Halfway through my dash conversion..

[llgsimpson]

Just thought I would share this with you guys, been debating if to do this for a long time and trying to decide on the colour, in the end I settled for blue but think I may end up changing it to green, half way through the conversion with the dials done and the climate control, so far its been almost too easy! just the upper screen and doors to do next

the hardest part i found was putting the needles back in the right place!, only via knowing that the car idles at around 1000rpm and matching to sat nav for speed have I managed to set it correctly

v

 

[JoeMarano]

Looks nice!

 

[Gus]

Wont it be really hard to see the needles.

 

[Addicted]

Not a fan tbh, it looks way too bright and just drowns it all out being all blue - each to their own though.

I'd have done the dials in another colour.

 

[llgsimpson]

The needles are easily visible although I must admit it doesn't look it in the picture, as for it being too bright well it is to be fair but it can be dimmed using dimmer still.
Im thinking I might change it to green though

 

[c5 swh]

Is there a guide to do this? Is it difficult?

 

[llgsimpson]

I'm an amateur and managed to do it so i would say as long as your confident in yourself, enough to take your dials apart and have all the tools required then ide say go for it

 

[c5 swh]

I'm an amateur and managed to do it so i would say as long as your confident in yourself, enough to take your dials apart and have all the tools required then ide say go for it

Do you have any pictures of what you have to actually do?

 

[AlexW]

Its a pain soldering all the SMD's.

I don't recommend people who can't solder circuit boards to do it.

 

[loggyboy]

Just google clio led dash conversion.
I have limited soldering experience, based on guides, I bought a temperature control iron from Maplin for £20 and worked a treat. As long as your fairly technically adept its not a hard mod.
Start on the heater controls as they are easy to replace if you fcuk up.

 

[McGherkin]

Don't do green. Do white. All other colours look s**t and/or chavtastic.

Soldering the dials wasn't too hard when I did it. Just mark the minimum positions of the dials with pen lines on tape stuck to the dash.

 

[llgsimpson]

Hmm maybe I could go white with a green display?
Problem with marking the pins is that you will probably move it out of place pulling it out and putting it back in.
Just make sure you take note of which way round the SMDs go before taking them off. I might do a couple of pictures if I do decide to change them again

 

[loggyboy]

I did mine white, with blue lcd. Not 100% sold on the blue, but much better than orange. Unfortunately pure white lcds arent possible, even with white leds they have a blue tint.

 

[McGherkin]

marking the pins?
When you take the clear plastic off, move the dials gently to their minimum positions. Then stick a bit of tape to the dial face behind the needle.
Draw a line on the tape at the end of the needle, so it essentially extends the needle as a pin mark.

When you put the needles back on, put them on at, say, 4k, 80mph, and full fuel and temp. Push the needles down until they meet the lines you marked earlier (the motors have an end stop at their minimum positions so putting them on higher and moving them down ensures that they actually are sat on the end stop at the minimum position).

As above, you can't get pure white on the LCD, but it doesn't look too bad with the slight hint of blue.

 

[llgsimpson]

The minium must be below where it starts though.. As mine was showing negative revs on Idle when I first tried it and the fuel went way below where it sits normally when it was off. Think I might be doing this for a friend though so I'll defo take more care with the needles!

 

[McGherkin]

That usually happens because the motors have moved off the minimum stop while the needles are off, and when you reattach them you reattach them in the minimum position - so when you power them up the motors reset to their minimum position, which is now lower. Hence why I said attach them halfway up the dial and then push them down to the minimums, that way you can't go wrong.

If it's more than half a gauge out (you should be able to feel it hit the end stop on the motor when you push down), you can turn the needle clockwise, beyond 160 and right round to 0 (or as far as possible), before going back a turn anticlockwise to 0 again.

 

[llgsimpson]

That makes alot more sense! Cheers gherkin

 

[loggyboy]

I just marked mine with a pencil, just rubbed off once finished.

 

[llgsimpson]

Loggy, what did you use behind the display on the climate control?

 

[loggyboy]

Led colour? Blue.
or filter? Used a high grit paper to sand off the orange till it was white.

 

[Bear Head]

marking the pins?
When you take the clear plastic off, move the dials gently to their minimum positions. Then stick a bit of tape to the dial face behind the needle.
Draw a line on the tape at the end of the needle, so it essentially extends the needle as a pin mark.

When you put the needles back on, put them on at, say, 4k, 80mph, and full fuel and temp. Push the needles down until they meet the lines you marked earlier (the motors have an end stop at their minimum positions so putting them on higher and moving them down ensures that they actually are sat on the end stop at the minimum position).

As above, you can't get pure white on the LCD, but it doesn't look too bad with the slight hint of blue.

That looks absolutely amazing

 

[llgsimpson]

Led colour? Blue.
or filter? Used a high grit paper to sand off the orange till it was white.

I meant the filter and duh that seems like the obvious thing to do! I'll have to take mine back out and do it

 

[chaski]

I just bought filter plastic and cut it to shape when doing mine. I've done mine blue too. I disagree it's too bright, the pictures really don't do it justice to be fair. Having said that I am going to re-do my clocks again in white. Simply because I think it looks 'cleaner'. Might use some coloured gels to customise the overall appearance s bit more.

Also, I plan to remove the red from the bottom of the needles so they can be painted a different colour (on the bottom) and glow a different colour. I'm going to try a dark blue for that as see how it comes out.

 

[AlexW]

To add some pics to this thread, since theres already some in here...

 

[Bear Head]

To add some pics to this thread, since theres already some in here...

Wow what engine is that? I presume diesel but boost gages? threw me haha I'm not up on diesels though XD

 

[AlexW]

That was just the standard 1.5 DCi, although modified.

I'm now fitting a 1.9 DCi.

 

[Ali]

Not a fan of the all blue. The white on blue looks decent enough though.

 

[CrippsCorner]

Needle placements are a nightmare! Looks good although I've messed around with mine so much I don't know if I can be bothered to do anything more.

 

[McGherkin]

Bit of a bump but I've done a few sets now, Ph1 and Ph2. I'd thoroughly recommend doing this.

Ph.1

Ph.2

If you want to test the dials when out of the car, do the following (#1 top left, #30 bottom right, when viewed from behind the dials);
Grey Connector (30 pin)
Pin #24 EARTH - Ground
Pin #4 - Permanent Live - 12V
Pin #27 - Backlight Illumination (not including trip computer) - 12V
Pin #16 - Ignition live (illuminates trip computer) - 12V

I do this quite a lot now so I invested in a set of connectors out of a car being broken so I can just crocodile clip onto the necessary wires.