how easy/hard is it to replace the dash bulbs on my 03 stilo? also what colour suits best

I too would like to know this but even the techies seem to be avoiding this one. I want to order some yellow dials for mine but until I know how to access the dash I cant do anything.

do you mean all the lights on the whole dash

stripey stilo said:

do you mean all the lights on the whole dash

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what i would like is the 'vw' appearence i.e. the blue look. ,is it possible?

stripey stilo said:

do you mean all the lights on the whole dash

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Now why on earth would you want your Stilo to look like a VW???

I would assume the bulbs are LED's,I have never stripped cluster down to check but have one at work I can experiment on.Will let you know next week.

wel suposedly the lights are the same as on mobile phone you know the 1's under the keys. going back a couple of years there is a thread showing that it has bin done before but a lot of work. having to take old ones off and solder new 1's in

heres the other thread blue bulbs

there is another 1 to but neither of them seem to got any where

Seems like alot of hassle dont it?

Could you not use a blue tint plastic film or something?

Not with miniled's I wouldn't think... it would prolly dim them off too much.

It looks easier than I thought to do this, now I've stripped the instrument cluster to bits! The dial films aren't coloured either so all you need to do is to get some blue LED's, and as long as you're confident enough (which I sure as hell wouldn't be), solder the new LEDs on.

Personally I wouldnt bother but it's your choice!

rroope said:

It looks easier than I thought to do this, now I've stripped the instrument cluster to bits! The dial films aren't coloured either so all you need to do is to get some blue LED's, and as long as you're confident enough (which I sure as hell wouldn't be), solder the new LEDs on.

Personally I wouldnt bother but it's your choice!

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How easy/hard is it to get to the dials (want to put yellow ones in)?

rroope said:

It looks easier than I thought to do this, now I've stripped the instrument cluster to bits! The dial films aren't coloured either so all you need to do is to get some blue LED's, and as long as you're confident enough (which I sure as hell wouldn't be), solder the new LEDs on.

Personally I wouldnt bother but it's your choice!

Click to expand...

soldering them little leds on is a focker. although i've gota load of spot solderers for pcbs.
interesting thinkin of how i'd do it.. i'm not fussed about the soldering, but i'd be worried about how much of a ballache to take the instrument panel out/apart...

Its not that bad a job, just remove the lower steering shroud (3 screws and a lot of moving to get it past that sodding steering column adjuster bar), remove the top shroud (p!$$ easy, 2 screws), 4 screws out to take the cluster out (with care!). Once thats out, unclip front and back panels, prise the needles off with spoons (as to not damage anything), take the dials off, unclip the white plate and hey presto, the LED's are looking at you!

There are 3 for the speedo, 3 for the rev counter, one each for the fuel/coolant gauges. Of course each of the 4 needles has one too.

Hope that helps

thanks fellas,you've been great but it seems like i'll have to put up with 'orange ' for the time being............too much hassle,not enough brain,too little money.............
thanx again.......stilophil.

Ok . . . UPDATE:

DONT BOTHER!!!

We've been stripping Servo Motors for hours this evening, getting the needles out without taking the motor's pin is practically impossible, even with using spoons to balance the forces, and then you're into p!$$!ng around with so much of the circuitry, magnets, cogs etc . . . it's a minor miracle my dash works, doubt it will tomorrow!

Please, take my advice, love the orange and the original dials!!