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DIY: Aftermarket cluster overlays installation

10842 Views 32 Replies 18 Participants Last post by  cervan, 
A
My situation: I own an EG 95 civic hatch. I have been rummaging through the junkyards lately and found a plethora of civic auto clusters. They sell em' for fifty bucks, I always wanted a tach, so I went ahead and bought one. I can always paint over the auto-shift display later, the cluster functions perfectly fine in my hatch.

The only thing that keeps annoying me is the pathetic back lighting the clusters have, and now to make it worse the lights between 40 and 70 on my speedometer are out. I started looking up options.
I'm not into riceroni stuff, but I need function and will settle with a little style as long as it doesn't scream JDM. So I picked up some overlays on e-bay for $40.

Installation of these overlays isn't exactly clear, one guy goes so far as to explain that removing the needles are necessary, and to calibrate by driving down a long straight road and GUESSING your rpm/speed/etc. HAH! no.

I finally found a couple threads that yield some helpful advice on how to install overlays (SuperHonda Thread & Prelude Power Thread). While these threads get the ball rolling, I'd rather take what information I've gathered and combine it with my own experience to have a more complete DIY on D-Series. That and you NEVER GET BACK THE TIME YOU SPEND SEARCHING. Spam is my mortal enemy.


This process should be the same for any 92-95 USDM civic. I used my service manual for the majority of information.

First thing you need to do is unplug your battery, then just go do something for five minutes. Requirement is three minutes, but hey, I can wait a little longer to avoid an SRS bitchslap.

After five minutes turn the steering wheel to the right until it locks. It isn't necessary but random movement is one less variable in the equation of doom.



On the underside of the steering wheel you will find the SRS connection access panel.



Use a regular Phillips screwdriver to remove it. On the panel itself is a red short connector. Carefully unplug the yellow SRS cable and plug it into the red short connector.



Now you are free to move about the cabin. The next step is NOT necessary but I prefer my work space to be spacious.

Remove the seat:

Front bolts



Back bolts



You also need to remove the seat belt status wire. I used a small Flathead screwdriver to push in the zip tie stop. Unplug it and lift the seat out.



That's better. Ugh...time to replace the floor mat...right after I replace my carpet. When you bolt the seat back on the front bolts and back bolt by the door sill are 16 lb-ft of toque; the other bolt facing down is 29 lb-ft of torque.



Remove the dash/cluster inlay panel. Start by using a Flathead screwdriver with a small cloth or some Kleenex over the tip to pry the hazard switch off.



(continued next post...)
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Behind the hazard switch is an anchor point/screw. As you can see mine has been ripped out, by my friend who didn’t know any better. He wanted to test his EX cluster and I didn’t know any better than him, so we’re passing the savings on to you! I digress.

Unplug the Hazard switch and use a Phillips screwdriver to remove the screw.



There are two other screws holding the inlay panel in place, above the cluster. Remove those as well.



Now all you need to do is pop it out. It requires a bit of force. I found that going from the right to the left was best. Just be careful as it will crack easily with the force it takes to pop it out. Once it’s relatively free, unplug the clock wire and tilt/rotate the panel up and to the right to remove.

Now remove the cluster. There are two screws on the right...


…and the left.



Once you remove the screws pull the cluster out a little and unplug the connectors. My cluster has three, but your trim might have a different amount. Remove the cluster.


Here is the cluster with the plastic cover popped off and overlays:


It was either silver or white. I was interested in the indiglo until I saw how freaking bright they were. I drive in pitch black areas, so I don't need the strength of three suns to guide me into a ditch. I wanted just the essential stuff to glow, reassuring, steady, and calm-like. Hence the purchase of reverse glow overlays.

According to both of the threads I linked, overlays should go right over the needle without ANY need to remove anything but the two screws on the speedometer and the other two on the tachometer...just to be clear. They were right.

I started with the right overlay at a clockwise angle, with the gas and temp needles pointed as far down as they could go. I chose the gas needle first, and after fitting it over the needle, used the slack to fit the temp needle on and simply rotated to fit.




There are no screws to hold this particular overlay down, which is a bit irritating, but moving on.

(continued next post…)
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The Speedometer overlay is a bit trickier to get on. Notice I already removed the two screws holding down the original face. You need to slide the overlay over the needle with as little pressure as possible. I started at a counter-clockwise angle to avoid the needle stop pin and the tripometer reset post from interfering. This flexed the overlay a very small amount as you can see in the picture, but I'll found out whether this is allowable when I wire it and run it through the gambit. I rotated it clockwise to fit.


After putting the screws back in I routed the wire under the tachometer face.


This of course does not apply to all overlays. The Super Honda thread shows the wiring to be a bit different.

The tachometer overlay is put on similar to the speedometer, starting with a counter-clockwise angle and rotating clockwise to fit.



Okay, overlays are fitted. Now on to the next problem:


The plastic cover will need to be cut to fit over the wires without pinching them. Five seconds later with my trusty dremel:








(continued next post...)
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Single Cam D
This needs to be put in the DIY forum not in the noob section...
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krychek57
Single Cam D said:
This needs to be put in the DIY forum not in the noob section...
Click to expand...


PJ, He covered that in the first paragraph...

Nice write up, LMK (via PM) when you are ready to have it in the DIY Forum :mikej:
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Single Cam D
My bad didnt see that sorry man.
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Set aside the cluster for now. The next step is to clear the underside of the dash for wiring.

Remove the knee bolster cover (three screws).


Remove the knee bolster it self.




There are two bolts. On the right there is a hook alongside the bolt. Just lift the knee bolster up to unhook it.

The right bolt.


The left bolt. As you can see this is where I put the ground to my overlay switch.



Now you have easy access to the fuse box.



The overlays I bought came with a rather unattractive transformer/dimmer switch, so I decided to tuck it to the left of the original dimmer switch panel.



I used industrial Velcro to eliminate any possibility of rattle from vibration.


Back to the fuse box. There is a green connector that holds the wire you need to patch into. According to the manual it is red/black.


I cut the wire and twisted it back together to keep a good connection. I then twisted on the positive wire from my overlay switch, soldered it together, sleeved it with heath shrink tubing and electrical tape.

(continued next post...)
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Once this step is done it's just a matter of putting everything back together and testing it. Make sure you tuck any of the wiring under the air vent/duct.



It should be common sense, but for the safety's sake, DO NOT RECONNECT the SRS wire in the steering wheel until you have finished putting everything else together. The absolute last thing to reconnect is the battery.

My cluster unlit/lit (day):





Cluster at night:



With original dimmer lights:



Any questions/comments/corrections are welcome.
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L
it looks like you put a rainbow in front of your face LOL

very nice detailed writeup though

-Luke
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shoyuburner
Aeroflux,
Have you tested to make sure your car can rev to redline. Rev limiter is in some cluster gauges.
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shoyuburner said:
Aeroflux,
Have you tested to make sure your car can rev to redline. Rev limiter is in some cluster gauges.
Click to expand...
who told you this lie? sorry. but that statement made me laugh a little bit
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lkailburn said:
it looks like you put a rainbow in front of your face LOL

very nice detailed writeup though

-Luke
Click to expand...
Thanks! The overlays can be dimmed to no light at all, and any frequency of light between. So the "rainbow" as you put it is fully controllable.

Also, my camera (Canon digital rebel) is known for under-exposure, which makes any low light shot difficult to attain. The bleed you see on the numbers and lines is a result of a 3 second exposure. Without the prolonged exposure time you wouldn't be able to see the defining lines of the unlighted gauges. If you want I can take an exposure just long enough to show the lights in their natural state, as I see them. They are quite subtle at night. I don't really like the silver, hate the white, but I didn't have a choice. It was cheap enough that I can remove it and sell it if I found better overlays.

I also plan to replace the original dimmer bulbs with either red or black light bulbs. Black light sounds ricer? Maybe, but if I can control the frequency I can put the white needles to good use without adding another color to the "rainbow". :mrgreen:

The intent is to have accurate yet subtle lighting across the entire cluster. Hell I'd use tape lighting on the sides of the bezel if it would work correctly. Now that I know how to take it apart and put it back together I intend on making it perfect.



shoyuburner said:
Aeroflux,
Have you tested to make sure your car can rev to redline. Rev limiter is in some cluster gauges.
Click to expand...
Even though I'm a noob, I already know the rev limit is controlled by the ECU. I've never heard of the gauge having any control, which would be kind of redundant. I mean no disrespect, but how did you come by this information?


Edit: I can't test it right now as I think there is something up with the head or A/C unit of my engine.
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myHonda1
very is a very nice instructional DIY. good job!
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vtecduck
Nice job on the DIY :TU:
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Tibby
very detailed
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Hellhatch
Looks like way too much work for some gauge covers. I think my auto to 5sp swap was easier.
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mightyjoecivic
So...whats holding the gas/water temp face to the cluster if theres no screws?

Great write up by the way! :TU: A++
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SuperSeanic
why didn't you get 5spd cluster overlays and cover up the auto stuff with them?
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Hellhatch said:
Looks like way too much work for some gauge covers. I think my auto to 5sp swap was easier.
Click to expand...
You're kidding! Once I figured out the wiring it was pretty much a cinch. I guess this means if I ever have to help someone do an auto-5spd swap it'll be a piece of cake. :TU: (non-sarcastic)

mightyjoecivic said:
So...whats holding the gas/water temp face to the cluster if theres no screws?

Great write up by the way! :TU: A++
Click to expand...
Thanks! The bezel/cluster cover holds it down. Later on I'm going to readjust it and tape it place (just enough to avoid any shifting until the cover is in place).

SuperSeanic said:
why didn't you get 5spd cluster overlays and cover up the auto stuff with them?
Click to expand...
At the time I couldn't find them on e-bay. I have another set inbound right now. These I LIKE. :mrgreen:
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SuperSeanic
Aeroflux said:
At the time I couldn't find them on e-bay. The only online retailer I could find selling reverse glow gauges for the manual EX was eautoworks.com, and they wanted $70 for guage faces I didn't like all that much. I have another set inbound right now. These I LIKE. :mrgreen:
Click to expand...
those look nice but that extra 30mph is useless
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