So I was sick of the UGLY green cluster illumination, and decided to fix it..

First attempt with blue LED's was less than stellar(I'd give it a 5/10)..

So I came up with plan B, and finally found a constructive use for a blue neon tube!! When you look at it in person, it doesn't have the bright spots at all, just a nice uniform glow. Best part, the factory dimmer in the headlight switch still works too!




and with the flash, to show off the fancy red needles:

Nicely done, did the same on my old 98 Civic Hatch.

However, later swtiched to Red...as I found blue wasn't too kind to my night vision.

in the first pic u cant even see the speedometer needle lol

looks really good tho!

I changed mine out to blue when I got my new car because one of the bulbs in the cluster was burnt out, so I figured while I was changing them, might as well go blue

hahah did u fix the oil buzzer yet??

I've always wanted to know why VW uses 10, 20, 30 etc. instead of 1, 2, 3 for RPM

looks good!

Originally Posted by scradley

hahah did u fix the oil buzzer yet??

oh man i hate that thing. I had a jetta and that thing would not GIVE UP!.
was only a winter car.. so I pulled the buzzer itself.

Looks neat, might be hard on your eyes at night though

Did you feel like your car was old when it rolled over 200000kms? I know I did.

^^ I missed it turning 200 000(wasn't paying attention), but I got a picture of it at 202202km's.. And yes, it was a big milestone when it turned 200k.. Still runs great, so I'm not worried though

How do you go about changing the bulbs in the back of the cluster. are they just Canadian tire bulbs I can plug in and go or do I have to do something else. I've heard about doing this and been interested for a while.

And I'm assuming someones gonna say that the J-body cluster lights are not changable but the truth is that sunfire lights are not changable but Cavalier are....as the colour of the cluster lights in a sunfire are determined by a coloured film infront of the lights/behind the gauges and so the lights are the same colour as the film. But I know that the cavaliers do not have the coloured film and the bulb colour determines the light colour.

And since the topic of the thead has slightly shifted, I'll note that my cavalier is very close to 200,000KM's as well. pretty excited about that but I really can't figure out why...

Originally Posted by neonSRT

^^ I missed it turning 200 000(wasn't paying attention), but I got a picture of it at 202202km's.. And yes, it was a big milestone when it turned 200k.. Still runs great, so I'm not worried though

Is it those gens or the gens after that had the wiring issues? I always wanted to pick up a VW as a daily (reliability and I see them in genuinely better shape then hondas) but I don't wanna buy one with the wiring issue. I dunno, too poor to be thinking about more cars haha.

^^ mine has a wiring issue(something in the oil pressure and coolant temp harness is messed, either under hood or in dash), but I think its the MKIII's that are more known for wiring gremlins.

Originally Posted by neonSRT

but I think its the MKIII's that are more known for wiring gremlins.

i can confirm this!!!!! hahah hence why my rear window wiper doesnt work. why all of the HVAC lights go on and off as they please.... i still love it tho

^ welcome to Nissan my 240sx has its gremlins too, I cannot wait to have two rolling electrical problems soon as Im sure the Mk3 will have its share.

That seems to be very annoying on the eyes... at least to me.
But at least you like it!

Sometimes you can't trade a good wiring harness. How come they always fail? I mean, wouldn't mind having one as a daily, don't know if I could deal with daily wiring issues tho.

They aren't that bad, its just tedious things that bugger. And its usually just issues with grounds, not so much the wiring itself from what I understand. Also the golfs are very reasonable for insurance rates ($73 less a month for me than the 240sx)

Originally Posted by TurboABA

That seems to be very annoying on the eyes... at least to me.
But at least you like it!

Its ALOT better in person... I've tried taking better pictures, but they all turn out like this one.

Originally Posted by Harrold

How do you go about changing the bulbs in the back of the cluster. are they just Canadian tire bulbs I can plug in and go or do I have to do something else. I've heard about doing this and been interested for a while.

And I'm assuming someones gonna say that the J-body cluster lights are not changable but the truth is that sunfire lights are not changable but Cavalier are....as the colour of the cluster lights in a sunfire are determined by a coloured film infront of the lights/behind the gauges and so the lights are the same colour as the film. But I know that the cavaliers do not have the coloured film and the bulb colour determines the light colour.

And since the topic of the thead has slightly shifted, I'll note that my cavalier is very close to 200,000KM's as well. pretty excited about that but I really can't figure out why...

The bulbs are changeable yes, there is a film that makes the output green, but ive seen people use red and blue in the cluster. to change the bulbs you need to take your cluster radio surround off and your dash top, two screws in the top of the cluster hold it in, theres 2 plugs going into it as well.... once you have it out using a 5.5mm socket or wrench take the screws out (7/32 may also work). You will see 4 round caps take them out and change the bulbs. They use 194 size bulbs, i put green ones in my cluster to make it brighter but i am swapping to blue this year with the new theme of the car....