Changing Odometer color

[Atrus]

Over the winter I hope to clean up my gauge cluster - it's got dust in it, and has a couple of burned out bulbs. I actually really like the white color of the Camaro's lights, so I plan to replace them with "warm" white LED's.

One of the things that's always driven me nuts is the red odometer. I'd like to get the odometer to be black/whiteish. I found a thread on LS1Tech (here) that discusses the differences in the Camaro clusters - seems that '98's had a bulb and the '99-'02 had three LED's soldered on to the LCD board, and those LED's are what give the red coloring.

Anyone taken apart a '99+ cluster? Going from memory, it really seemed like the actual LCD glass/plastic/whatever was red - seems to me that it looked kind of maroon with the ignition off. Is it really as simple as swapping out the LED's for some white ones to make it look more like this?

[meissen]

Sounds like it might be that easy - on my 2012 Camaro I removed about 20 LEDs that are soldered right onto the circuit board and then replace them with different colors. Doing so also changed the Driver Information Center's color as well.

[Atrus]

Hmmm - I guess I'll just have to check into it this winter when I pull the cluster. Now, do I trust my soldering skills?

Trying to plan out some little things I want to do over the winter months, as I think the car will get put away after this weekend. Obviously a slow day at work while I am daydreaming

[nascarnate326]

I thought the 99's was soldered right to the board. IMO, buy a second gauge cluster for cheap and experiment on that.


This is a project on my list too, thankfully I just have twist out bulbs.

[98blackbeauty]

Just use a very small low watt soldering iron and don't forget to use grd strap on your wrist and pc board.

[Atrus]

I think I'll give it a go this winter. I think it may really be just red LED's - I was trying to pay close attention when I drove it in this morning. Wonder if I have the vehicle off and shined a bright flashlight at it if it'd help to tell if the lens is clear or red.

[meissen]

If you need a good cheap soldering iron, I picked up a hobby kit at Harbor Freight for like $20 and it comes with 5 different tips. I found having a brand new soldering iron with a really pointy tip on it made soldering the LEDs much easier.

[Atrus]

Cool, good to know. I have a little radio shack one that I've used - I did the "fogs with high-beams" mod on my old W-Body along with replacing a burnt out bulb in the radio control steering wheel button. I'd hope I can handle swapping out those three.