[warranty]

I don't like the unwanted attention of A-pillar pods and I didn't want haphazardly scattered gauges that don't match with the main gauges and are mounted in ugly gauge pods (the Supra dash design makes it almost impossible for any gauge pod to look "factory") so I went on a half-year quest to make my own gauge cluster. My starting point is that (1) I wanted all the "critical" gauges in the main cluster and (2) I want them all to look "integrated" and as factory-looking as possible.

In the process I also figured out how to light the needles with brilliant red LEDs (documented in the LED thread) and how to remove and re-install the needles with calibrated electronics laboratory equipment so they are as accurate as they could be.

So, the first things first, why let the stock fuel level and water temperature gauges occupy such precious real estate if (1) the factory temp gauge is useless and (2) we rarely need to look at the fuel level gauge?

That's digital oil temperature gauge just below the tach, and where the factory temp/fuel gauges were are now digital water temp and ambient air temp gauges. I also retrofitted a VDO analog oil pressure gauge in the cluster--it isn't centered because it needs to clear the steering column structure. BTW those are LED-lit needles from a car made by the same company that makes the Bugatti Veyron.

Those Cyberdyne digital gauges (all of them disassembled and retrofitted in my cluster) are pretty nice. They have settable warnings (they start flashing over certain temperatures) and they come with memory-recall functions too. But I chose analog oil pressure gauge since oil pressure reading really doesn't need to be accurate down to the psi.

I integrated a shift light in the cluster too.

BTW I love those LED needles: they are brilliantly red, and I just love those long, "light sabre" look as they sweep up and down. As you can see in this picture it outshines and "out-reds" even the master warning light. (picture was taken with flash on)

I relocated the brake, low-fuel, and high-beam warning lights from the original fuel/temp cluster to join the other warning lights in the odometer cluster. I did have to sacrifice the taillamp warning light, but who needs it in a Supra anyway? (Supras are supposed to be obsessively maintained right?)

I also disassembled the stock clock and replaced it with a digital voltmeter to keep an eye on the alternator health. I could also make it into a WBO2 display, and I have plans for the blank buttons on the stock clock: one for a retrofitted Homelink button and another for my digital gauge memory recall. My bluetooth microphone is also mounted into the stock clock assembly, lurking in the shadow there.

So where's the fuel level gauge, you ask?

With a little research I leared that the MKIII fuel level gauge is 100% electrically compatible with the MKIV fuel level sender (thank you Toyota for standardizing such things!), and it comes in its own neat little module, so I flush-mounted it in a triple gauge pod just below my new stereo.

I also put a VDO water temp gauge here as a backup to my now "primary" digital water temp gauge, and I harvested two spare VDO gauge bezels so they all match. The fuel level gauge doesn't quite match the VDO gauge but at least it's "relatively" OEM-looking. The fuel level gauge is LED lit but I'm too lazy to open up the VDO water temp gauge just to light its needle. But, as you can tell, the brilliance of the LED-lit needle is unmatched by the normally-lit VDO needle (similar to how our stock gauge needles are lit).

BTW the MKIII fuel level gauge "barely" fits behind the standard 52mm gauge opening. Could I make a custom gauge face for it so it looks more centered? Probably. Am I too lazy to do such a thing? Absolutely.

Finally, some beauty shots of those main gauge needles, and a shot with just the needles lit. You may notice I blacked out the fugly yellow/orange km/h markings in my speedometer because I just HATE how they look ugly and cluttered. With just the mph markings the gauge looks much cleaner IMHO. I'll admit I riced out and used some carbon fiber-look vinyl to do this. Not really noticeable except in direct sunlight or if you were looking at it closely, but they are cheap and plentiful on eBay so if I can't have something that exactly matches the stock gauge face at least it's kind of an interesting little "detail."

 

[msupra]

wow man that looks really really good!

great work.

 

[shak]

wow, mkiii fuel gauge. nice work.

 

[TonyN]

That is sick! I need bright ass needles like that

 

[bitshftr]

Wow! Damn fine work there.

Questions:
1. It must be really cold outside...-22 degrees?
2. Can you show a picture of what you did to the telltale warning lights (all lit up) and how did you do it?
3. The little rocker switch below your stereo...what's it for, and more importantly, where did you get it (part # would be great)?

Lovin the look (minus the carbon fiber), and the attention to detail. In for some pics of the back of the cluster. You've shown us the result, do you have any work-in-progress pics?

 

[Suprafied]

Wow! Damn fine work there.

Questions:
1. It must be really cold outside...-22 degrees?
2. Can you show a picture of what you did to the telltale warning lights (all lit up) and how did you do it?
3. The little rocker switch below your stereo...what's it for, and more importantly, where did you get it (part # would be great)?

Lovin the look (minus the carbon fiber), and the attention to detail. In for some pics of the back of the cluster. You've shown us the result, do you have any work-in-progress pics?

Regarding question one... Celsius

 

[bitshftr]

Regarding question one... Celsius

In Silicon Valley, CA??? Negative 22 degrees celsius????

 

[warranty]

Wow! Damn fine work there.

Questions:
1. It must be really cold outside...-22 degrees?
2. Can you show a picture of what you did to the telltale warning lights (all lit up) and how did you do it?
3. The little rocker switch below your stereo...what's it for, and more importantly, where did you get it (part # would be great)?

Lovin the look (minus the carbon fiber), and the attention to detail. In for some pics of the back of the cluster. You've shown us the result, do you have any work-in-progress pics?

1. It's reading -22 degrees F but, no, it isn't really -22 degrees in my garage in Silicon Valley. The temperature senders are not connected yet so their readings are not accurate at all.

2. I relocated just 3 of the 5 telltale lights from the stock cluster. Because I have Racelogic traction control I didn't need the TRAC light, and since I never use cruise control I sacrificed it as well. I did relocate the brake warning, the high-beam, and the low fuel light to the upper clusters (although I don't glance down at my new fuel level gauge very often I do want to be warned quickly if I'm about to run out...). I ran or spliced the wires from the stock gauge cluster connectors to the upper telltale pods. The fuel and high-beam wires are just relocated, but I spliced the brake warning wire because I think the stock cluster has some kind of bulb check circuit for the brake warning (and a few other critical warning lights like the seatbelt and check engine ones...)

I should mention my gauge cluster uses no additional connectors in the back. I got spare pins for the 4 empty spots of the stock connectors and by re-using some leftover connections (such as the relocated high-beam & fuel lights) all the functions of my new cluster are supported by the existing connectors so it's truly plug-and-play. An example of wiring up the empty connections can be seen in this picture.

I didn't take any pictures of the new telltale lights but what I did was that I cut out the pictograms/overlays of those warning lights from spare clusters from junk yards: the hardest to find was the little fuel pump pictogram (I think it came out of an '80s Nissan..modern designs just use a dot near the fuel gauge like ours). I then glued those into the upper clusters (cutting up the stock covers, of course). I think we have two free blank spots in the upper clusters, and I sacrificed the taillamp warning lamp to fit the 3rd new lamp. I actually also sacrificed the stock "TRAC OFF" lamp (now that I don't need it) for a VDO low oil pressure warning lamp.

I suppose if I was a good artist I could also just save the trouble and draw those pictograms myself and print them out on a transparent film, but I'm not artsy or enough so I went the lazy route of getting them from junkyards.

The oil temp gauge took a bit of work because I had to relocate the 7-segment LEDs from the gauge onto its own little module to be mounted below the tach. The body of the gauge itself is wedged into a free spot behind the stock fuel/temp cluster because it's simply too big to mount below the tachometer.

BTW my digital water temp gauge uses the stock temperature sender wiring (one less extra wire...) so all I have to do is replace the stock water temperature gauge sender with the right sender and I'm done. The VDO water temp gauge will get an extra sender mounted on my water neck...none of the ricey upper radiator hose adapters for me.

3. Funny you should ask about that little rocker switch. I obsessed about finding "just the right one" from digikey.com because I wanted something that was rectangular (to match the blank spot) but with a flush-mounted LED for a factory look. All it does is that, when switched on, the LED will show the diagnostic light for my Racelogic traction control (shows the wheel speed sensor signals, etc.), but when switched off the LED is off so no distractions. This part is actually out of production at Digikey but I'll see if I can dig up the part # from my records.

 

[D3vious]

Well done sire!

 

[kingerm]

That looks awesome. I'm jelly! I think you need to do a write up! (more detailed). OR better yet sell the setup! ;-)

 

[BoostLee]

very nice

 

[Red_Head7]

Looks great, you really kept a stockish look with it.

 

[j_mejia17]

Awsome! Wish I had the guts to crack open my dash to do something like this

 

[95jza80tt]

good golly molly that looks awesome. I need to check this out in person some day. Come out to the annual local big summer meet so I can drool over it

 

[warranty]

Thanks for the complements guys. I think the key is that once I figured out how to properly re-install the gauge needles after taking them apart, then everything else is pretty "easy". Unlike the stepper motor gauges in most modern production cars (they all run on CANbus...you know, similar to what those aftermarket Defi-link type gauges use), the gauges in our Supras and other cars of similar vintage have motors that respond to voltages, and they all have those spirally-wound "clock springs" to keep a pre-tension on them--and that's why they need those pegs at the zero mark to keep the needles from falling below zero. (Those pegs are not needed for modern stepper motor gauges)

See this picture of the VDO gauge I disassembled:

Each type of needle (tacho, speedo, stock or aftermarket gauges) is calibrated differently (but all constructed similarly) so I had to do a lot of research on each type (what kind of input signal does each gauge "expect to see"), and I took my sweet time to assemble the electronics lab equipment and other parts I needed to do all that (oscilloscopes, arbitrary signal generators, resistors, etc.).

I happen to be trained as an electrical engineer so I felt comfortable tackling "electronic" projects like this, and I'm okay with a soldering iron so dealing with tiny, delicate electronics parts is not an issue for me. With the factory wiring diagrams it then just becomes a straightforward project once I decided what I wanted to do.

I did have to learn and re-do many things along the way though. For example, it took me several trips to an arts store just to find the right paint for the fuel level needle to match the VDO needle that's sitting next to it. (And in a "version 0.5" I similarly attempted to find just the right paint that would match the stock neon orange needles) And those VW needles may not look like much, but I had to figure out a way to balance them (yes, our gauge needles are balanced...but the needles designed for stepper motor gauges didn't need that...I bet you didn't know that right?) and that was another mini project onto itself.

In any case, I wish I had taken more pictures along the way but I'll collect some more pics and post them up later to shed some light (hehe) on what's behind this gauge cluster.

 

[turboking97]

great job man

 

[supra<3]

looks awesome!!!!!!

 

[green_banana]

nice job. I noticed you broke the 45 deg angle carbon fiber "rule" on the speedo. haha. have you ever noticed all carbon fiber installs have the weave at this angle? why is that?

 

[MA_supra]

that looks awesome

 

[MPF_Supra]

i was sitting at home today and pondering what to do with the gauge cluster and my idea was really similar to what you did to your cluster. that's very impressive.