Changing Tacho color

[Leo2005]

Well...I decided not to wait and took apart to take a look what type of leds inside of tachometer:To be continued...

[Pescakl1]

Niiice Leo, thanks for the pics.

Was it difficult to remove it from the car? How many other parts did you have to remove to get access to it?

They seem to be SMD leds so it should be easy to find same type in different colors. Could you do a macro picture (lots of light and without any blur (opening at F8 or more)) of one of them in order to determine which brand and which type it is?

Yes, it is my personal opinion that I mainly share with myself, but I really not a big fan of the orange dashboards. I am more in the blue lights even if it seems orange is better for the eyes than any other color (the worst being... blue).

Keep us posted.

[philipa_240sx]

Interesting except....

You do realize that taking apart your odometer may be considered 'tampering'. This could affect future resale of your vehicle.

[Leo2005]

It might effect resale value but only to those people who wants everything original and they most likely will not buy used car at all. Any mod usually does not increase the value of the car but lowering or keeping the same. I would like to make it all red and that should look like it came from manufacture. Also about macro picture my camera is not that good but I'll try to make a picture this evening.

[Elton Noway]

It might effect resale value but only to those people who wants everything original and they most likely will not buy used car at all. Any mod usually does not increase the value of the car but lowering or keeping the same. I would like to make it all red and that should look like it came from manufacture.

Hi Leo, You are correct in that most mods don't effect resale. In fact in some cases they can actually enhance resale value depending on the modification.

However I don't think Philipa was suggesting the actual mod (LED light color change) would effect the resale... but rather the idea of "tampering with the instrument panel and its proximity to the odometer". If someone (especially a dealer or wholesaler) was able to determine the instrument panel was pulled they might suspect the odometer reading was modified (tampered with) and flag your vehicle as "mileage unknown", even if you did nothing to it. When mileage cannot be verified the default is to calculate the mileage deduction at no less than 100,000 miles, which could have a significant impact on resale value. While "turning back" a cars odometer is fast becoming a lost art... the new breed of snake oil salesmen have all kinds of tricks for hacking into the computer systems of newer cars and tweaking its readouts to benefit the seller.

That said...I can't wait to see what you come up with. (I recently had some custom orange lighting done as well) will create a new thread in the next week or two.

[philipa_240sx]

I would like to make it all red and that should look like it came from manufacture.

What is it with red dash lighting anyways? Supposedly it helps 'night vision' but I have driven a couple of cars with red dash illumination (mainly Mazda's) and I actually find it hard to read. I find the orange is a actually bit softer on my eyes.

My '87 Pathfinder used to have orange/amber illumination... loved it... and I like the Rogue even more. Now I just have to cut a couple of pieces of tint (the simple cling stuff) to dim the cruise control indicator lights!

[Leo2005]

Supposedly it helps 'night vision' but I have driven a couple of cars with red dash illumination (mainly Mazda's) and I actually find it hard to read. I find the orange is a actually bit softer on my eyes.

This is everybody's preference. Everybody like different colors but most of the people would like to keep it stock because of many reasons. I've driven accord a few days ago with white dashboard and it is really soft color for the eyes also it is much easier to read rather than with orange. The only color that I personally didn't like was purple on VW Jetta. It looks more like UV color which was hurting my eyes.

If someone (especially a dealer or wholesaler) was able to determine the instrument panel was pulled they might suspect the odometer reading was modified (tampered with) and flag your vehicle as "mileage unknown"

I tested it yesterday. I was driving for a few hours without speedo connected and the miles were still counting. So even if you tamper speedometer to lower the mileage you still have to work with computer somewhere else. I don't know much about it.

[philipa_240sx]

I 'believe' the odometer functions may be part of the ECU... or at least the ECU will validate the odometer reading. This isn't documented in the manuals just like the Intellikey programming isn't documented for obvious reasons... to avoid theft and tampering.

[Elton Noway]

What is it with red dash lighting anyways? Supposedly it helps 'night vision' but I have driven a couple of cars with red dash illumination (mainly Mazda's) and I actually find it hard to read. I find the orange is a actually bit softer on my eyes.

Personally I think the reason some auto makers lean towards red lighting is a result of prior military experience by their design engineers. (i.e., exposure to red lighting theories during their military service)

Aircraft cockpit instrumentation lighting has always been "all red" ... at least all I was exposed to over a 30 year period. That said I recently noticed some commercial aircraft are now using a soft white lighting (similar to a LED's whiteish/blueuish hue) in some of the controls.

Red lighting has been the primary lighting system in cockpits for night flying because it was determined to be the least detrimental to a pilot's night vision. As you probably know, if at night, you leave a brightly lit room and go outside you'll notice it takes a period of time before your eyes become acclimated enough to see well in the dark. Military testing back in the 1940s determined this accommodation period was found to be much faster when subjects were exposed to red light. Red light has the least (minimal) effect on the eye's contraction of the iris and is the only color that will not bleach out your rhodops which is the purple light-receptive pigment found in the retina. Rhodopsin helps the eye adjust to drastic changes in environmental lighting. Having good vision inside and outside the cockpit at night is pretty important to a pilot. In fact... the "Ready Rooms" used by military pilots for briefings prior to a launch are all lit with red lighting. NET: I think the auto engineers may have over thought the idea. Unless you are driving though some remote regions of the country its extremely rare for the environment outside the cabin of your car to be totally dark.Besides, headlight glare from oncoming cars or in your review mirror would negate any benefit derived from the red isntrument lighting.

Hence… we don’t really get much benefit from red cockpit lighting in our autos.
Modified by Elton Noway at 3:19 PM 11/5/2009