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has anyone been able to remove the needles on the 03+ coupe gauges or any 03+ gauges in general for LX or EX? i wanna change the lighting to amber (instead of white lettering and red trim, i want all red). filter paper just doesnt work as well and makes it look cheap and dim, sucks in daylight. looked pretty good at night, but daylight look is junk.

so, anybody removed those needles before? i cant seem to get em out


and what kind of white LED's do those gauges use? pop in/out? direct solder job? probably gonna use bulb condoms if they are soldered on and not pop in/out. thanks!

 
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Well the needles should just pull straight out. You need to use your thumb and first two fingers to grasp them from the bottom while pushing against the cluster. Mine were really hard the first time, but after 20 or so pulls, they slide right out I don't know exactly about the leds. You would have to open and look. I think someone said there were 5 leds per dial and a light shield to diffuse the output. If you do open it up, post up some pics of what it looks like.

I also noticed that the needles are clear with just a layer of paint on top. So you could clear off the paint and puts LEDs under the needle to change the color probably.

 
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aight thanks a lot sounds like a project to do

so did you screw up the needles the firswt time you tried to pop em out? it takes a lot of force huh? i tried but it felt like the stems were gonna break so i stopped but ill keep goin. thanks for the info and i WILL take pics if they do come apart.

maaaan thisll look awsome!

 
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hmmm, should i go ahead and condom-ize the LED's, or just use filter paper (kinda dont wanna), or use some translucent paint (its removal with finger nail polish remover right) to paint either the back of the gauge faces or the light diffusers themselves....


any ideas?

 
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HMMMMMMMMMMMMMMMMMMM?

 
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I believe the gauge faces are clear on the back, since the white leds shine through. LEDs are only one color, so painting them or filtering the light won't work well.

You won't have to touch the cluster faces except for swapping the leds. For the needles you can use 90% alcohol (ethanol) to strip the paint. Don't use anything else for this or you will ruin the plastic. But that's only if you want to add leds under the needles to change their color.

If you just want to change the white numbers to red, just replace the white leds in the back with red ones. And there are alot of red leds to choose in terms of brightness.

 
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could yougive me more info on this? thanks!

 
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UPDATE:

aight got the needles off (OW!!! my fingers!!!) the light diffuser is there alright, the back of the gauge faces are wierd. couldnt get a pic now, will later

the back of the gauge faces are black with white opaque paint wherever there isnt something for the light to shine through. also, the area around the nubmers are black and the nubmers themselves are white (MPH) and red (KPH) filtering or somethin (i think it feels like plastic).

so knowing this, i wanna filter the light. removing the diffusing face (the thing that spreads the light evenly, no biggie with it out) makes everything a bit brighter, so filtering the light would be feasable. swapping LED's is not possible, i cant even tell they were LED's before i plugged the circuit board into the wiring harness and turned on the lights. the lights are like squares or somethin.

anyways, so is there some translucent paint that i could use that would effectively filter out the white light to get the red color that are in the gauge rings and KPH readouts? thanks

hahaha one funny thing when i put the fuel and temp needles back on, i forgot to reset the weight errr whatever make it so the needle drops back down all the way, so when i turned the key to "ON" the fuel and temp gauge needles shot all the way up. but then ifinally figured out how to align them again. seems that for the TEMP needle, you gotta angle the entire cluster vertically at an angle that the fuel needle should point whenthe car is off (pointing at E) and vice verca for the fuel needle. maaan my fingers are sore!!!


but the question: any type of translucent paint that will effectively act as a light filter?

 
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?

 
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It sounds like the LEDs are those tiny square ones that are built into the circuit board. I guess you could try and pop them and then just run your own wires, but it's more or a hassle. You'd have to find a place to put the leds and the lighting may not be even.

Try getting some transparent red glass paint (from craft place) and apply some in the back of the cluster. That might work, but I don't know for sure. It gets like plastic when dry, so you could always just peel it off easily if it doesn't work. Just try light coats first, then add more if it seems to work.

 
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I used white for the needles, so they focus the led light better. You can look for a red color and use a liner brush to apply some to the gauges.

 
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oooooooooo that was the reply i was waitin for, thanks gearbox!!

 
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one more thing

there is a light diffuser layer that goes inbetween the gauge faces and the actual panel of the cluster. should i paint that with the glass paint or just paint the back of the gauge faces themselves. the only thing with the diffuser panel is that itll make it a bit less bright, but itll spread the light super evenly. thats not a big deal but then painting the back of the gauge faces requires a more steady hand. eh....

and anything i should know before attempting this? does it come off by just peeling it when its dry? or do i need enthanol or somethin...

and which color would like limit the light comin through, cause i want to make the larger hashmarks brighter than the smaller ones, how could i do that?

 
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Just try to paint the actual gauge faces. When dry, the glass paint will just rub off. I painted the needles with it and tried at least 10 times before I got it right. To limit light, you could just use more paint. Or use electrical tape to cover up light completely. That's what I did so the little marks don't light up, only the big ones.

 
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hey gearbox or skarteez, how did you get the needles back on so there calibrated right? What I did was, I kept doing the gauge diagnostics (where the gauges sweep back and forth) and kept trying to realign the needles so during the diagnostic check the needle would max out at the max on the particular gauge. This makes everything to about the right spot, but i doubt this isn't exactly accurate. How did you guys do it?

 
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umm well its really hard to explain but i did it like this

im thinking there is a counterweight in the needle spinning thingy... so to realign the tachometer needle, i held the entire cluster completely upright so the coutneerweight lines up with the center bottom of the cetner of the needle holder, then put theneedle in pointing straight up, then i test it by flipping the cluster to its normal position (upright) then move the needle so it is pointed straight up. if it stays then its good, if it leans to one side, its off....

ill try and make a picture....

 
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ok forget what i said.... its a matter of understanding where the counterweight in the needle spinny holder thing is relative to gravity and how it moves and stuff. then you position the needle likewise.

 
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so you're saying basically, If i hold the cluster upright with the needles off, the counterweight should rest at the bottom. If i then put the needles on pointing straight up, the counterweight and needle should then be 180 degrees apart, or inline with each other then. Question though is that if there is a counter weight, what causes the needles to rest at the bottom when the car is off?

 
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the needles should be able to point downward by themselves due to the coutnerweights. it takes force to move them upward and when that force is revomved, the needle should swing back to the bottom bythemselves.

therefore, the counterweights should be aligned inline with the needles, like you said.

 
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got my needles off finally but i took a chunk out of my middle finger havent changed the needles yet but am currently doing so! To get my needles back on properly i just barely stuck them on their pins and played with them until they were resting where they should then i pushed them all the way on!