thanks for everyones advise and help. took 2 days but i figured it out. 1st day i thought i broke my guage cluster didnt have it dimmed. i was getting rdy to buy a new one then i saw the light 1 single light was on. i finally figured out that these have negative positive side lol i sodder almost all except 1 wrong. talk about bad luck soderring all but 1 led but yea im so happy im learning stuff about my car now hehe. well heres pics my fingers hurt from putting on the fabric thingie.

hehe next project for me changing turn signals to led and the parking lights also.

 

like the gauges, nicely done.

 

nice fingers!!!

 

Did you manage the gauge conversion without any prior experience? I mean, I have used a soldering iron before to make simple circuits and LED boards, but is this conversion tough? :-\

 

haha this conversion was really tuff for me i never soddered anything in my life look easy in the pictures. i was going pretty fast though when i got use to it. word of advise take ur time. make sure u know which side is positive and negative the tiny led dont have plus or minus signs. make sure u got a tiny skinny tweezer also some areas are crowed. but yea when i figure out today that i had the leds backwards took me hmmm 3-4 hrs me running back and forth from my car making sure the lights work. lol i would sodder 2 then run to my car plug and check. yea if u have never soddered before practice on something. hehe dont be like me and jump right in it. and for the guage light if one dont work all dont work. they are series. good luck to the first time sodderers hehe

 

the tiny led has a little notch where the cathode (negative) side is.... fyi..

 

Hmm... is it possible for a do-it-yourself-er to manage a two-tone gauge conversion and the reversal of the LCD's? Or is it a special thing you modders do to allow for two colors to be used on the gauges?

 

very possible to diy.... nothing super special... nopers..

diy's are posted up on SL.. some good ones by garage and lcd reversal has one by me.

 

Looks Good

 

Looks very good for a DIY, I think. Just finish up the rest of the lights

Did you find it hard/frightening to pull the gauge cluster out of the dash?

 

of course first time is scary diy is always scary cause u run the risk of breaking something hehe. but yea i have money put aside just incase i do break something. i almost bought a whole new guage cluster assy

 

Alright, since there's already a thread fairly new on swaps, I've got an issue I am wondering about. I've done 2 swaps with similar results and can't figure out why.

When I do a swap on the HVAC, I change all the resisters and then the LEDs. I have made sure all the LEDs are facing the right way and all. Problem with the 1st one was that the Mode, Defrost and Rear Defrost light would not light up. The inicator to show that you had turned it on would, but not the display light. Well now, with the 2nd swap I've done, I've got the Outside Temp, A/C, and Recirculate buttons not lighting up but the inidcator light lighting up... Any ideas? Think it may be possible I have some resisters reversed or so? I did one swap before and they worked flawlessly. I'm totally lost on this one.

 

Good job Always good to bleed a little when working hard

 

resistors are non-polarized and you cannot put them in backwards..

your issue seem to be that one or more of those leds were not put on correctly.. as the leds on the board are typically wired 3 in series... so if one of the three leds aren't working.. the other two won't either..

so yeah.. that's why you have 3 leds that don't work together.. check your connections and try again. the indicator lights are completely seperate from the typical display lights as well..

 

Sweet. Thanks Squal. I'll be heading home and resoldering them again. I do appreciate it.

 

nice, i love the 08's red markings compared to the old ones. is that wet okeles seat covers?

 

If you are getting bad solder joints (rather than reversed leds), make sure that the led never moves while the solder is drying. Tack one end down, then solder the other (with fresh solder, not the old solder) . After that, solder the end you tacked down at first. If an led moves even the slightest bit while the solder hardens, it creates what is called a cold joint, which will fail prematurely or never work to start with. I mention using new solder because flux burns off when you melt solder. The flux is acidic, and is what cleans the joint as you solder. You should remove most of the old solder and use new when replacing parts to do it right.

If it is not reversed leds or bad solder joints, you may hae overheated a component. The surface mount resistors (especially the smaller, 07-08 ones) can be overheated and ruined easilly if you heat them too long while soldering. Use a lower setting on the iron if you can. The leds can also be damaged this way. You can test them easilly with a 9V batter with a 510 or so ohm resistor in series.