acidburn2k2

So.....I am not sure if this is still a thing that people are doing, but it's been something that I've been wanting to do to my Prelude for a while. So when I went junkyarding this weekend, and I got a great deal on some EL gauges, so I decided to pull the trigger on this project.

This is my journey through this conversion that I have documented for the most part, and below you will find step by step directions on doing this conversion yourself. So far I have driven with these gauges for a day and everything works, blinkers work, high beam indicator works, the gauges dim when the lights are turned on, and fade with the brightness controller. Most importantly, both trips work, AND it holds the memory.

So let's start:

Required items:
- set of EL gauges and the inverter unit (little silver box) that comes with it
- pig tails for the cluster (I got about 4 inches of wiring on each of the 4 plugs)
- screwdriver (to remove the old cluster from the car)
- soldering iron and solder*
- heat shrink*
* these can be substituted by butt connectors or whatever you choose, but when it comes to wiring, I solder everything.

Step 1: remove old gauge cluster

You should know how to do this, if you can't figure this out, turn back now.

Step 2: identifying the different plugs

The old analog cluster has 3 different plugs:
- plug "A" - 10 pin green plug on the left side of the cluster (looking at the cluster while seated in the driver seat)
- plug "B" - 5 pin yellow plug on the top, to the left of the cluster (same view point as before)
- plug "C" - 16 pin green plug at the bottom right of the cluster (I guess you can figure out the view point here)



there new digital cluster has 4 different plugs:
- Plug "D" - 10 pin green plug on the left side of the cluster (like on the old cluster)
- Plug "E" - 5 pin yellow plug on the top left side of the cluster (again, like the old cluster)
- Plug "F" - 5 pin green plug and plug "G" 10 pin green plug at the top right side of the cluster (same view point as before)





for the pinouts, you will be looking at the back (the end of the plug that you can see when it's plugged into something) of the plug, with the "latch" facing up. example below



I will number them from left to right, as seen below



The plugs you have should be as followed:

OLD PLUGS

Plug A:
A1 - Grn/Yel - Right turn Signal
A2 - Grn/Blu - Left Turn Signal
A3 - Red/Yel - High beam indicator
A4 - Red/Blue - Dimmer relay
A5 - (blank)
A6 - Yel - hot from fuse 13 (10A)
A7 - Blk - ground
A8 - Blu - tach signal
A9 - Red - dash lights brightness control unit
A10 - Red/Blk - combination light switch

Plug B:
B1 - Blk - Ground
B2 - (blank)
B3 - Blu - SRS Unit
B4 - (blank)
B5 - Yel - hot from fuse 13 (10A)

Plug C:
TOP ROW:
C1 - Yel - hot from fuse 13 (10A)
C2 - (Blank)
C3 - (blank)
C4 - Org - VSS signal
C5 - (blank)
C6 - (blank)
C7 - Pnk - 4WS control unit

BOTTOM ROW:
C8 - Blk - Ground
C9 through C16 - (blank)

NEW PLUGS

Plug D:
D1 - D6 - (blank)
D7 - Red/Yel (not used in final product)
D8 - Red/Blk (not used in final product)
D9 - Blk - Ground
D10 - Yel - hot from fuse 13 (10A)

Plug E:
E1 - Blu - tach signal
E2 - Blk - Ground
E3 - Red/Yel - high beam indicator
E4 - Grn/Blu - Left Turn signal
E5 - Blu - SRS Unit

Plug F:
F1 - F3 - (blank)
F4 - Grn/Yel - Right Turn Signal
F5 - Red/Blu - dimmer relay

Plug G:
G1 - Yel - hot from fuse 13 (10A)
G2 - Pnk - 4WS Control unit
G3 - Wht/Yel - hot from fuse 43 (10A)
G4 - Red/Blk - dash lights brightness control unit
G5 - Blk - Ground
G6 - Org - VSS Signal
G7 - (blank)
G8 - Lt. Blu - clock
G9 - Red/Yel - Dash lights brightness control unit
G10 - (blank)

Step 3:

I did not want to cut and solder everything, so I went ahead and de-pinned from the old plugs and re-pinned everything into the new plugs. Some wires (5) had to be extended to make it to the correct places, but that is all the soldering I had to do.

you will have to de-loom the wiring harness behind the cluster so that you can maneuver the wires around, then re-loom them when everything is done

to de-pin the plugs:
- open up the lock in the back, using some sort of sharp pointy tool.



- using an even smaller pointy tool, I used a safety pin, stick it in the top hole at the front end of the plugs to "unlock" the actual pin and wire.





- once the pin is unlocked, you can pull the wire with pin out from the back of the plug. The more you do this, the easier it gets.

Below is where what needs to be plugged in.

(position that wire is in on old plugs) -> (position that wire needs to be plugged into on new plugs)

connections marked with ** need to be extended about 6 - 8 inches

A1 -> F4 **
A2 -> E4
A3 -> E3
A4 -> F5
A6 -> D10 (in other guides I've read that this is optional, I plugged it in just to be safe)
A7 -> D9 (in other guides I've read that this is optional, I plugged it in just to be safe)
A8 -> E1
A9 -> G9 ** (note the color change from red to red/yel)
A10 -> G4 **

B1 -> E2
B3 -> E5
B5 -> G1

C1 -> (not used in end product, tape this up so it doesnt touch anything and put it aside)
C4 -> G6
C7 -> G2
C8 -> G5

G3 -> extend this wire and tap into the Wht/Yel wire at the 5 pin green plug at the clock.
G8 -> extend this wire and tap into the Lt. Blu wire at the 5 pink green plug at the clock.

Step 4: plug everything back in

step 5: start up car, test out everything take it for a drive to test:
- tach
- speedo
- trip meters
- left and right blinkers
- high beam indicator
- Shut the car completely off and verify the trip memory works.

Step 6: step back and marvel in your awesomeness!

I Hope this helps people with their swap, I know I really like the new gauges, hopefully you will too!!

Preludesanchez

hola, acabo de realizar paso a paso la conversion y me quedó perfecto, muy bien explicado, gracias por la ayuda, saludos desde Perú !

gracias !!!

TCannon

Nice work! I am in the middle of doing this myself on a 93 Prelude I just picked up. When I got my gauges, I was able to also get the dash wire harness. I have read that it is plug n play if you have the harness too. I will post an update as well when I get mine done. I know everyone appreciates your write up. It is that type of support that makes a good forum. 😉

rchid

Nice write up!

Luis Ranero

does anyone have this on pdf file or can email t to my email, so I can print it. thank you

rjbastos

Hi,

I'm thinking in this upgrade sing I've got my Lude.
I found only last year one EL cluster in kms and LHD.

Now I'm going to install it.
thank for your great instructions.

Regards

rjbastos

Hi you all,

I've finished the EL upgrade and find two problems by now.

One It's the SRS light. My 92 bb3 prelude doesn't have SRS, so it's easy, just removed the bulb.

What it's giving me crazy its the turn signal arrows.
Both light at the same time, doesn't matter what side is.
On the outside everything, it's fine.
I think that the arrows bright it's low. They might be working without ground...
The hazard switch it's not lighting the cluster arrows also.

I didn't changed the harness, just rewired mine.

I've found some posts saying to ground a wire on the passenger side, but this is for the one that changed the harness.

Any one coud give me a clue about whats it's missing?

rjbastos

Hi,

don't know if someone is still doing this conversion.
Fond the problem with the arrows nor working with hazard and blinkink simultaneous on left right turn signal.

it was a problem with the E2 ground that has a bad soldering on the wire.

So, if someone has this problem, please check if there is a good ground in this point.

Omar Lee

thank you guys for keeping this alive, i want to do this really soon. I see HMO has some of these digital clusters in stock but they are jdm. Would it be compatible?

BB4 JDM Spec Prelude Digital Cluster – HMotorsOnline
https://www.hmotorsonline.com/shop/b...gital-cluster/

rjbastos

I gess so.
just need to check if it's LHD ou RHD.
If you follow this instructions it work for sure.
you have the pinout of bouth clusters, old and new.
My prelude doen't have SRS, so I removed the bulb.
maybe you need to deal with some smaller issues...

gherrera06

Hi! I am doing this in 2021 for my lude. Thanks!