Upgrading Instrument Panel Lighting

Don't you hate when your instrument panel is hard to see? Or maybe you just don't like the color of the lights? For me its both. What started as some harmless forum browsing turned into (I'm not gonna lie) an impulse buy, and an awesome new cluster!

Sl-i.net has some great DIY articles for all you Legacy people. It was while browsing of one of these DIYs that I got inspired by the simplicty and cheapness of the LED light improvment for your cluster. For only about $20 you can drasticly increase the brightness of your cluster and change it to almost any color you want! Now, I really like the way the STi instrument cluster looks so I opted for a red strip of LED's. Give yourself a pat on the back, you have just completed the easiest part of this project!

The first step in removing your cluster is to unscrew the case that holds your cruise control, rear defrost, and foglamp buttons. Once thats out you have to located and removed 4 other screws ( I was missing one) that hold in the cluster itself. Once all screws have been removed and safely stored away gently pull on the cluster. There are 4 connectors that have to be removed before you can start the long and tedious process of attemping to get it out from behind your steering wheel. I find this easiest if you wiggle it out from the right with your wheel all the way down, and your wiper control likewise. Once its out have you get at the gauge faces themselves.

There are two metal clips at the top of the cluster that have to be removed before you can release all the various plastic clips around the edges. Carefuly remove the faces away from the housing. Once you have access to the back of the cluster you can remove all the gauges themselves by removing the corresponding screws. Make sure you keep them in a safe and secure location so they don't break (I foolishly left my temp gauge in place and broke the needle off). Carefuly remove the needles of the cluster with your fingers or using a flathead screwdriver. After the needles are free, remove the faces of the gauges and sand down all the green tint on the back. If you have a hot glue gun now would be a good time to plug it in and let it warm up. Take your LED strip and line it up with the face that it will illuminate. Once you are satisfied, peel back the double stick tape and fix it into position. Be sure that the wires coming off the LED can easily go through one of the light holes that previously lit the cluster. Once the LEDs are solidly in place the soldering begins.

The next part may look complicated and difficult, but its really not. Just take your time and make sure you know what your doing. Don't rush! As with all mods the more time you put into it, the better the finished result. CAREFULY solder the ends on the wire to each side of the copper stamp on the backside of the light hole. It doesn't matter which wire goes where as long as there is one on each side. Be sure that your new wires won't touch any other printed circuit on the back before you put anything back together. Repeat this process for every gauge. Once you are done bring it back out to the car and make sure everything works properly, then you can reassemble the cluster.

Looking back on this project there are a few things I wish I could have changed. First, I would have liked to order a longer LED strip so I could have finished my entire cluster in one go. The way it is now, with just the RPM and speedo lit, leaves the fuel and temp gauges barely visible at night. Second I wish I took all the gauges out when I was soldering. While still fully functional my broken temperature gauge needle is a bit of an eye sore. But hey, now that you know what I did I hope you can avoid my mistakes and benifit from my sucsess. Overall this is an awesome mod that really gives your car a tough "I mean business" look at night. Sometimes I forget I'm driving my N/A Legacy and instead I'm behind the wheel of the mighty STi. Then I hit the gas pedal.