VTEC TACHOMETER LIGHT DIY
Finished product:
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=OjemGpCde_8
This DIY will show you how to make your tachometer turn from one color to another color when the VTec engages. Its a neat little feature that requires a little knowledge of leds/soldiering and has a price tag of about $15, sooo....here we go.
*One thing to note is that there are many ways to put the LED lights in your tachometer. The way I describe here gives, in my opinion, the best results but by no means is it the easiest. Also, I am not responsible for anything that happens to your car as a result of doing this DIY. Do this at your own risk, if you mess up your car, its your fault. Now then...
Materials:
-2 sets of tachometer lights(different colors)-(see note #1)
-One SPDT relay-(see note #2)
-24 gauge wire(solid or stranded)-(5ft at most)
-18-20 gauge wire(preferably stranded) for the VTec wire-(5ft at most)
-Soldering iron and set up
-Heat shrink tube
-Hot glue gun/glue
-A few hours
Notes on materials:
1. I used (12) 3mm leds (six red, six blue) These can be purchased on eBay in packs of 100 for $5.75 shipped. You can get smaller packs of 10 for about $2-3 shipped, I got the big pack because I used them for other projects. You will also need the Resistors if you get component leds like me. You can buy a pack of resisotors for $1 at radio shack. To find the resistance needed for your leds go here and plug in the values. http://led.linear1.org/led.wiz
2. Also from ebay, its about $5 shipped, here is a link to the exact one I used-
http://cgi.ebay.com/ws/eBayISAPI.dll?ViewItem&item=280579171636&ssPageName=STRK:MEWNX:IT#ht_500wt_922
However if the item is no longer there this is the type of relay you need-
http://www.the12volt.com/relays/relays.asp(this will explain how the relay works and what type you need to look for)
Now that you have everything its time to get started.
STEP 1. REMOVE THE GAUGE
This shows how to remove the gauge and what bulbs you need to take out. Yeah!!!!
http://www.clubcivic.com/board/showthread.php?t=59115
STEP 2. GAUGE MODIFICATION-YOU DONT HAVE TO DO THIS IF YOU ARE WIRING YOUR LIGHTS IN DIFFERENTLY.
Note:
READ THIS: It will tell you about sanding the back of your gauges so the light distribution is even.
http://www.clubcivic.com/board/showthread.php?t=200593
Since some of you probably don’t want to permanently modify your gauge. If so your going to have to think of another way to get 2 sets of lights into your tachometer. If you do have another way feel free to post it for other people and skip to step 6.
Now its time to modify your cluster. If you have a little dremle this is pretty quick, if not, a sharp razor knife works fine as well. I have marked where I cut on my gauge.
note: the circle on the bottom left does not have to be removed, i drilled a hole in it to mount a led.
STEP 3. SPLICING THE +12V FROM VTEC
There are two methods of doing this, one is really easy and safe, the other is difficult and dangerous. Guess what method you should use. Yeah, thats what I thought.
Pop open your passengers side kick panel. For some reason this is really difficult to get out. They used one of those plastic push pins to secure it and it is really hard to get out. Just go slow and eventually it will pop out and you can remove the kick panel.
Now. What your looking for is a green wire with a SOLID yellow stripe. Thats it. There is a green with a yellow strip and silver dots, THATS NOT IT!!!!! Its just a green wire with a solid yellow strip.
Thanks Noeladams for pic.
STEP 4. WIRING THE LEDS
The leds I got lended themselves to 3 leds in series with a resistor. So I had 4 sets of 3 leds in series each with a resistor on the negative end.(2 sets of each color) Use the 24 gauge wire for the leds, its small, flexible, and is very close to the size of the wire coming from the leds.
You will want to try the leds inside the empty gauge slot so that you keep even spacing with the wires. This is called “dry” fitting
STEP 5. PLACING THE LEDS INSIDE THE GAGUE
So after you have all your leds wired up, its time to fit them inside the gauge. If you have been going along each time you added a led and “dry” fitting them in this will be simple. The hardest part about this is getting the Tachometer to fit back into the gauge with all the leds. It will require a bit of finagling but you will eventually get it so that all the leds fit inside with the tachometer resting as it usually does. Once your set, take the tachometer back out and hot glue all the leds in place.(for the leds at the top of the tachometer try to keep them up off the back of the gauge space, the back of the tachometer fits pretty snug up agains that back wall. Hot glue your leds up a few millimeters and you will be fine.
Note: because you removed one of the light distributors, light will now bleed into the speedometer when it switches over. to fix this i cut a little piece of cardboard to fit in-between them, a little ghetto, but very effective.
Cardboard placed in-between to stop bleeding light into speedometer.
light is up alittle to allow the tachometer to rest back in place.
blue led, red led blue led
a little messy, good thing it gets covered up.
I placed a led in the outside wall to conserve space.
here is the wall i was talking about that you do not remove, instead i drilled a hole and placed a led inside of it.
another led in the wall
Now, on the back of your gauge, the positive is on top(blue wire). and negative is on bottom(white wire). the white/orange wire is the positive from my red leds.
STEP 6. WIRING UP THE RELAY
So now we come to the heart of this little system. The relay. If you looked over the example at 12v.com you already know how the relay works. I always found that if you know the science behind what your doing, it helps reduce errors in the final product. Anyways. If you have the exact same relay I have here is the wiring colors and numbers. If you have a different relay the colors may be different, but the numbers are standard.
Vtec leds-#87-Yellow wire-This goes to the positive side of the Vtec leds
Regular leds-#87a-Red wire-This goes to the positive side of the regular tachometer leds
+12V from Vtec-#86-White
Ground-#85-Black-I grounded my relay onto the gauge along with the leds
+12V from gauge-#30-Blue-I soldered a wire onto the gauge on one of the light sockets.
There is a lot going on in this picture. The white/black/orange is all negative from the leds and relay. The blue is positive to the relay.
This is the relay
wires from relay
some of you may not have the relay harness, thats fine, just solder right onto the relay, the harness just looks cleaner.
STEP 7. PUTTING IT ALL TOGETHER
WOW. SUPER MESSY!!!! sorry about all this. this is a overview of the whole system. On reflection, the best thing to do is to add a bunch of 24 gauge onto the dash, which would be a lot smaller and easier to work with and make it look clean. Dont directly hook up the relay to the dash like i did. there is nothing wrong with it, your system will work fine, its just that it doesn't look that clean.
Here is my relay hanging down because i didn't have enough wire to secure it somewhere. I recommend extending the wires so you can properly secure it somewhere, which is what i am going to do some time.
Once you have hooked everything up and replaced your dash to its original state its time for a test drive. Let it Roar!!
Finished product:
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=OjemGpCde_8
This DIY will show you how to make your tachometer turn from one color to another color when the VTec engages. Its a neat little feature that requires a little knowledge of leds/soldiering and has a price tag of about $15, sooo....here we go.
*One thing to note is that there are many ways to put the LED lights in your tachometer. The way I describe here gives, in my opinion, the best results but by no means is it the easiest. Also, I am not responsible for anything that happens to your car as a result of doing this DIY. Do this at your own risk, if you mess up your car, its your fault. Now then...
Materials:
-2 sets of tachometer lights(different colors)-(see note #1)
-One SPDT relay-(see note #2)
-24 gauge wire(solid or stranded)-(5ft at most)
-18-20 gauge wire(preferably stranded) for the VTec wire-(5ft at most)
-Soldering iron and set up
-Heat shrink tube
-Hot glue gun/glue
-A few hours
Notes on materials:
1. I used (12) 3mm leds (six red, six blue) These can be purchased on eBay in packs of 100 for $5.75 shipped. You can get smaller packs of 10 for about $2-3 shipped, I got the big pack because I used them for other projects. You will also need the Resistors if you get component leds like me. You can buy a pack of resisotors for $1 at radio shack. To find the resistance needed for your leds go here and plug in the values. http://led.linear1.org/led.wiz
2. Also from ebay, its about $5 shipped, here is a link to the exact one I used-
http://cgi.ebay.com/ws/eBayISAPI.dll?ViewItem&item=280579171636&ssPageName=STRK:MEWNX:IT#ht_500wt_922
However if the item is no longer there this is the type of relay you need-
http://www.the12volt.com/relays/relays.asp(this will explain how the relay works and what type you need to look for)
Now that you have everything its time to get started.
STEP 1. REMOVE THE GAUGE
This shows how to remove the gauge and what bulbs you need to take out. Yeah!!!!
http://www.clubcivic.com/board/showthread.php?t=59115
STEP 2. GAUGE MODIFICATION-YOU DONT HAVE TO DO THIS IF YOU ARE WIRING YOUR LIGHTS IN DIFFERENTLY.
Note:
READ THIS: It will tell you about sanding the back of your gauges so the light distribution is even.
http://www.clubcivic.com/board/showthread.php?t=200593
Since some of you probably don’t want to permanently modify your gauge. If so your going to have to think of another way to get 2 sets of lights into your tachometer. If you do have another way feel free to post it for other people and skip to step 6.
Now its time to modify your cluster. If you have a little dremle this is pretty quick, if not, a sharp razor knife works fine as well. I have marked where I cut on my gauge.
note: the circle on the bottom left does not have to be removed, i drilled a hole in it to mount a led.
STEP 3. SPLICING THE +12V FROM VTEC
There are two methods of doing this, one is really easy and safe, the other is difficult and dangerous. Guess what method you should use. Yeah, thats what I thought.
Pop open your passengers side kick panel. For some reason this is really difficult to get out. They used one of those plastic push pins to secure it and it is really hard to get out. Just go slow and eventually it will pop out and you can remove the kick panel.
Now. What your looking for is a green wire with a SOLID yellow stripe. Thats it. There is a green with a yellow strip and silver dots, THATS NOT IT!!!!! Its just a green wire with a solid yellow strip.
Thanks Noeladams for pic.
STEP 4. WIRING THE LEDS
The leds I got lended themselves to 3 leds in series with a resistor. So I had 4 sets of 3 leds in series each with a resistor on the negative end.(2 sets of each color) Use the 24 gauge wire for the leds, its small, flexible, and is very close to the size of the wire coming from the leds.
You will want to try the leds inside the empty gauge slot so that you keep even spacing with the wires. This is called “dry” fitting
STEP 5. PLACING THE LEDS INSIDE THE GAGUE
So after you have all your leds wired up, its time to fit them inside the gauge. If you have been going along each time you added a led and “dry” fitting them in this will be simple. The hardest part about this is getting the Tachometer to fit back into the gauge with all the leds. It will require a bit of finagling but you will eventually get it so that all the leds fit inside with the tachometer resting as it usually does. Once your set, take the tachometer back out and hot glue all the leds in place.(for the leds at the top of the tachometer try to keep them up off the back of the gauge space, the back of the tachometer fits pretty snug up agains that back wall. Hot glue your leds up a few millimeters and you will be fine.
Note: because you removed one of the light distributors, light will now bleed into the speedometer when it switches over. to fix this i cut a little piece of cardboard to fit in-between them, a little ghetto, but very effective.
Cardboard placed in-between to stop bleeding light into speedometer.
light is up alittle to allow the tachometer to rest back in place.
blue led, red led blue led
a little messy, good thing it gets covered up.
I placed a led in the outside wall to conserve space.
here is the wall i was talking about that you do not remove, instead i drilled a hole and placed a led inside of it.
another led in the wall
Now, on the back of your gauge, the positive is on top(blue wire). and negative is on bottom(white wire). the white/orange wire is the positive from my red leds.
STEP 6. WIRING UP THE RELAY
So now we come to the heart of this little system. The relay. If you looked over the example at 12v.com you already know how the relay works. I always found that if you know the science behind what your doing, it helps reduce errors in the final product. Anyways. If you have the exact same relay I have here is the wiring colors and numbers. If you have a different relay the colors may be different, but the numbers are standard.
Vtec leds-#87-Yellow wire-This goes to the positive side of the Vtec leds
Regular leds-#87a-Red wire-This goes to the positive side of the regular tachometer leds
+12V from Vtec-#86-White
Ground-#85-Black-I grounded my relay onto the gauge along with the leds
+12V from gauge-#30-Blue-I soldered a wire onto the gauge on one of the light sockets.
There is a lot going on in this picture. The white/black/orange is all negative from the leds and relay. The blue is positive to the relay.
This is the relay
wires from relay
some of you may not have the relay harness, thats fine, just solder right onto the relay, the harness just looks cleaner.
STEP 7. PUTTING IT ALL TOGETHER
WOW. SUPER MESSY!!!! sorry about all this. this is a overview of the whole system. On reflection, the best thing to do is to add a bunch of 24 gauge onto the dash, which would be a lot smaller and easier to work with and make it look clean. Dont directly hook up the relay to the dash like i did. there is nothing wrong with it, your system will work fine, its just that it doesn't look that clean.
Here is my relay hanging down because i didn't have enough wire to secure it somewhere. I recommend extending the wires so you can properly secure it somewhere, which is what i am going to do some time.
Once you have hooked everything up and replaced your dash to its original state its time for a test drive. Let it Roar!!
