Credit: phenryiv1

There have been lots of questions lately about this mod, so here are the facts as they pertain to 95-97. I am sure that they are the same for the 98-99.5, but my actual swap was in a 96. Also, these will work with an I30 or I30t, so long as you use a donor gauge set with the same odometer type (analog or digital, respectively).
How does this go?

There have been issues and questions raised regarding the feasibility of a face-swap (between compatible years) so that odometer readings can remain true and accurate.

In the past, it was asked (by me) about whether or not the faces can be switched or whether the whole gauge must be transferred.

It was answered as to the 97-99.5 Maximas, but I can tell you without question that this CAN be done on the 95-96 versions as well. Because I have an auto and the donor cluster was a manual, I chose to keep my existing cluster.
NOTE: the issue here is regarding the loss of the “O/D OFF” light that the Manual gauge cluster does not have.

What are my choices on how to do this swap and how extensive my efforts should be?

If you want OEM SE faces, buy an OEM SE cluster. Now we all know about legality and odometer/ mileage problems. You have 3 choices:

1. You can switch the whole assembly and get an odometer adjustment statement. Pros- EASY. Cons- Can lower resale value because an odometer adjustment statement will be attached to the title.

2. You can switch the whole assembly and NOT get an odometer adjustment statement. Pros- EASY. Cons- Illegal. If the mileage is LOWER, it is definitely illegal; if it is higher it is not illegal UNLESS you go back to the original cluster to sell the car. If you change the mileage on a car to a lower amount, it is odometer fraud, unless you get the aforementioned odometer disclosure statement.

3. (What I did) Switch the fuel gauge, temp gauge, and tachometer. Actually, you REUSE only the Speedo- everything else is from the new gauge cluster.

Take the odo/speedo gauge and remove it from the GLE/GXE cluster. You will be reusing the base from your GLE/GXE. Remove the needle and the face. Take the needle and the face off of the SE. CAREFULLY drill out the 2 screw holes that the GLE has but the SE lacks (see below and PM/email me for more info about this). Put the SE face on your old GLE/GXE gauge base. Reuse the SE needle. This will have your original odometer in your car, thus making it 100% legal.

So on to my actual swap:

The donor sent me the FULL gauges for tach, temp, and fuel (faces AND electronics), and for the speedo he sent only the face and the needle rest. He broke the needle doing the removal of the face, so I had to ask around. He was also cool enough to send me an SE needle to go on the face of the white SE gauge (my white GLE needle would not have shown up). My temp, tach, and fuel gauges have white/black needles, and the speedo has orange. Oddly enough, I LIKE this, b/c it makes the speedo easier to see at a glance. If I was a racer or had a manual, I would want this needle on the tach, but I have an auto so it works best on he speedo.

I swapped the WHOLE gauge (face and electronics) into my cluster base for the temp/tach/fuel (3 easy screws each), and did a face swap on the speedo/odo cluster. 2 extra screws, plus the needle swap, and it was done. Like the link above says, I had trouble with the needle sticking, but it was resolved. Read this thread to see problems encountered when the needles stuck after the gauge face swap.

While the gauges were out I switched the dash illumination bulbs (5 total) from white to red. These look great, are super deep, and light up just bright enough. Even if I was not doing the face-swap, these bulbs would have been worth the time. I wanted blue, but have used blue 194s before and cannot find ones that do not fade over time. After the mixed reviews on 194-based LEDs (1 or 4 LED versions), I have decided to stick w/ the reds. I actually looked for VW OEM blurple/indigo bulbs, but they are not sold to the public (they are soldered to the dash cluster).

Credit: Wariow3

This is a how-to to change the needle color to your LED color. This application is for 97-99 Maxima’s with a semi clear needle

Difficulty:

• Moderate
• Knowledge of LED’s + Resistors
• Experience with soldering recommended

Items needed:

• Small flat head screw driver
• small phillips screwdriver
• 5mm leds ,I used white LED’s( around 4 or more, one for every gauge, more just incase they blow or just dont’ work) I get mine off ebay from the user ctwick or something.
• He ships them from hong kong and it’s free shipping. I paid 9 dollars for 25 blue and 25 white leds. Nice and bright and they come with free resistors too!
• Soldering Iron (small tip preferred) 10-15 dollars from radio shack
• Solder
• Soldering flux ( to help stick solder to smooth-surfaced connections)
• soldering braid (to clean up excess solder)
• Tweezers
• Scissors
• electrical tape
• thin probably 20-22 gauge speaker wire
• wire stripper
• medium grit sandpaper

REMINDER: This will work best with a 97-99 dash. If you have a 95-96 you MIGHT be able to do it but I haven’t tried it so it’s up to you. You also need to do the 194 bulb conversion for the 97-99 mod.

You can do this mod first and then start the LED needle mod. This is necessary because we will be drawing power from the bulb light connections. Start by removing the black plastic trim around the gauge by sliding the tabs off the white piece.

Here you see the black trim is removed and the gauges and the back are exposed. Make sure not to mess around with the needles, so handle it carefully. Remove the screws that attach the gauges to the cluster by unscrewing the screws with a screwdriver in the yellow circles. (most of the screws are removed in the picture)

Remove each cluster carefully EXCEPT for the odometer(the one that tells you how fast you are going not the tachometer which reads the RPMs)

To remove the odometer, stick a small flathead in the wedge of the black connector and pry up to loosen the connection. After that is done, gently remove the gauge.

Here are all the gauges removed.

Start making your resisted LED’s. If have LED experience or did any of my how-to’s then this shouldn’t be difficult.

Add the speaker wire connection to the LED’s and solder those on as well give around a foot length of wire. Electrical tape one side fully then bind both sides after one side is fully wrapped.

Here’s the tricky part, placing the LED’s behind the gauges. As you can see in the picture, I bent the LED a lil bit to angle it towards the plastic trim but also careful not to get in the way of any fragile mechanisms. after I am satisfied with the placement, (get the LED to point at the center as close as possible) I secure it with some more electrical tape around the gauge

The fuel and temp gauges were the easier of the gauges because there weren’t many objects in the way and just wrapped tape around the edges.

In this pic is the arrangementfor the odometer. Look at all the crap going on in there so there was only really one place to set it and taped it down to the surroundings, again make sure you won’t affect the operation of the gauge itself.

After all the LEDs are pointed correctly and are secured, using medium grit sandpaper, sand from UNDER the needle to remove the red/orange film underneath the needle to make it clear.

Now we’ll want to make the connections using the existing bulb connectors in the yellow circles.

Before putting back the gauges in the cluster, round the speaker wires neatly through the nearest hole of each individual gauge and then screw back on the gauge.

After each wire is pulled through each hole and each gauge is screwed back on, (REMEMBER the Odometer connection, where you have to put back in the tab. Putting this back in can be a lil tricky but try to get it as inyou can, you can tell when the tabs on the side are touching the black connector and then simply push it down to secure the connection.) it is time to solder on the connections.

Here the connections are soldered on. Make sure the are secure and well soldered. Use soldering flux to easily stick on solder to the copper connections. Remember that the 194 bulbs are soldered on also so make sure they have a secure contact with the same solder also. (NOTE: if you have a 95-96, You might be able to draw power from the twisty thing that holds the 194 bulb. Just stick the wires underneath and twist it onto the connection. If somebody attempts this, please let me know)

After checking all the connections, it’s time to finally test! Go out and plug in the gauge, remember to plug in the dimmer switch also or the bulbs won’t light up. If an LED or two doesn’t light up, try reversing the connections around and check the soldering. You might not see much during the day but at night, it’s a big difference from the red you used to have.

Nice clear needles

The finished results. Orgasmic if I don’t say so myself. Not that difficult to do if you have some LED knowledge and some common sense. Saved myself 50-70 dollars on intelliglo needles also.

Total price of mod: less than $5

Credit: eng92

This is part of a full 3.5 swap that I will be doing in about a month.
I got a great deal on an 03 gauge cluster ($25 CDN) because one of the three mounting brackets was broken off. For the swap that is ok because all three brackets are in different locations compared to a 4th gen.

Here is the 03 cluster with the 2 remaining mounting brackets cut off.

I fabricated the two lower brackets out of polyurethane using a plaster of Paris mold I made of my stock 98 cluster. For the top bracket, I just reused the one I cut off by gluing it in at the correct position and angle.

Here is the gauge cluster with the new brackets.

Here it is installed without the finishers on.

And with the finisher installed.

Check out the mileage on the odometer 3619 km (~2250 miles)

As far as wiring is concerned, you pretty well need to have a section of the the 03 dash harness as the three gauge cluster connectors are completely different from the 4th gen. I had the 03 harness already as I am using a portion of it for the engine swap. It was simply a matter of going through the 98 and 03 wiring diagrams and splicing the appropriate wires.

IMO this mod is not worth it unless you are doing a full 3.5 swap. The only nice feature that the 03 cluster adds is the board computer which displays: ambient temp, trip timer, ave. trip speed, fuel consumption and estimated driving range based on remaining fuel.

Credit: Jonathan Martinez

Installed an aftermarket tachometer in the 4thgen today as stock one was messed up.

Community Member Credit: Edgar Vidales

Notes:

• Most bulbs are size T5 LED except for the climate control is T4 neo-wedge LED
• I got them from Amazon prime just because the return process is so easy & I did have to make some returns till I got the correct sizes.
• The climate control has 3 bulbs size T4 NEO-WEDGE. There’s also a bulb size T5 at bottom of climate control that shines down on the ashtray & shifter. The dash has 7 bulbs size T5. Ignition ring, ashtray, shifter, & glovebox have one bulb size T5.

Reference Install Guide

Ignition Ring

Remove big plastic piece driver’s side where your knees go under the steering column. It’s 2 screws on the bottom corners. Then just pull off by unclipping from top & unplug 1 plug. Remove 3 screws from the underside of the steering wheel plastic. Comes off in 2 pieces & helps to lower your steering wheel. Remove white plastic around the Ignition ring & you’ll see the bulb connected to it.

Dash

Remove 2 screws holding black plastic around the dash. Pull of black plastic trim (pain in the ass) & disconnect 2 plugs & little vent hose. Remove 3 screws holding gauge cluster. You can now access bulbs on the back & you don’t have to unplug gauges. You can if you want to fully remove the gauge cluster. Bulb sockets just twist off. Install new LEDs & it is polarity sensitive so if they don’t work reinstall flipped

Climate Control

Go through process of removing stereo. Once you have stereo setup off remove climate control from the bracket holding it to stereo. You’ll then remove 4 tiny screws from the back of climate control to take off the white half. You can now remove 3 bulbs size T4 neo-wedge & install new (polarity sensitive). Also, at this point, you can also change the 1 bulb at bottom of climate control size T5 that shines down on the shifter area.

Shifter & Ashtray

Remove the screw at bottom of the ashtray & remove the trim piece by pulling it off to unclip. Unplug hazards, cig lighter, & bulb socket. Replace bulb. For shifter remove 4 screws holding down the center console(2 front 2 rear) but don’t remove. It just helps to have it loose because you need wiggle room. Now remove the plastic piece around the shifter base & you’ll see white plastic with the bulb in it on the left side.

Final Installed Reference Photos