hang on the overlay.

EDIT: hopefully someone can tell you what rpm in which gear is what mph, inaccurate ex [email protected]=30mph, this is not close, but just so you get the idea.

Thanks for this. I did purchase new LED on eBay and installed them. I put blue LED in the black sockets and green ones for the turn signals.

I have a dumb question: is the overlay the black paper-like cover that shows the numbers or the layer behind it? I just thought it would be challenging to sand something that appears so soft but anyway.

Now the speeometer doesn't work and the lighting for the speedometer doesn't work (the gas and temperature gauges are lit and work). The odometer has no lighting as well. I'll check my fuses and try to pry the needles out with a couple of screwdrivers and pop them back in after I have a look at the circuit board. I just have a hard time believing that there are only 7 bulbs lighting up the cluster.

 

[i68k]

anytime you put a colored bulb/led behind an overlay, its going to filter the color, and then filter the color again when the light passes thru the overylay, so any bulb color you choose is not a bright as white bulbs/led. so its most likely dim because youve prefiltered the light being emitted from the cluster. you cant change the color of the light without changing/modifying the overlay. yes, the overlay is the sheet of plastic that has the numbers on it.

Now the speeometer doesn't work and the lighting for the speedometer doesn't work (the gas and temperature gauges are lit and work). The odometer has no lighting as well. I'll check my fuses and try to pry the needles out with a couple of screwdrivers and pop them back in after I have a look at the circuit board. I just have a hard time believing that there are only 7 bulbs lighting up the cluster.

the lighting for the speedometer is the same bulb as your fuel gauge. if your fuel gauge is lit up, and not your speedometer, you probably have incorrectly installed your overlay. this could explain your speedometer not working properly as well. im not sure how many bulbs there are, one for led, left gauges, right gauges, left blink, right blink, and i believe seatbelt and something else, so 7 sounds about right.

 

[ed_joseph]

Thanks. Over the weekend, I'll remove the instrument panel again and start from scratch. I'll use 2 screwdrivers to try and remove the needles and get that overlay removed so I can sand the back of it to allow more light in. I'll fill you in on how it went.

 

[i68k]

this may help. http://www.b15u.com/sentra-specific...nfo/20025-dash-light-conversion-tutorial.html

 

[mjp2]

I can't contribute on the lighting, but I just dealt with the non-functional gauges today. The previous owner of my car fancied himself a racer, which unfortunately meant non-functional gauges and fake carbon fiber everywhere. The stick-on carbon fiber and whiteface gauges were pealing horribly, and after removing them I found that non of my gauge were functional.

I had 2 issues:
1. I pushed the needles on too far, which was easy enough to rectify.
2. I zeroed out the dials without power supplied to the cluster. Whoops.
Turning the key to "run" and then zeroing out the speedo and tach got things REALLY close to what the computer knows things to be. (I verified using a ScanGauge II) Got the engine up to temp and centered the temp gauge, and filled up the gas tank to set the full mark on the fuel gauge.

Good luck on the fix!

 

[ed_joseph]

So I was able to pry the needles off. I used a slotted screwdriver (looks like a forked screwdriver with a slight curve) and it came off no problem. The overlay on my XE had a bluish film on the back so I used a 240 grade sandpaper and got the blue stuff off. Double checked my LEDs to make sure they were installed properly.

Attached the cluster on the car sans needles. Put the key and turned to the ON position and adjusted my needles. Even the gas adjusted properly. The blue is a little brighter but much better than before. Next up is the temp gauges.

Thanks to all for their help!

Th only negative is that the blue LED makes the odometer unreadable at night.