If you ever wondered about changing the color of your gauges, read this carefully.
There are a couple of ways of going about it:
1st) Get a hold of:
Click me to link to Black Cat Customs.
2nd) I highly ecourage anyone who does not know anything about circuitry and soldering on circuitboards, NOT DO THIS. You WILL f*** it up. I'm not kidding. There is drawbacks, you will have to find comparable LED's and resistors, and you will also have to recalibrate your cluster, due to the fact that you have to remove the needles on the 00-05 clusters. The previous years, you can just uscrew the green plugs from the back and replce the bulbs, or LED replacements.
There happens to be this rumor that if you remove your needles on the clusters, then they will not work. Well, it's sorta true, i mean if you remove them, then it will work, it's just the fact of putting them back in that will mess them up. What i noticed is, that if you pull the needle off, using either a needle remover tool, or a fork, then you might or might not get this metal pin still stuck inside the needle. If not, then youre good to go, and you won't have to worry about anything. If you do get the metal pin, then you will notice that there are a couple of pinch points on it. What happens when you remove it, and try to push it back in the motor, then the pinch points do not allow the needle to move, thats why you get a non-responsive gauge. You will also have to re-calibrate your cluster, and hope that you have a good friend that also has a cavalier to set the home position on the needles. You will have to play with it for a bit to get them correct, by setting them, turning the cluster on, and off.
3rd) Get a hold of me, and we can discuss details.
4th) Leave it alone. How much is it worth to you to change the light colors?
I just want to discourage people from doing this that do not know what they are getting into. It will cost you quite a bit of money if you mess it up.
Picture time :
wait for it... wait for it... NOW GO!! ---> '02 LS Sport <---
Yahoo IM : buzz122 AIM : buzz122cav
im just having you do mine
forget messing with my cluster myself
My Other Ride
RIP Saint...Semper Fi.
Your'e good to go, i already talked to you.....
wait for it... wait for it... NOW GO!! ---> '02 LS Sport <---
Yahoo IM : buzz122 AIM : buzz122cav
So basically all 2000+ cluster sunfire or cavalier you cant remove the needles...I've removed the needles from one of the many clusters i have and when i put the needles back in they werent matching up with the actual timing meaning when i was driving my car the needles would move but they would jump at a cetain mph and go slower than the actually driving speed could it just be that i messed up placing the needles back in or is that cluster completly f*cked now? I got three or four clusters to mess with cavalier and sunfire since i find them cheap around here.. Another question i just put a 2000+ Sunfire cluster in my Cavalier when i put the lights on the make a screechin noise does anyone else have this problem and how did you fix it thanks
Hmmm.... thats interesting about the screeching sound. Do the needles just skip, and jump, or are they just off, because if they are off, you would need to seat them correctly, until they actually are correct.....
I don't suppose you could hook me up with one of those clusters, and i can see what i can do with it?
wait for it... wait for it... NOW GO!! ---> '02 LS Sport <---
Yahoo IM : buzz122 AIM : buzz122cav
I've converted mine to red a few years back. I know how ot solder and it still works today.
IT's my favorite mod.
Ryan1
Ryan1 -------> if you have pics, please post, i would love to see it.......
wait for it... wait for it... NOW GO!! ---> '02 LS Sport <---
Yahoo IM : buzz122 AIM : buzz122cav
Buzz122 is not lying. I will never pull needles out of a cluster again. Luckily I was able to get one at a junk yard, pull off the 2 motors in the back that I #@%$ up and sodered the new one's on the original cluster. Then returned the one I got from the junk yard with 2 bad motors..............haha, that is so bad. I can't believe that I ever did that. But here is a pic with the red needles that I painted.
NE1 else have night pics of their clusters in different colors?????i can host them if need be, as long as you email them to me..........
wait for it... wait for it... NOW GO!! ---> '02 LS Sport <---
Yahoo IM : buzz122 AIM : buzz122cav
Between Buzz and Kardain..
there are 2 highly edumacated mofo's on LED technology that seems to be so difficult
for those with out patients..just keep in mind..this could be you (note this is an 04)
i had a 95, i took the cluster apart and soderd in some 194 duel led bulbs, i did take the needles off...big mistake but i got it all recalibrated before the car got written off....the lights were eurolight 194's in blue....and sorry for the huge pic...
Ozzie(aka LED KING) -----> DUDE !!! is that your car? please tell me that it's not........well, at least i hope you don't drive it like that.........
wait for it... wait for it... NOW GO!! ---> '02 LS Sport <---
Yahoo IM : buzz122 AIM : buzz122cav
iKe wrote:i had a 95, i took the cluster apart and soderd in some 194 duel led bulbs, i did take the needles off...big mistake but i got it all recalibrated before the car got written off....the lights were eurolight 194's in blue....and sorry for the huge pic...
http://i19.photobucket.com/albums/b154/devanrushton/gauges.jpg
That looks really good... I thought the older clusters didn't need to be soldered though... I've got a 98, I'll swap lights if they just pop in and out, but I'm not brave enough to take apart my cluster and solder things.
yeah you lost me at a 95 needing the lights soldered......
wait for it... wait for it... NOW GO!! ---> '02 LS Sport <---
Yahoo IM : buzz122 AIM : buzz122cav
I had mine done by Black Cat Customs, and have had nothing but problems. I've sent it back twice already, and they aren't working properly still. Also he took a really really long time to do it. The LEDs he put in keep flickering and then they stop working all thogether. Also the needles are different now, the Tach shows higher rpm then it used to (eg at 100kph it used to be 2350, not it's 2500) also the temp gauge reads higher.
here's what they looked like before I sent them back the second time.
now only 2 LEDs are out but it still bothers me. Think I might just sell them, and go back to stock, or get some good ones instead.
just did mine like 2 hours ago, and my bro did but my bros is a truck with leds, and mine id a 99 cavy! I had to solder mine because i didn't get the leds but my bro got the intire set up and just untwisted the old ones and put the new ones in! AND WORD OR ADVICE... for the 2K + you dont need to take off the needles to get to the bulbs... if you guys didn't know this already. ill post pictures for mine forsure tomorrow night and if you guys want i can get my bros to show you.
Its not hard to re calibrate the needles, I did it sucessfully on my first try. All you have to do is put a piece of tape on the cluster where the needle is positioned when the car is turned on, then you take them off, do the work you need to do, then plug the cluster back in and put the needles on in the positions that you taped.
-Nate (ZeeTwankyFo)
Does anyone have pics of the new LEDs soldered in? This thread is kinda pointless without pics. Thanks in advance! Im really anxious to do this but would like some pics before I make my attemp.
-Nate (ZeeTwankyFo)
... umm ZeeTwankyFo, i can show you want they look like in the vehicle but i cant really show you what they look like sldered out of the vehicle. Is this what your asking?
Jonathan ---------> i'm sorry for your luck.......
rawkfist ------------> i would really like to see how in the world you replaced the bulbs to LED's without ever taking off the needles on the 00 + clusters ....... you NEED TO EMAIL ME...... AND I'LL GIVE you $50 if you show me....... cuz i would really like to see that one.... no offense
ZeeTwankyFo -----------> recalibrating the needles, it's not hard, but i did it the hard way. for my first time......... from what i remeber, you can't kust move it, you gotta pull it out again, then turn it whatever direction it needs to be, and then push it back in, unplug the cluster, and see if they seat correctly the first time.........
As far as pics go, look at the first post in this thread, mine is done with blue LED's.....
For anyone that is interested in doing a mod like this, email me, and i can do it for you.
buzz122@yahoo.com
heres another one, just in case:
wait for it... wait for it... NOW GO!! ---> '02 LS Sport <---
Yahoo IM : buzz122 AIM : buzz122cav
Heres some pics that i just took...... some actual night shots !!!
wait for it... wait for it... NOW GO!! ---> '02 LS Sport <---
Yahoo IM : buzz122 AIM : buzz122cav
Hey it looks like you need a green so here you go! these are not led's though.
These are the bulbs that i picked up at walmart. they look like stock bulbs just colored. Hope it helps you out.
