DIY LED + Stepper motors Interior mods

[2003tahoe]

Well in this thread i will show you step by step on how to change out the regular bulbs in a stock nbs cluster. To make it easier on people ill do this step by step so if your doing this while trying to look you don't lose your place.

To start this mod you will need these items

1. Soldering iron ( adjustable would be best ) [6.99-39.99]
2. Solder ( acid free so it won't eat the circuit board ) [2.99]
3. Solder sucker ( Optional ) [5.99
4. 9 3 mm Flat top LEDs ( Will show reason for flat tops later on) [7.49/100]
5. 9 680 ohm resistors ( Mine i believe are 1/2 watt ) [1.49/6]
6. Flat head screwdriver [2.99]
7. 7mm socket and driver [9.99]
8. A clean fork [0.99]
9. Stepper motors ( If you have gauges that don't work right) [15.95]

Prices w/o taxes

With all part [56.36]
All but motors[40.41]
With all but hand tools [26.44]

1,2,4,5,6,7, and 8 are needed in the process of replaceing the bulbs to leds

3 and 9 are mainly for the stepper motors but 3 helps alot to get a clean solder on the leds with out build up.

Also with the leds I recommend getting 100 since there so cheap and you can do the rest as i post the how to's for the doors and all the controls

 

[2003tahoe]

If you are ready to start this mod you will need to start off by tilting the steering wheel down and shifting all the way to first gear. When you have done that you will need to start taking the plastic dash bezel off. It is only held on by metal clips all you will have to do is just pull to you. once you have the bezel off


there will be a 4 7mm screw that you will have to remove one the top left and right, and bottom left and right.



after you have those removed put the car back in park and turn the truck off and take the key out, then you will have 1 plug on the back of the cluster. you will have to grip it at the top and bottom of the clip to remove it from the cluster.


It should come out easily.

 

[2003tahoe]

After you have removed the cluster you will need to bring it inside to start the cluster tear down process.
First of all the cluster back plate is held on by 4 clips on top and 3 on the bottom side and the front plate is held on by 3 clips on the top and 2 on the bottom


To make it easier to disassemble the cluster is take the back off this is where the flat head screwdriver comes in handy, just pop the back clips off


Then start on the front side on the top here is the tricky part, the front bottom has clips that are on the inside what i did is press on the white part to release the clips(sorry no picture for this)
When you are able to take the front off be careful not to disturb the needles and put the back plate on so you don't touch the solder points on metal or anything (there are a lot of them)
after all that put tape on the cluster backing that show the rpm, mph, etc. The tape will go at the zero point on all the needles. After you have done this move all the needles to zero till you feel resistance and stop or they will be off and will need to be corrected later which is why you should replace the needles anyway so you don't have to open it back up later on if the needles act up like they are known to in our trucks. Also when you mark where the needles stop at look at it from the very top so it wont be off by mm's

 

[2003tahoe]

After you have marked where the needles left off its time to get the fork out ( not to stab your self in the thigh ) to remove the needles, During this process make sure the metal rod holding the needle on is in the middle of the fork to get even pressure ( when doing this dont put alot of pressure so you wont have to buy new ones to replace the one that got messed up.

once you have all the needles off the faceplate with all the gauge backings will need to come off to do this step you will need to pick up on the faceplate backing and remove it from 3 prongs that hold it in place.( I placed 3 needles to show were they are at )

Now that you have the faceplate off you will see why i chose blue in color because the stock one is more of a aqua blue to show green with regular type of bulbs, dont try red with the stock backing i did and tryed it at night it wasnt any fun because it wont show through the blue backing.

After that is done you will need to remove a clear holder that makes the faceplate backing stay flat, the clear part is held in by 3 plastic rods that go in to the white housing that covers the circuitry on the front and covers the warning leds from going from the turn signal light to say the check engine light. Also with the rods i did the same and put 3 needles to show the locations easier.


Now that you have the clear part out its tome to remove the black backing, this is removed the same way as mentioned above with a screwdriver to release the tabs, one tip is to keep the white housing down so the circuit board will stay still with out moving and without the risk of breaking the board.

 

[2003tahoe]

Ok time for the tiedest part of this mod ,soldering, with soldering if you have it to hot you can get the contact to come undone from the board which is bad news, and if you have it to cool you can have the risk of burning something while your waiting for the solder to melt. The trick is to have an adjustable soldering gun so you can slowly turn it up by notches till your solder will just barely melt which is what I did this time, the last time, with all the door switches and all the controls which I will show y'all (sorry from Texas) how to do later on as I have time to take all the stuff back apart. If you don't want to spend the money for the adjustable one go down to autozone and get the pen style for a third of the price ( I use this one to stipple my 42 rnd ar-15 mags ) its good for the price but if you are going to do the entire truck might as well just get the adjustable one like i got its a cheap Weller, it is also a great gun to start off with since you can do multiple things with it not just the board in your truck, its the same one i started off with back in 2008. well enough gun talk and back to the reason why you'r here.
Well to start off you will need to know what is power and what is ground on the leds that we are modifying. Below is the drawing i made of the power and ground ( I know not a good drawer that's why i'm trying to be a cop )


Ok so now the original bulbs have a square base ( sorry no pics again since i did this around 2012) if I remember right the solder points are at opposite cornors of the base and will be a tight fit to get the soldering gun in at some points. Here is the old 5mm round tops that are not good for this application will show later on. One more thing the brown that you see is rosin from the solder not a burn spot.

Here are the better 3mm flat top leds to use.

you will need to do the same for all 9 bulb locations, if you get lost on which ones show in the gauges put the white cover back on and write down the locations of them.
Ok now that those leds are replaced and you want to replace the stepper motors you will need to get them out

Note: make sure you dont shoot your finger off while grabbing them, 40 S&W can hurt pretty darn bad.
Now that you have the stepper motors out you will need to make sure you don't harm the fresh leds, i just held the board in my hand at the corners so i didnt touch and soldering points. The motors are held on by 2 plastic prongs and 4 solder points which is were the solder sucker comes in handy instead of heating up the points and pushing which can also disconnect the solder points from the board which again is a bad thing. Just make sure all the solder is off the motor contacts so you can safely push the motor out of the board. Install of the new motors is the complete reverse of the removal.

 

[2003tahoe]

Ok now that you have the leds and stepper motors in place you may need to make some modifications to the white housing before you put it in place. with my far left and right resistor it sticks out just enough to contact the white housing, so you will need to make a modification i did mine with a soldering gun because nobody will see it unless you sell it and a motor goes out then someone will see it and be like dang. Ok so mine contacted in the middle of the resistors to the white housing and wouldn't go down anyfurther with out damage so i melted a little slot that fit the resistor perfectly even thou it looks a little bad, if it bothers you that much you can just cut the excess off with a razor and if it still bothers you well i just cant help you with how to make it look better to you but like i said no one will see this.


Well im at that point where Ill explain why flat tops are a better choice here,
with the flat tops they have a wider throw lets say 120º and the round to is 30º, you want the widest throw of light that you can get so if you have a friend get in your truck they dont go "dang that looks awful" and you dont go crying home, make the right choice and go with the flat top you will like the outcome more than the round, there both good leds but one is better for this job. Here are a few pictures i took of each led.
3mm Flat top led


5mm Round top led


So now we have gone over the led part now we have the re-installation.
To start putting the cluster back together stat by putting the white housing on then proceed with the black backing, then go ahead and put the clear part on with the little black push button before putting the cluster backing on so you dont forget about it like i did ( was in a rush ) at this time you will need to put the needles back on you will need to put it in at the 12'o clock position ( it maybe different in the instructions that come with the gauges but mine said 12'o clock) then you will need to make sure its in there firmly, after that you will need to turn it till it reaches the minimum on the old needle and leave it there then proceed with the other needles like so

after all the needles are in place go out and plug the gauge with the ignition off and the key out, then turn the vehicle on to make sure the needles are in the right places if not the instructions told me to take the key out and turn them till there at the original minimum then repeat again till it is correct. after you have them correct take the key out again and make sure you take the tape off the cluster backing because it sucks taking the front off again when you already reassembled it, after taking the tape off just snap the front bezel on but be careful of the needles so you don't mess up the reading. and reassemble the dash. Now boom its is all done and enjoy your new led gauge cluster.

 

[2003tahoe]

Well i ran out of room on the last picture post of them all done

may look a little white in some spots because my phone hates blue light, it looks a lot better in person

Oh btw do at your own risk i didnt make you do it, you are warned

I think this will help anyone that doesn't want to pay 100 for leds in their dash >.> you know who you are person im talking about but i forgot you name sorry lol. But anyway hopefully this will become a sticky. Thank you for your patience 2003tahoe out.






old post: ok last time i will be off at 4 pm tomorrow or well today so this sort of spam if you want to call it that will be gone, also sorry about making you wait 02Beast i bet the anxiety is killing you at the moment

 

[02Beast]

Yes sir it is lmao

 

[silverado13]

all i saw was a berreta, im sorry i got distractted, very nice write up

 

[2003tahoe]

all i saw was a berreta, im sorry i got distractted, very nice write up

Thanks and yep not a toy. I was dreading doing the write up till i had time

 

[silverado13]

i keep my glock or 1911 by my side 24/7

 

[2003tahoe]

i keep my glock or 1911 by my side 24/7

My ar15, 2 shotguns, marlin 3030, 22lr, and my beretta are with in hands reach at all times if the try to run im buying a remington 700 sps this time next year since i can get a discount at walmart

 

[silverado13]

Dont Tread On Me

 

[burgundybeast04]

Can you show me where to buy the leds I need and resistors? Can't find ones that look like yours anywhere

 

[silverado13]

That's 2003tahoes department

 

[burgundybeast04]

I know lol that's who I was talking to, guess I didn't specify that

 

[2003tahoe]

Thanks brian uhhh i believe its 680 ohm or 860 let me look back in the thread, and the leds i got them from c-leds off ebay these things are bright but they dont sell on ebay anymore but they do sell on amazon now but you got to ask them for them if they still sell these 3mm flat tops

 

[2003tahoe]

There 680 ohm i believe frys electronics gave me the 1/2 watt ones, they should be the size of a swollen grain of rice

 

[burgundybeast04]

Can I use 5mm? What's the difference just size? And I live in Canada we don't have frys here :/

 

[2003tahoe]

Can I use 5mm? What's the difference just size? And I live in Canada we don't have frys here :/

i like 3mm because it fits everywhere and i dont have to buy 2 diff bags of leds, some people put two leds in the gauge cluster im not sure if the same resistor will work though