Punto Mk3/Mk2b Change instrument cluster LED colour

looks really good! ild love to try it but sounds abit to fiddley and complex for me lol

ally

OMG you have no idea how much I want to have blue lights instead of those orangey hideous ones.
Even with so much help and guidance , I just know I won't be able to do it..
I only got to the point where I took the clocks out and the plastic fascia, and when I came to fiddle with the needles I chickened out in case I broke something and had to replace the whole thing and might not be able to find ones with the same mileage lol
I would pay you tomorrow if you could come do it for me !!!
Great thread !
Jess

@ Jess
Thanks.
If you got the clocks out and the plastic fascia off, you've done most of the 'donkey work'.
With regards to the needles, they're much sturdier than they look. Before you start, you should have a full tank of petrol and the car should be cold (for coolant temperature). Its not essential, but it helps a lot. The critical part is to mark the poisiton of the needles before you pull them off.
Take the glass off, reconnect the plug at the rear and the negative battery lead.
Turn on the ignition but don't start the car. Mark (I used a soft pencil) the position of all the needles as they are. A simple tick will do. Petrol should show full, Temp should be on 0 as will Rev counter and Speedo.
Turn off the ignition, repeat the take out the key and remove the plug at the rear. At this point you will find that the Petrol and Temp needles will show 0, while the Rev counter and Speedo have dropped by 2-3mm.
Mark the resting place - this is where you will aim when refitting the needle.
Gently rotate the rev and speedo needles clockwise until you find that they encounter resistance. Stop and mark again.
PLace the clock flat on a surface,face up, prise up the black cap on the needle and with a pair of long nose pliers pull each needle straight up. It simply slides off.
The rest is easy.

Hiya

I've been looking into doing this myself recently to my mk2b. I've had a look on that website you've used crazyleds.co.uk and I can't seem to find the bulbs you've suggested? However I have found the speedometer conversion kit and switch rail... These would just do the same job wouldn't they rather than buying the individual bulbs??

I also want to change the bulbs behind them 3 dials that control your air vents but I don't know where to find the one's you suggested...

Help! :P

Hi

The leds can be found here: http://www.crazyleds.co.uk/PLCC-2-3528/

With regards to the switch rail you can get the kit that they advertise. As far as the main cluster is concerned, I'm not sure if the Mk2 kit that they advertise has the same number of leds or positioned in the same placeas for the Mk2b/Mk3. Certainly the display in the cluster is different. Being unsure, I decided to buy the led's separately (I think it also works out a bit cheaper buying separately).

The lights behind the airvent /heater dial switches are another beast altogether. They don't require soldering at all. Its a simple replacement. You can use Bright White SMD LED Wedge Light 286 T5, which you can also get from Crazyleds: http://www.crazyleds.co.uk/T5-286-LED/. Simple replacement for the existing bulbs.
If you decide to go with these specific bulbs/leds, you also need to CAREFULLY clean off the inside of the plastic dial face to remove the orange colour (so it shows white or whatever colour you choose). I tried leaving it like that, and it looked cr@p.
To remove the yellow, you can use nail polish remover or acetone and if you're really brave (it works very fast) you can use Automotive Thinners (Hammerite sell a 250ml can). Whatever you use, be VERY careful as it is easy to damage the plastic foil....been there, done that 4 times
You might want to consider lining the 'hole' behind the dial faces with tin foil or some reflective material to make the light stand out. I wasn't too buzzed, so I left it like that. For my tastes, its bright enough.

Brilliant! This ACTUALLY helps! The second link you gave me for the airvent dials.. there are 3 different bulbs on the link. Which of the 3 is the right one? And how many would you suggest buying for the all 3 dials??

Hi
I used this one: 286 T5 Capless LED
Looking at the web page, you might be able to use this one as well 286 T5 Capless LED. It should give you a much better light.
If you decide to go this way, drop an email at crazyleds and ask them. I've always found them to be super helpful.

Its been a while since I did mine, but if I remember correctly there are 4 bulbs could even be 3, but no more than that.

Hello again!
Well, I got my LED's and spent 7 hours last night fitting them in!! Argh. Everything looks perfect and all my needles are working perfectly again..
BUT, I messed up one of the LED's on the switch board... the City button light doesn't work because I damaged some of the wiring on the circuit.
So I'm spending my Sunday afternoon ringing scrap yards up to get a new one... :/
I'll feedback soon and try get some pictures up!
Thanks for all your help!

Pictures are uploaded in my garage section on here. Still need to sort the dials out, but I'll get round to that when I've caught up on some sleep. Thanks for the help, best thread ever

It's a pleasure. Glad I could be of help

Draging up an old thread, I know, but needed to say thanks for this guide Helped me hugely when I swapped out the LEDs in my Mk2... went from orange all over to blue LCD odometer, blue warning lights (well, blue for things like indicators, etc, red for all the actual warnings) blue dials and white needles (used turps to take off the red paint, replaced with white TipEx ).

I wasn't sure about replacing the indicators, headlights, etc LEDs with blue, but the only comment the MOT guy had was asking if the same would work on his Corsa :P

great write up, and am looking forward to doing this except:

on my last car i just removed the dashboard, there was no mention of marking the needles.....etc

cant the marks be made without starting the ignition? (ie all laying flat)
this part really confuses me, perhaps a video clip made of this stage would proove to be helpful lol (especially for me)

another reason for my confusion is if you change your dashboard for what ever reason there would be no marks....for example the statement above about ruining the circuit board "city button"
on her new board there would be no marks???

Hi
In life there are probably 101 way to do things. This happened to be the way I did it, after asking A LOT of questions to some of the guys who went through the process before me.

The reason for marking the needles etc, is to avoid having to go to an autoelectrician (and paying a small fortune) to calibrate your dials. Or to avoid unnecessary "pocket pain"
Say, for example, after your mod your speedometer reads 30 miles per hour but, in reality, you're doing 40 and the boys in blue bust you for it. I think 10 minutes extra preparation time is well worth the pain later. I've had my fill of making unwilling donations to the local cops

The marks cannot be made lying flat. The reason is very simple. When you remove the ignition key the "rest position" of the needles is not at the start line of the gauge. It is about 3-4mm lower. So you first need to mark the rest position. Then you need to mark where the needles move to (especially if the fuel tank is not full), when the ignition is on.
For this you need power. The leads to the connector blocks that fit on the rear of the cluster are not long enough to pull it out and lay it flat. I suppose you could do it the other way and pull the cluster out, lay it flat and mark the rest position, then replace the cluster and mark the "ignition on" position. Just seems like more work to me.

The marks we're talking about are made with a soft pencil - a simple line or dot to mark the position of the needle so you can refit it easily. If you want, you can rub them out after refitting. They don't come standard

The problem of the circuitboard of the "City" button, has nothing to do with the needles and the marks.
That occurred because the poster made a mistake during soldering and ruined the copper track etched on the pcboard. There are ways around that problem as well, but they are beyond the scope of this guide.

About the video.... not possible at the moment. I'd need to be doing a cluster to show every step. Currently I wont be doing another cluster (quite a few have asked me to) simply because I don't have that much free time. Work is taking up a LOT of it. Given the way the economy is, I need to hang onto my job
If I can figure out a way to do one easily, without doing a cluster, I'll post it.

thankyou for your reply and i totally agree with a different ways of doing things, i expect only one proper way when it comes to a punto lol....

theres no real need to do the video, its just im a little confused on it, as you have to mark when ignition on then again when you remove the needles....and i was getting myself confused......and thankyou for explaining why the needles to marked,,,makes sence once you know the reason lol...

thanks :thumbs:

it is a great write up and ill be following it soon....