engifineer

I have a proposal I thought some may be interested in. I recieve a lot of pm’s about doing the gauges, which is hard if the person is not local due to having the dash out for so long, so here is what I am thinking. (keep in mind I am still pricing the gauges so nothing is set in stone). Using paypal, I will charge a core charge plus the cost of parts, shipping and a small labor fee. For that price, you recieve a finished gauge cluster with the lighting color (s) of your choice. You install it (which is no more than a 10 minute operation) and ship me your old (undamaged) unit. Upon reciept of your old unit I will transfer the cost of the gauge cluster back to your paypal account. I am very experienced with PCB work and circuit design, as well as surface mount soldering, so I am not new to any of this and will provide quality work. I also have some ideas for some much, much more appealing lighting changes for the gauges, so having one on hand at all times will allow me to do some more testing and design. If all works out well I will be able to offer some much cooler gauges down the road. I already have one design in my head, but will need the gauge cluster to test with to get the voltages I need and the placement for added components.

I thought I would get the idea out here to see who is interested. If there is interest then I will tidy up all the details and send them to those interested. I don’t want to use the forum for the final details due to it being in the realm of advertising.

Also, I am not part of a larger company or in any way affiliated with Scion, TRD or Toyota. I have a full time career and will be doing this on the side if there are interested people. This means two things: 1) I will have to build as I get orders and 2) Each unit will be built by the same person.. me J

So, let me know what you think, either here or via pm.


Here are mine in case anyone is unsure of what I am talking about:

jallamas

Would you do the XB also?




Thanks



John

engifineer

I havent taken the xB apart yet, but if I can get my hands on one and look at the gauges I will see what I can do. The tc works well for me because I own one and can test the finished unit before shipping. But.. maybe I can find a local xB owner that would be willing to let me take a look at theirs.

Hallsie_11

I think it would great.

engifineer

I have recieved a little info back and hope to be able to set it all up this week. If you are interested either PM or email me at davthomps@hotmail.com.

engifineer

I just found out that I may get to tinker with an xA soon as well... so maybe I can come up with some stuff to do there as well

JLO26

Am also intrested in your idea although i want the blue gauges i want to hear what you got in mine mjzepol@msn.com

markritch

i am very interested as well, any kind of idea on price or anything? just wondering, let me know when u are going to start taking orders davemband02@yahoo.com

engifineer

I will send out an email by tomorrow afternoon hopefully with the exact price on everything to each of you. Thanks again for the interest!

toby3002

i would be very interested in this idea. send me a pm if it works out. I like green.

*edit* email: jate3002@pacbell.net

engifineer

Well, maybe some not so great news. I decided to do some final testing tonight on mine to see the effect of swapping out the gauge cluster. I dis-connected mine and drove around for a bit and reconnected it. The odometer did not change. This means I could run into issues trying to get the gauge clusters. If there is no way to get the ECU (which does store mileage) to re-initialize the odometer then I am sure I will run into trouble trying to purchase them without being a certified dealer. Also meaning that I could get into trouble for tampering with them in that way. I am sure that at some point the ECU refreshes it but I will need to find out how and when. I will try to get some more info soon. I have searched and read that one person said theirs did the same, but another said that he drove 500 miles without it and it did recaculate properly. So maybe it happens over a longer period. I appologize for not thinking of this earlier, but I want to make sure no one gets into trouble over it. Altering the odo is a BIG no no as we all know, so I dont want to risk damaging warranties or anything if the dealer ever sees a discrepency in the odo and the ecu.

I will update as soon as I find out more.

engifineer

I have searched, and it appears that for some toyotas, when they are taken in for a gauge panel replacement, they are required to order the cluster with the current mileage programmed in. In addition, they are not supposed to drive the car until it gets there. Not looking so good for this idea now. I will hopefully find out some good news about it tomorrow. Just wanted to update people. Sorry again for this. I hope we can resolve it.

ChiTowntC

too bad you arent local... i want to find someone local who can do this

looking forward t hearing updates

mushrew

just relocate to central california since that seems to be where most people are from =P

engifineer

Lately that is sounding better and better :-P

I will wait to see what I can find out regarding it. If it really does store it in the ODO only I would consider that poor design considering they would be much better off storing it in the ECU (harder to fool it that way).

The only think I know for sure right now is that I can do them for the local people and could have people ship me thiers, mod it and return it. The problem with that is that people will be out a gauge cluster in the process. Using overnight shipping would help but would raise the cost.

I will keep digging.

Crafter

thanks for the heads up bud, i've already done mine, and did a few friends. i'd also be willing to convert gauges for a good price.

engifineer

Ok, here is what I have so far..

Without knowing any more than I do, I can offer one of the following options:

1) I can order a gauge cluster programmed with your mileage info, mod it and sell it to you outright. You will end up with your old one extra. The cost would be somewhere in the vicinity of $300 including shipping and the cluster.
2) I can have you send me yours (overnight possibly... but will cost more), I mod it and ship it back the day I recieve it

The other possible option (if it will work, they say they need a VIN number, so hopefully this is just for reference and does not have to be programmed into the cluster), is for me to buy one for a "loaner" while I have yours. This would provide for not having yours down, but will increase shipping due to shipping peices back and forth twice.

If one of the first two will work, let me know and we can get started on it. If not, I will let you know when I find out more. Sorry again for all of the mess.. I had no idea it would come out this way.

z-lite

How much would it be to send in our own and get the a white gauge display done (and not using a "loaner" dash?