3rd Gen Gauge Cluster LED Bulb Swap solved!

[tgrfly]

Ok so I've searched and searched and searched some more for information on the LED bulb swap in the cluster for a few weeks now and everyone has come up with the same thing, there is ample amount of information on the swap for the 2nd Gen, but squat for the 3rd Gen. Well I'm here to tell you I have figured out the answers to all of the 3rd Gen Family's questions.

NOTE: I have not attempted this yet, but will be as soon as I re-order new bulbs and get a free day to complete it.​

The other day I made a couple LED purchases from Oznium and SuperBrightLEDs in which I ordered LED replacement bulbs for all three dome lights, the courtesy lights, and also the license plate lights. I also ordered 6 blue 194 bulbs(DO NOT ORDER 194s/168s) for the cluster to change the illumination. Come to find out once I get the cluster out, they DO NOT fit. From Oznium I ordered 14 Prewired Surface Mount LEDs to install throughout the interior of the truck.

To take the cluster out you can just follow XtremeRanger's Moutaineer swap . Now when I completely removed the cluster instead of completely removing the shift indicator bracket and wire I just unclipped the entire indicator unit from the cluster itself. Once you have your cluster completely removed follow Xtreme's directions to complete disassemble your cluster. Now this is where this video that I found comes in handy. Now I know that this is for a Ford Mustang, BUT the 3rd Gen X cluster is built basically identical, so you follow the same process. Now I don't plan to go as far as placing red film over the odometer display, that is completely up to you.

​

Now here is where I answer the question about:

What bulb is used in the 3rd Gen Cluster? ​

ANSWER: The cluster comes stock with a 286/T74 bulb installed. Now when it comes to ordering an LED replacement there are several options through SuperBrightLEDs. I will be ordering the 74-xHP3 replacement bulb in blue for my cluster. I will also be replacing the bright light indicator, cruise control, and turn signal indicator lights. All those lights I just mentioned are the same bulb, just when replacing, it's your choice of color. Your other indicators such as 4x4, check engine, theft, brake, etc. are already LED lights soldered into the gauge cluster circuit board.

DO NOT ORDER REPLACEMENT BULBS FOR 194/168! THEY WILL NOT FIT! 194/168 BULBS ARE USED IN THE 2ND GEN CLUSTERS!

As I said at the very beginning, I HAVE NOT attempted this yet, but as soon as I receive my LED replacements and I get a free day to tackle the process I will be doing so. I couldn't hold back good information to my 3rd Gen family. Once this is all said and done I will be posting pictures of the finished cluster.

 

[Kewowskata]

Saweeeet... Please do tell how it turns out once completed!!!

 

[BigRondo]

Very interesting. Nice job finding the correct bulb for the instrument cluster. I am standing by the completed project.....................

 

[tgrfly]

Not sure how long it will be. Really thinking about purchasing another cluster since the needles have to come off. Just a safety measure. If I do a Mountaineer cluster will be in order. Looking at about $90 for another cluster.

 

[tgrfly]

Got my donor cluster today in the mail. Stole this one for $40 shipped. May try and start disassembling it tomorrow.

 

[tgrfly]

Started on the cluster today....

When you go to disassemble the cluster the back will look like so and each of the arrowed T15 torx head screws will need to be removed for the circuit board to come loose. Also there are two T15 torx head screws holding the cluster housing to the white back housing.

Once you get all of the screws removed, there are four clips that hold the front of the cluster to the white back housing. Press those clips in and the housing should pull apart easily. Once apart you will see the black bezel over the overlay just slides straight off. Now in order to pull the rest of the cluster apart you will have to pull the needles off. I just used a small fork and slid it under each needle base and used just a bit of pressure and they pop straight off. Once the needles are off the rest of the cluster will pull apart. You will see that the gauge overlay is glued to a clear diffuser. You will have to pull the overlay from the diffuser. The glue that is holding the overlay to the diffuser is very strong so you will have to use a bit of pressure to pull them apart.

Here is the circuit board once you pull everything apart:

White Arrows & 1 Green Arrow (de de de)---> Illumination bulbs
Purple Arrows---> Cruise/Turn Signals/Cruise Control Bulbs

All of these bulbs are T74/268 bulbs

I started on trying to take the green film off of the overlay, but I was running into issues with the leftover glue that was on the back of the overlay. I ended up soaking a shop towel with pre-paint cleaner and soaking the glue with it and then scraping the glue off with a razor. This took most of my time today just trying to get the glue off, but I did get some of the film off. Stuff is pretty thick so I'm gonna try a different method tomorrow. I tried using just a piece of 400 grit sandpaper, but it looks like that may take forever so I'm going to attempt the Dremel method tomorrow when I can get to my parents house.

Notice how the high beam and turn signal indicators are still blue/green. If you plan to change the color of those indicators you will have to scrape the film off there also. I'm choosing to leave those indicators the stock color, but am converting them to LED.

I will try and update tomorrow if I make some progress. Stay tuned! Post any questions and I will do my best to answer them.

 

[tgrfly]

Ok so I lied. I went ahead and went to a 180 grit sandpaper and finished up the overlay. After I did the 180 grit I did go ahead and take a piece of 1000 grit to smooth everything out.

All clear:

Something I noticed was that the idiot lights(check engine, traction, 4x4, etc.) all also have a slight film over them too. I went ahead and took the film off of everything on the overlay, even though I'm keeping the cruise control and turn signals green and the high beam blue. I was afraid that if I left them I might get a different color than the rest of the cluster. I also was thinking about trying to leave the red parts covered with their film, but the overlay actually has a red film in it so you can sand off all the film around the cluster like you can see in the picture.

Now I'm waiting on my lights to come in. I ordered them this morning from SuperBrightLEDs and last time I ordered something from them they arrived in a couple days so hopefully I have them by Friday morning so maybe Friday or Saturday morning I will be able to update again with the finished LED converted Mounty cluster.

Stay tuned!

 

[BigRondo]

It's coming along nicely. Thanks for taking the time to post up!

 

[tgrfly]

It's coming along nicely. Thanks for taking the time to post up!

No problem. I wanna help the family out as much as I can.

Took some time to take a trip to town and I went ahead and bought a sheet of the shiny craft paper they used in the video to use as a reflector. Haven't got to make it fit yet, but plan to tonight or tomorrow. Also looked for the films they were using to turn the odometer/message center white. Having some issues finding something like that. Checked all the craft stores, Staples, Kinkos, etc. and not luck. The lady at Kinko's did suggest the film they use in theater plays to cover the stage lights. Trying to find some of that now.

I will keep everyone updated as I make progress!

Even better news, I checked the tracking on my LEDs and they will be here in the morning!

 

[tgrfly]

Took the time this morning to attempt to make a reflector for the back of the cluster with the silver craft paper. Gotta say its not very simple with our cluster. Lots of things to cut out around and such. Got it done though, but its far from perfect, but it should do the trick.

And here are the LEDs that I ordered...

Also found the film that's needed to change the display color. It's called Stage Gel and you can find it at most of your music stores.

 

[tgrfly]

Ok, I don't know who is following, but I'm having some issues with my cluster. Everything lights up like it should. Got the fuel, volt, and oil gauges working correctly, but I'm having issues with the tach, water temp, and speedometer. I can't get any of those three to move. They will move when you turn the key on/off, but will not read anything. I've also got dummy lights on that will not go off. I can't figure out whats going on. Part of me wants to say its got to do with the Mounty circuit board, but I'm not for positive. Any help is appreciated!

 

[BigRondo]

I am following!!

I noticed that the donor Mounty cluster has the message center. If your original cluster doesn't have the massage center you are going to run into a bunch of issues.

XtremeRanger ran into that problem in his cluster swapping thread. He explains how he got around it in the thread: http://www.explorerforum.com/forums/showthread.php?t=218636

When I swapped out my cluster, I got a Mounty cluster that didn't have the message center. I got lucky scoring a cluster that had all the correct indicator lights including the 4x4 indicators. I understand that this is pretty rare since the Mounty didn't come with four wheel drive. It came with all wheel drive and didn't have the indicator lights for the 4x4.

While you have the cluster apart, it is a good idea to look into repairing the dim LED readout issue. My original and new clusters both had this problem and I was able to fix it using this thread: http://www.explorerforum.com/forums/showthread.php?t=217490

Here is my cluster installed:

Day Time View:

Night Time View:

Odometer View:

I am planning on changing my cluster lights over to LED and am following your thread very closely!!

 

[tgrfly]

Both clusters do have message centers, well I say that, but the Mounty circuit board looks nothing like the one XtremeRanger had, nor does it look like the one from my X. My biggest issue right now is my gauges not working. The tach, water temp, and MPH gauges are not working. Like they work, but aren't wanting to register what they should be. Rondo can you get me a picture/video of how your gauges work when you turn the key on and turn the truck on?

TEASER:

 

[BigRondo]

Here is a video of me turning on the Ex. Sorry that it is a night shot. I will get a day shot tomorrow. Also, this is just starting the truck. I will also get it with the key turned on and not started.

Are you sure that you have everything connected? Also can you post a pic of how the LED's look in the sockets? Thanks.


Hope this helps out!

 

[tgrfly]

Hope this is what you are looking for:

Also here is a picture of the circuit board from the Mounty cluster:

What I am confused about it how on XtremeRanger's cluster the message center was a completely separate part where this message center is soldered to the board. It reads like "Door Ajar" and "Change Oil" and such.

Everything is plugged in. The only thing I can think of doing is plugging the cluster in, letting the motors spin to where they should be, and then placing the needles. I'm just kinda at a loss right now.

 

[BigRondo]

That circuit board is very different from mine. I will post some pics of my original cluster circuit board tomorrow.

 

[tgrfly]

Uploading a video update now going over everything...

 

[tgrfly]

Ok so after talking to my Grandpa about this for the last hour I believe we have it all figured out on how I am going to attack this beast. I'm going to completely cut the Mounty cluster out of the picture. The only thing that I'm going to use is the Mounty overlay and the needles from the Mounty cluster.

Plan is to take the Explorer cluster out of the truck and pull the needles and the black overlay from the diffuser on the cluster. Then I'm just going to replace the black overlay with the silver overlay from the Mounty and then replace the needles with the Mounty needles. This will completely cut the circuit board from the Mounty cluster out of the picture where I believe is the problem.

The reason we think the circuit board is the problem is because of how the message center is attached. With message center on the Explorer cluster is attached just like the message center was attached to XtremeRanger's clusters, where on the Mounty cluster I bought, the message center is actually soldered to the Mounty circuit board. With it being soldered to the circuit board it's going to cause different connections and the cluster will not read right due to the difference of the circuit boards.

So in the end, if all goes well, I will be using my entire stock cluster, BUT I will be pulling the overlay and needles from the stock cluster and replacing those with the overlay and needles from the Mounty.

 

[BigRondo]

I was going to recommend going with a "Hybrid" cluster like XtremeRanger did. I plan on using the circuit board from my original cluster so that my mileage will be correct.

I am going to swap out the bulbs for the LED's so it is brighter.

The message center on both my clusters are removable. I swapped them in hopes it would correct my mileage issue but it didn't. The only conclusion I could reach is that the mileage is stored on the circuit board.

I will get some pics up tonight. Good luck.

Edit: Quick question. Do the LED's dim with the rest of the dash lights?

 

[FordExplorer2002]

how many bulbs total are there in the 02 ish explorer cluster