[fonque]

edit:
completed cluster:

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Can anyone confirm if the 07 - 09 versa uses SMT LED's or regular 194 or 74 bulbs in the gauge cluster?

I know its #74 bulbs in the hvac controls.

My guess based on the length of time it takes the gauge lights to come to full brightness and the lack of intensity that it is probably just bulbs with some sort of yellow tint on the back of the cluster.

If no one can confirm thats okay, I am going to take my cluster apart tomorrow and snap pics so I know what to order.

I searched on this forum and on NICO club, but I couldnt find a single post of anyone changing the lighting on their gauge cluster.

 

[jhill15]

They are the #74 bulbs like these
74 LED Bulb - 3 SMD LED Wide Angle Wedge Base | Instrument Cluster and Gauge | LED Car Bulbs | Super Bright LEDs

Just remeber that leds have a positive and negative side so before you close up your cluster plug everything back in and make sure they turn on. If not then you got the bulbs in backwards and need to flip em around. I'm sure you already no that but just a reminder.

 

[fonque]

I just finished pulling the gauge cluster apart and my 2007 gauge cluster uses PLCC2 size LEDs. 2 for the RPM gauge, 1 for the RPM needle, 3 for the speedo, 1 for the speedo needle, 1 for the fuel gauge, 1 for the fuel needle. The rest of the LEDs are for the various indicators.
so 9 PLCC2 LEDs that I want to replace total.

I took some pictures, I will put them up shortly.

 

[fonque]

Here are the pictures of the gauge cluster all torn apart. I used a fork to pop the needles off after marking their place. I think I might color in the back of the yellow strips on the gauges, because I dont want to see the yellow lines at night. We'll see, I can play around with it once I get the LED's in the mail.

The red and blue arrows show the LED's that are used for illumination. The blue arrows are the LED's that are used to light the needle.

 

[fonque]

There are also 2 lights on the bottom right for the odometer that I forgot to highlight. I still need to follow the traces for the LEDs to figure out where the resistors are since white will use quite a bit more forward voltage than amber.

 

[Tubtub]

Cant wait to see it finished

 

[fonque]

an update, I was working putting LEDs in the HVAC get the HVAC control cover off and shined some different colored LEDs through it. Its going to be more difficult than I thought for the HVAC.
I wanted to change to color to white, but the HVAC cover is tinted with a yellowish green color. So I tried to get rid of the tint. I tried nail polish remover which worked sortof, but it eats through the cover and cracked it a bit.
Then I switched to sanding, and I found out that all of the color is on the inside including the black color. The entire front of the panel is actually clear. There is no black paint on the outisde of the part. So if you sand off the color from the inside you will sand away the symbols and lettering.

So what I think I will do it print out a vinyl mask and paint the whole outside of the HVAC with black, and maybe a clear coat. Then sand all of the tint off the inside. Im still working it out though.

 

[fonque]

I made some progress on the LED color change. I have been trying to figure out what to do with the HVAC. The 2007 HVAC control was not usable because I couldnt sand the tint off the back without removing all of the letter. So instead, I bought a 2011 HVAC control and gauge cluster. I was able to sand the red tint off the 2011 unit because the tint is layered in a different order
2007 HVAC control - black, yellow tint, white
2011 HVAC control - black, white, red

since the red is the top color I was able to sand it off with 1000 grit sand paper very slowly so I removed as little of the other colors as possible.

2007 HVAC control

2011 HVAC control

after sanding

 

[fonque]

So I finished putting the cluster and hvac together.
This is the 2007 hvac cluster after I soldered in the white plcc2 LEDs. The white LEDs are the yellow ones around the gauge areas

The 2011 gauge cluster has a bigger lcd panel for the odometer. To cover it up, I cut the 2007 gauge face and glued it to the back.

On the HVAC I soldered in an orange 3mm LED for the rear defrost indicator, and a blue 3mm led for the A/C on indicator

Here is the finished gauge cluster. I also soaked the needles overnight in alcohol to rub off the orange paint. The needles are now white/clear

The finished HVAC. I decided to buy those aluminum knobs from china which arent bad looking. The best part is they are clear, so I can light them up any color i want. I am not happy with the A/C button, but that is the color of the plastic. There is no way to correct the color.

 

[nissantiida]

Cant wait to see the gauges

 

[jswilson1987]

Someone sticky this

 

[fonque]

finished!
I decided to paint the ends of the needles black, and I like how it came out.

 

[petran256]

Hello from Greece.How can i remove leds from Gauge Cluster?