1G Decided to spruce up the instrument cluster ... lesson learned.

[SlipknotSmoothi]

Found this carbon fiber bezel for the instrument cluster at a junk yard, nabbed it but held off on installation, hoping to find some white faces for the gauges.

So some white gauge faces on ebay that say "don't remove the needles" sounded like a good idea, I can't screw that up right? That would be the easy and safe way since I don't have to worry about the positions, right?

Dear god. Good thing I had planned on going to an aftermarket oil gauge ... need to figure out how to recalibrate the speed-o :-/

Good news is: It looks... nice. Just doesn't work the way it used to

Now what?

 

[92AWDHX40]

It doesn't work find another gauge keep it stock.

 

[SlipknotSmoothi]

I see threads where people take their clusters completely apart and get them back together with out issues, I guess there will just be a lot of trial and error.

 

[92AWDHX40]

I left mine alone its a pita.

 

[DJ Raydiate]

need to figure out how to recalibrate the speed-o :-/

Good news is: It looks... nice. Just doesn't work the way it used to

Now what?

What you need to do to recalibrate the speed-o is to take the needle back off and with the car running, set it back to 0, take it for a test drive and check it with a GPS speed-o. When I did my gauges, I put my speed-o needle on first and when I started my car it said that I was doing 40 at a stand still.

 

[SlipknotSmoothi]

PITA is right and I'm not sure that it was worth all the effort. It looks like I managed to keep the fuel/water/tach about right ... the oil gauge is off but as mentioned before, I fully intended on replacing it anyways. It usually reads almost 0 PSI unless I put my foot into it. Its a new build, I haven't had issues with anything oil related.

Also, for those who look into doing the same thing: There is no way to really make the lines/numbers line up. You'll get it perfect in one area, and all the rest will be totally off.

Here is the aftermath though:

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[DJ Raydiate]

It looks good. Are the 1gs cable driven speed-o or electric? The way I suggested worked for the electric speed-o. I didn't notice when I posted that you had a 93.

 

[WES_393]

1g's are cable driven.

 

[SlipknotSmoothi]

Yeah, its definitely cable driven. It takes a bit of movement to get it register speed ...

 

[crimsondragon]

I just set the cruise to 20 in a huge parking lot via GPS, then reattach the needle. RPMs can be set the same way if you do a little math once you know the speed and gearing ratio or if you have a data logger. The others are guesswork though. If you know what kind of temps and pressure you usually get at idle and fully warmed up, you can usually nail it pretty good. For the boost gauge I just set it at the lowest point at idle and call it a day. For the fuel gauge, top it off and pin it at the top.

 

[SlipknotSmoothi]

Can you data log a N/T ECU? Brings me to another question about swapping ECU's but thats for another section of the forum .... though I'm not sure where that would be either.

 

[crimsondragon]

If you have an OBDI scanner, it'll show you the engine parameters. Or if you have a smartphone, you can download an app for it, and get the adapter on ebay. At least I think there is. I know there's one for OBDII.

 

[SlipknotSmoothi]

I see some things on Ebay that show to have the dongle + the software. Of course, that is also the root of my problem here. It looks and feels like I'm about 15 to 25 mph off, which a logger wouldn't tell me anyways.

 

[iiNFAMOUSCHRiS]

hop on the highway with a GPS speedometer app to see if your speedo is off, hold steady speed via your GPS at your highways speed limit and have someone pin the needle?

 

[motomattx]

A logger will show your speed and the needle position has nothing to do with the inner workings of the speedometer, the inner parts will still be accurate and should give the right readings to the data logger.

 

[isantop]

Setting needle position is easy with a datalogger or OBD adapter. Plug the cluster into the car (with the front plastic removed), then drive it to a gas station and fill up to full. Don't fill up halfway; going to full is the only way to get a perfectly reliable reading. Put the gas needle on as high up as it will go (it does rise a bit above the gauge on my 2G). Drive home afterwards, and leave the engine running

During the drive, the engine should have warmed up. Check the temperature on the logger, if it's around 95-100°C, you're good to go. Put the needle for the coolant on right in the middle, on top of the mark

Get the RPM from the logger and put the needle on, matching the position with the reading from the logger.

Now shut the engine off, put the key back into "ON". Wait about 30-40 seconds then put the boost needle on at the third mark up (for a 2G) or on the 0 mark (for a 1 G; I'm assuming the gauge rises when you first turn the ignition on, like it does in the 2G). This sets the boost gauge to 0 when there's no change from ambient pressure (the third line on a 2g gauge is roughly 0 psi)

Now turn the car completely off and put the Oil needle on in line with the bottom line. This is where mine is, and it seems to work all right (Oil P at cruise with the engine warm sits around the middle of the gauge). If anybody knows where it's supposed to go, let me know!

The speedo is the only one left, and it's a little tricky. For a 1G, you're gonna have to use a GPS to get it right. Drive at a set speed, then put the needle on where the GPS says you are.

2Gs are a little easier. You can get the speed off of the ECU (since it's all electric on a 2G), meaning you can put the car on jack stands and read the speed off of the logger. I'd recommend setting your speedo to what the ECU says, since the scale will always match that way (in case the speed sensor isn't working quite linearly). Setting via GPS could make it right at some speeds, and incorrect at other speeds. Plus, you're limited to whatever accuracy your GPS can calculate. It's always helpful to set your car's instruments to whatever the car thinks it's actually doing.

EDIT: +1 to the gauge not knowing/caring where the needle actually points. You could make custom gauges with the needles pointing up, and as long as you get the start point calibrated correctly, the gauge will read accurately.