Warning .... if you aren't brave at heart and know how to solder and are good at taking things apart.....think twice before trying this.

You will need to search for instructions on how to take the cluster out. When I started this i didn't know I would have success so I didn't take pictures.

The 6 and 7K LEDs on the dash cluster of my 2007 G35 (2nd gen I think, Newer body style) got to where they would come and go so I tore it a part today. What I figured out is the LEDs are in pairs and the 7k LEDs was bad and it kept the 6k from light up as well. I could get my meter to light all LEDs but the #7 so I replaced it and (so-far) it has stayed on. I had a set of strip LEDs in cool white (about 6000k temp) left over from another project so I cut one off the strip and soldered it in place of the #7 LED and couldn't believe it when it came one.
Here are the type of lights I robbed the LED from.
Things to remember.
LEDs are polarized,when looking at your speedo the left side of the LED is the positive side. Put the new one in the correct polarity.

The needles on my cluster were pried off with a plastic screw driver like tool. They pull off of the stem. The motors or servos the needles are attached to have stops in them so keep up with where the needle is when you take it off and make sure its a 0 when you go to put back on. Slowly move the needles before you take them off and you will see what I mean.

If the new LED is larger than the copper pad you solder too you can scrape the green paint off of the circuit board to give yourself a bigger solder pad.

make sure you wipe all finger prints off the chrome rings and blow and dust off when reassembling... you don't want to look at finger prints in the cluster.

I put my multimeter in diode mode and touched the lower left hand side of the LED with the positive lead and the right hand side of the LED with the negative lead to test each LED.... they should light up if they are good.

The factory LEDs have 4 solder tabs on them but mine only had one on each side (2 tabs total) on the LED. It only needs one on each side of the LED.

Very important -DONT push the needles on too much or they can stick at say,3000 RPMs and you will have to take it all back apart....ask me how I know. Make sure they are seated well and move freely when you put them back on. They should have clearance with they plastic that has the speed and tach printed on it. (I'll call it the silk screen, what you see when you are driving)

when you put things back together, make sure the white plastic board that goes over the circuit board and under the "silk screen" is lined up or centered with the needle servos... this also could have caused my needle to stick at 3000 RPMs.

I used solder wick like this to un-solder the factory LED.. you can probably search youtube for solder tips.


[IMG][url=https://flic.kr/p/nK8LFm][/IMG]

Here is an after shot. You cant tell from the picture but LED #7 is a hair brighter than the rest... I didn't notice it but my son did.

[IMG][url=https://flic.kr/p/nK8L2C][/IMG]

I am no cluster expert, with some basic trouble shooting and studying the circuit board I was able to figure out how they were connected. I will answer any questions I can and really hope this helps someone.... good luck if you go for it .

 

Thanks for this .

 

Nicely done.

 

seems like this is a common problem. Had my 4k rpm die out and had no experience with a solder, so I found this informative thread on scionlife which gave me the ***** to do it myself. The hard part is removing the cluster gauge.

 

Good to know there are stops in the servos. I was planning on taking out the LEDs for the check engine and tpms but hit a snag with the needles.

 

may have spoken too soon... dash has started flickering every once in a while.... still working most the time but i feel it will go out again soon :-(