15 Jan 05
Approx. Time: 1 hour

This install will change your instrument lighting from the stock green lights to a color of your choosing. In this install, I chose Polarg's "B1 Hybrid" series of hyper-white lightbulbs. My only critique of them is that they're not as bright as I thought they'd be. I'm also considering moving to blue LEDs in the future to match my theme.

You'll need:

• 5x 194 type replacement bulbs (Polarg M-4)
• 1x replacement dome light (Polarg M-16)
• a #2 philips head screwdriver
• a deep 17mm socket
• a 10mm socket
• and a ratchet (a 6" extension would help too)

To remove the gauge cluster, you'll need to start by removing the black bezel in front of it. To do that, you'll need to pull off the wiper and headlight switches, and pull off the dial rings underneath them. They're only being held on by friction, so just pull. Once those are off, you'll see a white plastic 17mm nut holding each of the switches against the bezel. You'll need the deep 17mm socket to get them off. There are also 3 philips head screws holding the top of the bezel in place. Once those are removed you can remove the bezel will be loose. To remove the bezel all the way, you'll also need to unplug any other switches in the bezel (like power mirror control, rear defroster, etc.). The steering column usually gets in the way, so you'll have to fight to get it all the way out. Be careful not to crack your bezel!

Depending on your steering wheel, you may need to take it off too to remove the bezel. A couple things to remember when removing a steering wheel: Take note of your steering wheel's orientation so that you don't put it back on crooked. Also remember that if you're removing it without a steering wheel puller, gently wiggle it back and forth while pulling firmly. Don't pull too hard or ou'll end up smacking yourself in the face when it finally breaks free!

Once that's out, you'll see that the gauge cluster is held in by only 4 10mm bolts. (If memeory serves correctly, the heads of the 10mm bolts have a #3 philips head slot in the middle of them, so you can also use a large philips head screwdriver instead) Remove the four bolts and take out the gauge cluster. There are 2 or 3 wiring harnesses that plug into the back of the cluster, so if you want to take the cluster all the way out, unplug those too. Looking at the back side of the cluster, you'll see that there are more than 5 bulbs. The rest are behind colored items like orange or red warning lights or the green turn signals, so changing the bulbs on those won't make any difference. Find the 5 light sockets that illuminate the speedometer, tachometer, fuel gauge, oil pressure gauge, and temperature gauge. The light sockets just turn counter clockwise 1/4 turn or so and just pull right out. Once the socket is out, the bulb just pulls out of the socket.

Installation is just the reverse of removal. Just be careful in lining up the speedometer cable. Sometimes it's a pain to get it to line up again.

eBay is a great place to find 194 bulbs. I got my Polarg ones there, and at about a third of the price the speed shops wanted for them. Just do an eBay search for "194 bulb", you'll get a ton of items to choose from, including high-intensity LED bulbs that fit the 194 type sockets.

The dome light is another light you can replace to compliment your guage cluster. Polarg also makes the light for the dome light. I'm pretty sure you need a 3175 type bulb (31mm) for the dome light. But I DO know for sure that it is Polarg's model "M-16".

I still want to change the light in the HVAC cluster, but I think it is a different size and I'm not sure if hyper white replacements are even available. Once I get in there and figure it out, I'll have an update to this install guide.

This was all from memory (over a year ago now), so if anything was wrong or if you have any questions, feel free to drop me a line.