How-To Swap Out Gauge Cluster or Change Gauge Lights

[808mp5]

Hello,
This is my first how-to so give me a break... I am going to show you how to swap out your gauge cluster for a Canadian Guage Cluster. Although it isn't necessary to switch out PCB boards it is recommended if you want to keep your current mileage displayed on your vehicle (which i believe is the law). This could also be a good how-to on changing your lights bulbs in your guage cluster also. Ok on with the How-To.

Things you will need:
1. A Needle Nose Pliers
http://img.mypicgallery.com/howtoz/np500_large.jpg

2. A Phillips Screw Driver (a short one to keep it safe and simple)
http://img.mypicgallery.com/howtoz/no-1-phillips_large.jpg

3. A Gauge Cluster
http://img.mypicgallery.com/howtoz/anbar007_large.jpg

Ok Now This Is What You Need To Do:
Remove The Plastic Surround
1. Start By Taking Out The Two Screws Holding The Plastic Surround. Once You Get The Two Screws Out, Gently Pull The Plastic Surround Out. I Started By Pulling At The Top First. The Bottom Of The Surround Is Held On By Clips So A Little Force Maybe Necessary.
http://img.mypicgallery.com/howtoz/3_large.jpg

2. Once That Is Off You Will See Three Screws Holding The Gauge Cluster In Place. One At The Top And Two At The Bottom. After You Get The Three Screws Out, Pull The Gauge Cluster Out Just A Little.
http://img.mypicgallery.com/howtoz/9_large.jpghttp://img.mypicgallery.com/howtoz/10_large.jpg

3. Once You Pull The Gauge Cluster Out Just A Little You Will See Three Clips. Two On The Left And One On The Right. Carefully Disconnect The Clips. (A Flat Head Screwdriver Maybe Helpful).
http://img.mypicgallery.com/howtoz/11_large.jpghttp://img.mypicgallery.com/howtoz/2_large.jpg

4. Ok Now That You Got The Clips Disconnected You Can Pull Out The Entire Gauge Cluster. Here Comes The Fun Part. There Are Four Screw Holding The White Plastic To The Back Of The Gauge Cluster Covering The PCB Board. Remove These Four Screws... Theres Also Two Little Clips On The Side Also Holding The White Plastic. Just Pry Them Off.(those two brown things and all those little black things are your gauge lights, simple to take out just twist and pull)
http://img.mypicgallery.com/howtoz/12_large.jpg

5. Once You Get Those Screws Out There Are A Bunch Of Other Screws You Have To Remove (its advised that you remember where the screws came from because there are two different sizes).
http://img.mypicgallery.com/howtoz/4_large.jpg

6. The PCB is almost ready to be taken off. You have to remove the six silver screw(these are for your temp/fuel needles).
http://img.mypicgallery.com/howtoz/6_large.jpg

7. Ok The Last Thing You Have To Do To Seperate The PCB Board Is Get Your Pliers And Bend These Four Clips Straight. (When you get them kinda straight you can push them in a little, this will help with seperating the PCB from the gauge needles).
http://img.mypicgallery.com/howtoz/1_large.jpghttp://img.mypicgallery.com/howtoz/7_large.jpghttp://img.mypicgallery.com/howtoz/8_large.jpg

8. Now You Can Gently Pull The PCB Board Off From The Gauge Cluster. Once Removed It Looks Like This.
http://img.mypicgallery.com/howtoz/13_large.jpg

9. Last And Final Step.... Everything You Just Did But In Reverse.
http://img.mypicgallery.com/howtoz/anbar012_large.jpg

[Riff.Raff]

NICE.... good job....

you must've been pretty focused on this project... i see you took off your grass skirt..

ALL BUSINESS!!!!

[DemonIAm]

Good Deal!

[bazooka joe]

good timimg, one of my bulbs are burnt out

[Judman13]

ok so if I bought another cluster. Could I just swap out the face plate?? Because my current gauges are silver and I have seen some clusters with black faces that are stock??

[njaremka]

pretty much, yeah

[808mp5]

i could sell you my old gauge cluster if you like... it has the orange needles with the black base... the front plastic is a little hazed but can be buffed out or you could just reuse yours one if it is in better condition... all you would have to do is swap out the PCB board to keep your current mileage
hmmm... 60shipped

if not you'll see it on ebay shortly

[kansei]

ok so if I bought another cluster. Could I just swap out the face plate?? Because my current gauges are silver and I have seen some clusters with black faces that are stock??

So you want the black face gauges? Yeah it's the exact same process as outlined here. The gauge face, needle, and gauge motor comes out as once piece (3 of them --the speedo, tach, and the fuel/temp as one). If you wanted to switch to the black gauge faces, be aware that you'll be changing to green gauge illumination as well. You'll have to remove the orange bulb condoms on a couple of the bulbs otherwise the colouring might look really weird. Not sure if the green illuminated gauges have green condoms on those bulbs?

808mp5 I'm massively jealous, I've had a Canadian cluster for a little over a year but it's just a regular 2003 silver face cluster, not an MSP one.

I should totally steal the tach from the usdm msp cluster rob bought that's sitting in the garage haha.

Yeah if anyone needs tachs or tach parts I have lots of spares. Two spare full clusters and one spare full housing minus gauges (has the board though)

[Judman13]

Yeah I was wondering about coloring...poo. guess I'll just have a rainbow are at night. Orange, green, and blue haha but what about the different years. I talked to a someone a while back and they said that I need to look for one that came out of '02 5-speed with the key-less entry? Does it really matter? And why are some silver and some black? Is it a Mazdaspeed thing?

[kansei]

.. are you talking about gauge faces?

early 02 Protege5s, Protege MP3s, and early 02 ESs had off-white gauge faces, 02.5+ Protege5s, ESs, and MSPs had the metallic silver faces. The MSP got the silver caps at the base of the needles (but just in 2003.5 I think) plus the "mazdaspeed" text.

If you're swapping gauges, you need to make sure it's from a manual transmission car yeah but other than that anything 01-03 will work --after all, you're keeping the circuit board from yours, just using the gauges and faces from the donor one.

[Judman13]

Yeah okay. That makes since. As long as the actual face is the same it will plug and play.
Cause i do want to keep the same board. Otherwise my mileage would be messed up right??

I'm not too much of a car buff if you haven't noticed. I just have pretty good mechanical skills and common since. I know enough to get myself in trouble with the people that know whats really going on. haha

[njaremka]

like, yeah, if you are only swapping the actual gauge faces, all you need is any third gen cluster

[kansei]

So that I can know I'm giving accurate and correct advice, what is it you're trying to do? Are you swapping out your off-white face gauges for silver face gauges or black? If so, then yes as long as it has the same gauge layout (i.e. has a tach) and isn't a cluster for an automatic, it'll work. I'm 99% sure the automatic one would work just fine, but it would be ugly since you'd have all the holes cut out of the face for the shift lever position and nothing behind the holes.

And yes, always keep your original board so the odometer is accurate.

Oh and in case anyone was interested --The Protege MP3 (possibly all 01 models?) has a different sounding "buzzer" (the speaker that makes the beep noise if you leave your keys in or the lights on, also if you start the car without your seatbelt on). I got a gauge cluster from a Protege MP3 and the speaker is different on it. It's a lot larger and doesn't solder on to the same points on the board even. I desoldered my speaker and that one, slapped it on my board, and it was silent. I had to run short wire leads from it to where my little speaker hooked up, and then it worked fine. It sounds no different than my original speaker when attached to my 02.5 board. Looks like the only way to get that different sound is to use the older board :P I was hoping they were just simple buzzers but as it turns out they're kinda just normal speakers and the board decides what tone to output. I never spent the time tracing on the board to see if there was something different that may cause the changed sound.

[Judman13]

OK Thanks guys!!! Lots of help. I've wondering about this for a while.



So anyone got a black face laying around for cheap??? hah guess ill just have to get if from 808mp5. or ebay...blah

[808mp5]

hmm... here's the best picture i could find of my old gauge... i can take another pic when i get home... but no internet there... i will try to upload a better one.. not sure if that was what your looking for
You can click on the image to make it bigger
http://img.mypicgallery.com/myprotege5/0003_large.jpg (http://img.mypicgallery.com/myprotege5/0003.jpg)

[Judman13]

hmm... here's the best picture i could find of my old gauge... i can take another pic when i get home... but no internet there... i will try to upload a better one.. not sure if that was what your looking for
You can click on the image to make it bigger

ahh...I thought it was a black one nevermind. Mines already silver.

Can someone with the black gauges please confirm the glow color. if green then i might not go for it.

But a while back i found a company that made custom overlay. Any color and the reverse glow could be changed to any color. So i could tune down the ricey-ness but retard me did bookmark it!!! so stupid.

[DemonIAm]

black = green lights

[kansei]

But a while back i found a company that made custom overlay. Any color and the reverse glow could be changed to any color. So i could tune down the ricey-ness but retard me did bookmark it!!! so stupid.

here you go: http://www.speedhut.com/

installation is not fun, just so you're warned. Luckily some of us have spare clusters so if/when you break a needle we have you covered :P

[Judman13]

black = green lights

Thanks for that. I think i might go crazy and face the overlay route :ughdance:

here you go: http://www.speedhut.com/

installation is not fun, just so you're warned. Luckily some of us have spare clusters so if/when you break a needle we have you covered :P

Ok, this may be a little off topic but is there anything that you don't know??

Dang I barely describe it and he knows the exact website!!!!
What color am i thinking of?? haha get that one

[kansei]

Ok, this may be a little off topic but is there anything that you don't know??

oh there's LOTS. thanks though haha. I guess my brain is full of mainly useless Mazda Protege knowledge :P

[Judman13]

oh there's LOTS. thanks though haha. I guess my brain is full of mainly useless Mazda Protege knowledge :P

Yeah i bet it is. but i was looking at the overlays and it looks like the reverse-EL glow's are true overlays but the EL-glows are actual replacements.