Yes. More specifically, I want to use an 06 cluster, and use 06 wiring pigtails in the back, which Aorbeta didnt do, which made it hard to swap out clusters at will. And I will be using optical connectors instead of soldering, since it seems to work just as well with no signal degradation.

I still have a few questions......but I'll ask WhiteonWheat before posting here, since he has Aorbeta's old cluster.

 

Hey Guys!!

I hope I've been some "help" - but feel that I haven't, b/c I didn't actually do this modification - Alan (Aorbeta) did ALL the hard work.

I now truly wish I would have take detailed pictures of the back of the cluster with all the connections prior to installing to see if that would help out some. It wasn't exactly "Cake" to get the old cluster out and the new one in, and I'm honestly not up for taking it all back apart.

Tom or anyone else - please keep asking me as many questions as you need - I'll try my BEST to help out in ANY way I can (in any way!)

Thanks Guys and good luck to all who have decided to do this mod and a massive THANKS to any member who shares the information they find so that others can do this.

Thanks Guys!
-WoW

 

I forgot to mention that swapping the 03' clock for the 06' is possible as well. Alan was nice enough to take an extra 03' clock that I purchased as well as a 06' clock that I purchased as well and did all the work. Alan is truly a Fantastic person through and through!

-WoW

 

^^Cool, thanks man....and thanks for the info telling me that the center gauge that reads "REV" actually works, since Alan's pics didnt show that. It is definitely worth my while since that is the case. What's the difference in the clocks?

I'll be e-mailing Alan to make sure the schematics are the best ones he can get, since I'll need as much help as possible. I'll start work this week, probably Thursday or so!

 

Hey guys,
Thought I'd chime in on this since there's a small amount of interest again. As Wyatt(WhiteonWheat) has said before, the newer gauges in place of the old ones make a huge difference. Especially without the protective lense installed

I've honestly purchased 2 03 gauge sets off ebay, and 2 05+ sets off ebay for experimentation so I've been through a lot of gauges and wasted a ton of money just so I could say that I did it. It was a fun process and I enjoyed getting it up and running. I'm happy that the gauges were given to Wyatt as he's a good guy and I hope he enjoys them.

The list below by Tom is overall pretty correct, it really depends on how you want to accomplish the install. I for one did not want to tee into my existing wiring harness for a few reasons. One is that I didn't want to be sitting in the car, in the garage making some 30 odd connections. It's easier just to make an adapter harness on my test bench. I also try not hacking into harnesses so I can return to stock at any time. The last is that if you splice into the 03 harness with connectors for every connection, you're gonna end up with a ton of extra plastic connectors to deal with little room behind the gauges after you make the connections is gonna be an issue.

I used an 05 harness, and also parts from a 03 gauge cluster from ebay as I didn't want to cut up my existing gauges, again so I could return to stock.

If you remove your 03 gauges you will see the wiring harness left in your car. The remaining "plugs" attach to the "receptacles" that are soldered onto your 03 gauges. My plan was to desolder the receptacles from the 03 ebay gauges, then solder them to the 05 harness that I purchased from a salvage yard.

This makes a hybrid 03/05 converter cable that I can plug into the stock harness and then plug into the 05 gauges. This makes it easy to return to stock and also just plug in the 05 gauges. At one point I was thinking of selling this as a mod and this would be the easiest to reproduce rather than teeing into the harness.

But that's just the connections part. You also have to deal with mounting the gauges into the stock gauge "pod" When you purchase 05 gauges you get them in the original "shell". The electronics must be removed from the shell and then inserted into an 03 gauge shell so that it can be mounted in your car. The shell from the 05 gauges do not have the same mounting points as the 03 shell. This is why you need a set of donor 03 gauges off ebay, so you can use the shell.

I wish I had taken more pictures when I did the original work. I thought somewhere in this thread were pics of the 05 gauges stuck in the 03 shell.

Good luck. I'll try to find pics I might have on my old work computer.

-Alan

 

Hey Tom,
The difference in the clocks is that the new one looks better The entire face is backlit in the stock orange lighting color. The "REV" didn't do anything from what I recall. There is a little LED under the REV that lit up for 6-speeds wherever you program the shift point.

I looked back at the pics in this post and all of them are of the first attempt at the gauges. The first set of gauges weren't even correct as they were for an auto. They still worked, but wrong gauges. Make sure you purchase a gauge set from a 6-speed and not auto.

 

I really should have taken a picture of the harness adapter that I made. It would make more sense to everyone what I did. In the end it really was a nice plug and play system so that Wyatt could just uninstall his stock gauges and swap these in. What probably confuses folks is the pics I showed in post 145 of the makeshift connections in the first set 05 gauge install. I in fact did use the 05/06 wiring harness in my final revision. Come on Wyatt!!! Take apart that dash and snap a few pics

 

Great update Alan.....it's really appreciated. The main reason I don't want to bother with an 03 harness is that I am terrible with soldering....also, there is room behind my cluster for the two additional harnesses, so I will wind up with one harness with 4 connectors. Using optical connectors will be the best solution for me, because my ECU responded well when I cut into the wiring harness to install a piggyback.

As for the 03 gauges, I dont mind cutting them up since I am never going back! I have two clusters, and will try them both.

 

What exactly is an "optical" connector?

 

It's the connectors telephone techs use when setting up phone connections. They transmit data really well, and they "clip" on very tightly. When they clip on, they also release this goop that protects the connection, so I opted to go with them. They are made for small, tight connections.

I used it then when I integrated my J&S Safeguard (timing retard) because it required cutting into the ECU wires. They worked perfectly on that, so the cluster should be no problem.

 

gotcha, I've seen/used those before but I've never heard of them called optical connectors.

 

I think they are also called communication connectors.

 

Alan,

Your super post #215 is great. I think I understand exactly what you mean about the harnesses. I think that's the route i will take also because I am getting better at soldering and love doing things to constantly improve my skills. Also, I am a big fan of the final solution being "plug n play" and elegant. Over the next few weeks I'll start trying to lock down the clusters I will need.

Since I will keep my original in my closet or something, I'll locate 1 '03 set for the shell and connectors, and 1 '05+ set for the gauges and the harness right? Then i frankenstein the two harnesses together to make a "bridge" between my '03 car harness and the '05+ gauges yes?

 

Hey Guys! (hey Alan!!!!!!!!! - I'll e-mail you to ask how you've been instead of doing it here. lol)

Oh man - holy cow - do I wish I had it in me to take apart that sucker and give everyone here some good pics - I'll see if I can. It's not incredibly difficult, but I can't even find time to wash my poor coupe with a 7mth pregnant wife at home with a 'terrible three' ("terrible two's" turned out to be terrible threes for us, ha!)

I had pictures (of the clusters and after install) that I'll see if I can find on my old computer and re-post on the image host site. That's probably the reason you don't see any of my pics within this post now (I had to clean those old pics off and upload the pics of the LMGT4's I had installed - for another post, lol)

Let me see what I can do guys - I can promise that I'll try my best to get everyone pics - but living in the real world situation that I'm in (work is nuts busy and then have to run home to help with growing family and try and get sleep), I can not "promise" that I'll be able to do it...gawd I wish I could though!!!!!! I'll fee HORRID if I don't help out on my own thread. Arrrghhh. When did I start this thing anyways. LOL. It's been year(s) plural hasn't it? A good and worthy project though!

Thanks Guys!
-WoW

 

Found some pictures:

<a href="http://usera.ImageCave.com/WyattHD/Copy%20of%20IMG_5619.JPG"><img src="http://usera.ImageCave.com/WyattHD/icth_Copy%20of%20IMG_5619.JPG.jpg" alt="Free image hosting at imagecave.com"></a>

Old Clock:
<a href="http://usera.ImageCave.com/WyattHD/clock_before_01.jpg"><img src="http://usera.ImageCave.com/WyattHD/icth_clock_before_01.jpg.jpg" alt="Free image hosting at imagecave.com"></a>

New Clock:
<a href="http://usera.ImageCave.com/WyattHD/clock_after_01.jpg"><img src="http://usera.ImageCave.com/WyattHD/icth_clock_after_01.jpg.jpg" alt="Free image hosting at imagecave.com"></a>

<a href="http://usera.ImageCave.com/WyattHD/clock_after_02.jpg"><img src="http://usera.ImageCave.com/WyattHD/icth_clock_after_02.jpg.jpg" alt="Free image hosting at imagecave.com"></a>

*********************

I can honestly say that doing BOTH modificaions does two things:

1.) Looks bad @ss - sorry had to. LOL
2.) Evens out the looks of the brighter "Halos" with the old dim clock. The clock update is just as "Dramatic" of a change (positively) as the gauges! Thanks again Alan!!!!

I'll look for more pictures @ home.

Thanks Guys!
-WoW

P.s. I'm not sure why, but the clock comes out with a more yellowish tone IN PICTURES - but I can assure you that in person, it's a direct AMBER match!