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3 minute read
Gauge Cluster Color Change!
Compliments of cuttyman9 @ http://5thgencelica.com
1-7-2015
Gauge cluster mod
I had this idea to change the color of the dash on my celica to give it a more vibrant, aggressive look.
car: 1992 Celica
Goal: red instrumentation
After switching my gauges over to the 90-91 GTS style ones with the voltmeter and 150mph speedometer I decided to change the color as well.
the mild green coloring wasn't much of a favorite of mine, so initially I pulled the bulbs out to see what I was working with.
The factory uses small bulbs with small green covers over them to provide the green illumination. If one were to want a simple mod to go to an orange just pull off the 6 green sleeves over the bulbs. The ones that color the dash are marked by green plastic twist off holders, everything else should be black.
The bulb sizes needed are 194 and 74, five 194's are needed and one 74.
I've found ebay is a good source, its best to buy the 194's with more than one LED on them. they can be a bit finicky at first but if either wiggled or flipped around in the socket they seem to work just fine and are powerful enough to overpower the orange needles (color wise)
I will post pictures soon of which ones to pull and so forth
Note: All-Trac's and GTS's have it easy because there aren't any cables going to the back of the heater portion of the dash that comes out. For GT and possibly ST cars its helpful to remove the metal and plastic under the steering wheel to give access to the back of the heater controls. I have yet to be 100 percent successful but that's my plan of attack when I do try again.
Yeah you might have broken the plastic housing. There are two cables attached to it, one that controls the heat portion goes through the firewall and attaches to a valve that lets hot water enter from the engine to the heater core and another that blocks off air within a housing behind the glove box.The heater core one is the one that has probably come undone. They are a pain to reattach, as of right now I haven't been successful with the heater core one.
you should probably take it back apart and look at the housing behind it to make sure its not broken, they attach by pressing the metal clip into the plastic which holds the cable insulation while the metal cable has a metal hook-like thing on the end that slides through a metal bracket which is attached to the heater controls.
It's kind of hard to describe, if you're at the junkyard you can look for one and just cut the lines so you can see how they attach.
Stock color^
color with removed green caps^ (missed one small one)
color after installing the red LED's, exactly what I was looking for^