Found a couple i30s in our local salvage yard in good shape so got the cluster from them to see how much work this would take. I wanted to keep original mileage(my 5th gen is now at 323k). I tried the chip de-soldering but failed on the i30 board so had to explore options
With modifications to the plastic board and the PCB holes for the gauges, the 5th gen board can fit into the I30 cluster. Next project replace climate control buttons as they are pretty scratched up! Pics below.
Before. Stock 5th gen.
Black out effect of I30
I30 gauges with LED backlight instead of stock EL tube.
This is a simple how-to on going from plain to chrome
This works for all 5th and 5.5th gen Maximas. This install is basically the same for the 5.0th gen and the 5.5th gen maximas. This install is on my 2000 maxima I had previously. I sold the car awhile back and bought my 2002 6-speed maxima.I loved the chrome gauges so much i installed them on my 2002 and the install was almost exactly the same. The difference will be show further down the page.
First Lower the steering wheel to the max.You do not have to lock it into place. Just let it sit all the way down. Now you have to unscrew everything. There are a few screws that are on the underside of the steering column.These need to come out. When you have the screws out the top part will pop off.This is done by fitting a thin blade screwdriver in between the two.This is what the manual said to do but I was able to do this by just using my hands and pressure to pry apart.. Do not worry if you can not remove the lower piece.
This is what it looks like with the top part off.Do not worry about removing any of the wires show in the picture above.These can stay.Now the black piece that is surrounding the cluster gauge (which has theside view mirror switch, interior light control, and some cars memory seats on the left side and a sloted area on bottom right as seen above)will need to come out.This is done by removing two screws from the top of the place piece .Then this piece is held in place with just clips. IMPORTANT:This part will now pull away from the dash. Do this lightly.You have wires that go to the switches that you will tear if you pull too hard.Also note to Auto Climate control Maximas:there is a temp wire and a tube that is in the slot in the bottom right of the pic above.
Above Pic is of the two switches on the bottom right that have to be removed. I had to do it this way by removing them after i pulled the cluster out a little because when i removed the switches there wasnt enough wire lenght to get my hands back to take apart the switch.If you can remove the switches and then remove the connectors then that’ll be easier.
The Pic below is for the people who have Auto Climate control. I do not remember if people with non auto climate have this or not.Would not hurt to check.The connector is the one that is in complete focus that looks like it lies behind the slotted area on the black cluster surrounding.Disconnect this. There is also a plastic acordian tubing that is connecting to this point also. This is easy to disconnect.
Below pic is of the cluster surrounding removed.Notice the two connectors on the left, the one on the right and the black tube on the right.
Now there are 3 obvioius screws that are holding the cluster in place. Remove these. and the cluster comes out like so:
Disconnect the 3 connectors above and the cluster is free from the car.
I don’t have a pic of what needs to be done next.You will need to remove the clear plastic.In the above pic you can see the latches of the clear plastic.These are easy to remove but a caution as they are easy to break also.I bought a new plastic piece to put back so it will look new again cause mine had tons of micro scratches that were getting on my nerves.
Once you have the clear plastic piece removed, here is where the steps fork.If you have a 5.5th gen then you will not need to make your fuel and temp gauge any bigger, or if they have finally made smaller rings for the 5.0th gens then you won’t. I dont know if they do make smaller rings. If you do not have to make the holes bigger then for the 5.5th gen just pop out the silver rings that are in there and place the new rings in.5.0th gens do not have these silver rings as seen above.Just put in the new rings.
These next steps are only for people who need to make bigger the holes for the fuel and temp gauges.Remove the black piece that is covering that has the holes in it like seen below.
See the dremel in the pic.Well this is what I used to bore out the holes until the rings fit.
Notice how I seem to make the hole higher up. There is not much room on the bottom part (it will hang off the cluster piece if too low) or on the sides (each top side has no more room and you can not get too close to the center or the center big ring and the side ring will hit).
The below pic is a picture of the rings in place. See how there is barely any room on the bottom of the rings and how the big and small rings pretty much touch.
Reassemble like how you took it apart.Here is what I found in my car as I went back out to put the cluster back into the car.I’m working hard and he’s taking it easy.
After everything is re-installed the final pic. Trust me the picture does not do it justice. It looks great.
NOTE: This is not a custom LED wiring/replacement thread. This is an LED bulb replacement solution I found since 5.5 owners don’t have as many options as earlier models. That is, until now. Total cost being around ~$15 and a half an hour of time.
First some history. In TunerMaxima3000’s custom LED thread (link here) we found out that these later 5.5 clusters are more restrictive and only have two illumination bulbs for the actual gauges (+2 more for the odometer/trip). This means that traditional drop-ins, narrow beam LEDs, etc look terrible in our clusters. I myself tried to use various #74 bulbs from O’Reilly and the same #74 LED from SuperBrightLEDs.com that some ’00 guys used. All of these either did little or looked even worse. However, I decided not to give up and bought every version of #74 LED that SuperBrightLEDs sold, figuring if I could create a similar beam pattern to the stock bulb I might get close enough to live with it.
Well I’m pleased to report that I found one specific LED that worked and is MUCH better than stock. First off, be warned that you will get some slight hot-spotting in that certain areas are a bit brighter than others. However, if your cluster is like mine, there’s already hot-spotting with STOCK bulbs (see pic). After the upgrade, overall brightness is at least triple what my stock lighting was and it actually smoothed out some of the hot-spotting. Overall I am very happy with it for a total cost of around $15 (four LEDs).
These are the exact LEDs I found that worked the best as a pure solution. I chose the Cool White color (#74-CWHP3) which ends up being a mild blue as seen in pics below.
They might be a bit loose in the bulb holder but a flathead screwdriver can be used to push the metal leads together a bit and get a good fit. Also be warned that the 5.5 has a blue film that means changing colors probably wont work well so stick with the Cool White when you choose the color. Any other color is at your own risk. (UPDATE: Warm White pics below)
Anyway, here are the results. Same camera, same dark garage just a few weeks apart. The pics are 100% untouched in Photoshop other than to reduce the image size. The pic was actually brightened a bit because the photo was darker than reality. The difference is night and day on my Max.
100% Stock ’02 cluster. Note how there are hotspots even from the factory.
After pic, 100% unmodified. Note the hot spots which are still there but actually a bit less obvious than stock and blend better. The temp gauge though does appear overall darker than the rest.
Here are a few closeups, also 100% unmodified. The bulb actually sits right behind the 5,000RPM area which is why that’s slightly brighter.
The other side. Again like above, the bulb sits behind the 60mph area causing it to be brighter. Still looks great compared to stock!
So there you have it. A possible very cheap solution to get a noticeable improvement in your stock 5.5 gauge cluster lighting. Please take note that I just finished this tonight and have no guarantees on longevity or that my results will be exactly the same as yours. I have also not tested on other year clusters. That said, you really aren’t risking much (around $15-$20) in attempting this as long as you’re comfortable removing the cluster, which is not difficult at all.
Post up any questions or concerns and I’ll do my best to answer them!
Video of the dimmer switch functioning properly.
So there you have it. A possible very cheap solution to get a noticeable improvement in your stock 5.5 gauge cluster lighting. Please take note that I just finished this tonight and have no guarantees on longevity or that my results will be exactly the same as yours. I have also not tested on other year clusters. That said, you really aren’t risking much (around $15-$20) in attempting this as long as you’re comfortable removing the cluster, which is not difficult at all.
Additional Info:
Closeup pictures of the actual wedge bulb holders. They really are easy to replace once you get the cluster out. You re-use the black holder, just pop out the old bulb and install the new LED as seen in the pic. Thanks to nelledge for the photos.
These photos may help to get a better idea. A few posts up (#238) is a picture of the bulbs you are replacing. You can see that they have a wedge base not a threaded base.
For those curious about the backside cluster differences, here are the pics from the original thread. First is what you earlier model guys have. I think these are from an ’00 that TunerMaxima3000 posted. Note the center bulbs you can change out with a much better layout.
And here’s what my ’02 cluster looks like. I removed the black plastic cover but you can see that we don’t have the same center bulbs for easy lighting. Instead we only have the top two corner black ones to light all four gauges and you need a perfect beam pattern to do it. The bottom two corner bulbs are for the square odometer/trip meter only. I don’t think you HAVE to replace those but it wont look as clean since the odometer/trip meter will be yellowish/white.
