Dark Half

Good evening,
Planning to swap my miles north American manual cluster with kilometers one. On the market i can find only clusters from automatic. Can i expect it to show the speed/mileage accurately or not?.
Thank you.

b_boy190

It will work. The only thing that's not going to be of use is the automatic shift pattern in the cluster.

What car is this for and where have you been looking for gauge clusters?

Dark Half

Its a canadian Civic DX 98. Im in the UAE, so the choice is limited. There are a lot of scrap yards but with cars newer than 2006. Ebay is not an option as i have no time. I was excited to swap it with tacho one but did not have a chance to find such. People still drive these cars here modded or not :-).

Dark Half

Now, after its done i think the swap deserve its own story. It really work, but i have some obstacles on the way which might be good for the other to know.
So after an hour at the scrap yard i was able to find only clusters from automatic and all without rpm gauge. You know that manual without rpm is a bit funny. With the experience you judge the rpm by ears, but not on a car you never drive before. Anyway no luck, so after hard bargaining i manage to buy the cluster, together with a part from the center console for as much as 30$ without any warranty. Once i get home and dismantle it the plan was to do complete cleaning and replace only the speedo as the rest work flawlessly. The process is very much strait forward and explained in Youtube so I'll not go in details. Once the cluster is out of the car there are clips to be pushed and than you can remove the glass and the two black parts behind it - no any bolts here. Once you have the dials out you can proceed with the arrows. Here the s**t hits the fan first. Despite I've being aware the arrows are brittle i manage to crack the first one. And shame - not when i pull it out. From my previous Renault experience i use fork to pull the arrow up and it works(ALWAYS PLUG IT FROM THE SHORT SIDE OF THE ARROW!!!). Do not forget to put some tissue or fabric below the fork avoiding scratches on the black surface. So when i get the arrow for cleaning simply carrying it in my hand i manage to slightly bend it and.... Ok i say my self, at least i have one more, so i pull the arrow from the second cluster and when i was washing it i just slide my finger by its length and.... I start considering fixing arrow from the temperature gauge, but when i pull it it comes to be different type. Some hard core blessings follow which i'll save you from :-). Than i get out the two broken clusters from Daihatsu Sirion i remember i have, pull out the arrow from one of them and try - THANKS GOD it fits;-). The arrow on those is too long, so you just get pliers and broke it to the proper length. Note the black panel with light filters should fit on top of the arrow without touching. Also note despite being from cheaper car the Daihatsu arrow is rock solid, so there are low chances you break it, still though be cautious. And here comes the second obstacle. Story to be continued and later supplemented by photos.


You can see the difference and additional hole i drill initially

Distance between front holes where the background graphs are

Dark Half

So once the arrow was fixed i get back to reassembling. But the devil have nothing to do and push me to replace my fuel gauge which seems a bit sluggish and sometimes slightly inaccurate. Thinking they are the same on the auto and manual i pull out the arrow and..... this time broke the shaft. You can ask why i was removing it? Just to retain the MT background without AT lamps. Well i was not worrying, just being extremely careful to not break the other shaft too. Arrow down, than unscrewing the two bolts and removing the background. Surpriseeee - the bolt holes on the background do not fit. The step motors used are different type, AT being bigger than the MT. So at the end i land up fixing the AT fuel gauge with the AT lamps. Than comes the third obstacle. The three connector bolts at the back are at different spacing. Not big difference, just millimeter, but enough to prevent me from assembling.So at this point i have for sure some extra white hair but do not give up. Get the mini drill and carefully correct the holes to finally fix the gauge. Hooray, i do not have to spent extra 30 bucks for a new cluster. Than i assemble everything and fix it back to the car. yes i have a bit mismatch of lights during the night and a red speedo arrow with white fuel and temp gauges but IT WORKS, so who cares. Pics to come up soon.


The back side holes are different too.

Not only they differ by space but also by the screws/bolts used

Dark Half

Meantime i did not explain you why the whole swap was done, some extra details and conclusions. Due to being North American specs the speedo have the speed in big miles figures and small km figures. I'm not 25 any more so losing slowly the eyesight qualities and do not like to be fined only cause i mismatch the speed figures. The main challenge was the mileage gauge winding up to my real one. You cant cheat here or at least not much as at the registration renewal they'll check your annual mileage and if you have a negative one you'll be denied renewal. This have never being my intention as well (the car is 300000km plus so the shape says it all). So luckily I've done it after research on the web.
Conclusions you probably get already from my previous posts.
1. Do not change anything on a car 20 years old if it works:-).
2. When handling the arrows use extreme care. They are not solid as on the other cars(there is a chanel probably to make them lighter) and after long exposure on sun light for the same 20plus years they tend to broke without effort.
3. If you have a chance to check compatibility in advance always, do it. The unification of the details is not on the same level in all the car manufacturers.
Sorry for the lesson like posts. I hope they save you headache.


The AT cluster with the gauge fixed and the MT step motor for comparison of the holes spacing

The cluster already fixed with Daihatsu shortened arrow and two white temp and fuel gauges.

deschlong

iTrader: (8)

Persistence, definitely.

Yes, the clusters with the red arrows and "rear glow"-style are a different breed than the standard ones. I'll bet it was from a Japanese-market (JDM) vehicle.

Dark Half

Huh, possible, i've never seen these. In my case as i mention above i use arrow from Daihatsu Sirion 2006.