BolivianFuego

Have you guys found out what to do to make it shine brighter? Many have asked the question in the past, but upon searching i have failed to find an answer. Let me know if you guys have found anything as of now. Maybe higher wattage bulbs in there?

BolivianFuego

anybody fizzles?

cxSHOE

just swap in another gauge cluster. (nothing you can do bud)

BolivianFuego

Damn. O well, when i dim the climate control it looks all good.

94_HATCH

If soeone does find a miracle that makes jdm clusters brighter lmk too

95excoupe

I refuse to believe you have to just deal with it. I dont know too much about this, but from what I understand in Japan they dont have a dimmer switch so essential a certain wire (in the stock gauge cluster harness) that lights the (jdm) bulbs isnt getting enough juice. This is what I would do. Get your stock cluster and put a meter on those traces in the back with it plugged in. Find the one that varies when you dim your dimmer. Now plug in the jdm one and do the same thing it probably is getting power from something else...move the dimer switch and nothing will probably happen. Find a wire with the same voltage the USDM cluster is using when the dimmer is up all the way. Now find that trace on the back of your cluster harness using a continuity check. Cut and solder the wire with the right voltage into it. Just get creative, make that trace on the back get the right voltage and it will work correctly

cxSHOE

now is it that the jdm eg6 clusters do not dim or do they dim and get bright and just not enough light?

ive never installed a jdm eg6 gauge so not sure... all i know is i can dim my jdm itr gauge and it is as you see pretty bright.

i may be getting a jdm eg6 gauge in the next month. ill see what i can find... it may just be a wire that the jdm cluster doesnt have on the green back..

also changing out your green back may solve this problem take the jdm one off and put the green usdm one on...

drunknbass

<TABLE WIDTH="90%" CELLSPACING=0 CELLPADDING=0 ALIGN=CENTER><TR><TD>Quote, originally posted by 95excoupe &raquo;</TD></TR><TR><TD CLASS="quote">I refuse to believe you have to just deal with it. I dont know too much about this, but from what I understand in Japan they dont have a dimmer switch so essential a certain wire (in the stock gauge cluster harness) that lights the (jdm) bulbs isnt getting enough juice. This is what I would do. Get your stock cluster and put a meter on those traces in the back with it plugged in. Find the one that varies when you dim your dimmer. Now plug in the jdm one and do the same thing it probably is getting power from something else...move the dimer switch and nothing will probably happen. Find a wire with the same voltage the USDM cluster is using when the dimmer is up all the way. Now find that trace on the back of your cluster harness using a continuity check. Cut and solder the wire with the right voltage into it. Just get creative, make that trace on the back get the right voltage and it will work correctly </TD></TR></TABLE>
dont think so, i have a jdm eg6 and the cluster is still dim.
i thimk its the socks on the bulbs.
i just swapped the cluster out and im putting in a ek sir cluster instead

95excoupe

<TABLE WIDTH="90%" CELLSPACING=0 CELLPADDING=0 ALIGN=CENTER><TR><TD>Quote, originally posted by drunknbass &raquo;</TD></TR><TR><TD CLASS="quote">
dont think so, i have a jdm eg6 and the cluster is still dim.
i thimk its the socks on the bulbs.
i just swapped the cluster out and im putting in a ek sir cluster instead</TD></TR></TABLE>

Yeah I dont think they are that dim in japan so it has to be someting with the way the USDM harness is wired compared to the JDM one...This should be easy to fix. Isnt anyone creative on this site?? always looking for the easy way out..If you think its the condoms on the bulbs put a normal one on there and see if its still dim if it is its a voltage thing. I guess you guys just dont care? that would bother me though.

BlueIntegraBoy

iTrader: (5)

I have an EG6 cluster and I don't think it's as dim as people say it is. It may be hard to see when driving under a street light, other than that it's good for me. Maybe because I live in Hawaii where there aren't street lights every 50 ft.

Mr. Thunderlips

It would take about 15 minutes to simply swap the JDM faces of the speedo, etc. over to the US cluster. The only thing you would be reataining would be the speedo face, and the orange bulbs from the JDM cluster.

I've done this before and it works fine.

Some previous voodoo I pulled in my old Civic. And yes, that is a US cluster with a foriegn speedo face. It's easy and takes a few minutes.

EH..phantom

so would the VTI cluster have the same problem?? also, wen looking for those, are those a REALLY rare item?? i have only seen like.......two that were up for sale. i thought it looked really cool and stockish cuz of the black face guages. just a question. thanks~~!!

Mr. Thunderlips

The whole cluster was given to me a as a gift, I took it apart and only kept the speedo face, cause that's all that was different. Besides, the cluster was from a lower model and did'nt have a tach. I belive it was from a Canadian DX model Civic. I'm not too sure about the Vti, but would assume it's the same.

Lord Helmet

had similar problem with my guage cluster before. I removed the condom that's on the bulbs behind it and came out very bright for my red lit cluster

BolivianFuego

<TABLE WIDTH="90%" CELLSPACING=0 CELLPADDING=0 ALIGN=CENTER><TR><TD>Quote, originally posted by Mr. ThunderLips &raquo;</TD></TR><TR><TD CLASS="quote">It would take about 15 minutes to simply swap the JDM faces of the speedo, etc. over to the US cluster. The only thing you would be reataining would be the speedo face, and the orange bulbs from the JDM cluster.

I've done this before and it works fine.

Some previous voodoo I pulled in my old Civic. And yes, that is a US cluster with a foriegn speedo face. It's easy and takes a few minutes.

</TD></TR></TABLE>
So how would i do this? Take the plastic cover off and unattach the tach, speedo and gas and temp fixture? Man im such a ***** to **** with that **** as i know if you **** with the needle it could get real messed up.

Mr. Thunderlips

<TABLE WIDTH="90%" CELLSPACING=0 CELLPADDING=0 ALIGN=CENTER><TR><TD>Quote, originally posted by BolivianFuego &raquo;</TD></TR><TR><TD CLASS="quote">
So how would i do this? Take the plastic cover off and unattach the tach, speedo and gas and temp fixture? Man im such a ***** to **** with that **** as i know if you **** with the needle it could get real messed up. </TD></TR></TABLE>

Remove the cluster...Pop the plastic housing off...You then have to pop the needles off carefully...I used a paid of padded pliers to grab the needle in the center and pulled directly towards me...Found thats the easiest way not to break anything. After that its just two screws in the center to remove the speedo...Reverse the process to install the new one.

BolivianFuego

Eh, i might have to pass on this suggestion for now, im too much of a puss.

Any other ideas fellas?

JDMlyfestyle

i remember seeing on HIDplanet.com a guy did a custom LED setup and had 20 LED's mounted in his Cluster, he did his heater controls as well and it looked hot, very bright, and still gentle on the eyes. you will have to wait a few days for it tho cause HIDplanet has exceeded there monthly bandwith.

BolivianFuego

Damn thats nuts. I wonder how he wired the LEDs to light up.

I'd def. be down to trying something like that.

JDMlyfestyle

i believe he wired them up in parallel with 5ohm resistors in between. im waiting for some feed back on some custom LED's and ill be tryin this as well

Mr. Thunderlips

<TABLE WIDTH="90%" CELLSPACING=0 CELLPADDING=0 ALIGN=CENTER><TR><TD>Quote, originally posted by BolivianFuego &raquo;</TD></TR><TR><TD CLASS="quote">Eh, i might have to pass on this suggestion for now, im too much of a puss.

Any other ideas fellas? </TD></TR></TABLE>

Jesus man...It takes like 20 minutes total of your time, and I guarantee results. Just send me the friggin' cluster and I'll do it for you then.

Step up to the plate holmes...

BolivianFuego

Did he show how he did it on that forum? Im not too good with electric stuff and would need a 'how to do it' guide for dummies.

K I T T

Saw a thread here in H-T he mad LED's to light up the cluster and looked fine.
Much brighter than stock but not too much to hurt the eyes.

He had a couple of leds mounted radially around the back of the gauge face and wired a resistor then tapped on a 12V source.

EH..phantom

<TABLE WIDTH="90%" CELLSPACING=0 CELLPADDING=0 ALIGN=CENTER><TR><TD>Quote, originally posted by K I T T &raquo;</TD></TR><TR><TD CLASS="quote">Saw a thread here in H-T he mad LED's to light up the cluster and looked fine.
Much brighter than stock but not too much to hurt the eyes.

He had a couple of leds mounted radially around the back of the gauge face and wired a resistor then tapped on a 12V source.</TD></TR></TABLE>

does he have pics on how he did this?? sounds interesting. and i like ur avatar by the way!!

NinetyTwoHB

Here is another option.I have already tested this. I replaced all of the factory bulbs, for AMBER colored LED. These have a very strong output, use little energy, BUT the downside...they project light 20-30 degrees. This means it looks like a spotlight. SOOOO what you do is take apart your cluster, take apart your faceplates, hook up the LED's to 2 regular wires, put the wires onto a circuit board, this way they can transfere the 12volt to higher volts needed to power them. THEN, instead of putting the bulb facing straight to the face plate, what you do is put it sideways so it is at an angle, so the degreee of light shines beter. Then you used hot glue gun to stick the entire peice inside the cluster. What i did was i wiried everything to a single button unit which switched everything on. I never wired it to the factory wires so you turn on ith the dial. BTW these did not DIM. IM sorry i dont have nay pictures but i came up with this thanks to some of the electricians at REEL EFX.