Gauge Cluster DIY - Updated!

[Freyspath]

Hey guys, I decided to make another thread on this topic because the other one started to die out, because links werent working anymore... This thread is all about the gauge clusters, nothing else...

So ever since I got my 2003 LE I love it, but I dont like the white face gauges, it looks "old" so I wanted the fresh look they put on the 2004 LE Platinum Editions. The difference is the 04 LE one uses incandescent bulbs, while 2000-2003, and 2004 SE's use small little bulbs that dont produce much light at night.

Here is the break down:

2000-2003 LE, and 2004 SE gauge cluster:2004 LE gauge cluster:

So my goal was to switch out my white faced one with the 2004 one. I found an ebay seller who dismantled nissans and got him to send me an 04 LE one for like $140..



Then I used the DIY on the forum to remove mine and simply plug in the new one... so I thought..The removal of the 03 one was very easy, but here is where I ran into problems:

First let me show you how they look (front and back). The one on the top is the new 04 one, and as you can see it has all these bulbs for every little notification, unlike ours.

The first thing I noticed was that the cord that hangs out of both of them, which is for the 4wd screen was different.. The 04 one had 6 cords, while the 03 one only had 4! One was grounded, which left me a red wire which was "extra". Secondly, the harness is different!

So since it wouldn't plug in I decided to just put the old 03 one in place of the 04 one.

I took the red wire and but it with the pink one, in hopes that it was just an illumination wire that would just be on 24/7.. ... That didn't work when I plugged it in the first time around into the car, so I decided to remove it from the pink, and wrap it.. That didn't work either!

When I plugged it into the car, both times (once with the red wire attached to the pink, and the other time with it just unplugged) I had troubles with the cluster. Here are the problems: The problems: - The illumination wasn't working, so it was dark as hell, and even with the lights on, it wouldn't light up. - VDC OFF and Tire Pressure Low lights were illuminated.. I dont have on my pathy VDC or TPMS. - The 4wd screen wouldn't show what I was in.. 2WD, AUTO, 4WD Hi, 4WD Low, none of them light up! - The panel that showed what gear I was in (PRND21) didn't work. Only OD OFF would light up - Lastly, I went from 82,410 miles down to 79,864! ..So I had to put the old one in until I figure out what the heck is up with this thing! As I was cleaning up I noticed all the ground came from one spot.. This little slit on the front left of the cluster, and maybe I need to run a GND wire to it?? ..So if someone has a wiring diagram and can see the differences to these guys, that would be greatly appreciated, cuz im stuck... In the mean time im going to play around with it a bit, but I wont get far until the new years cuz we have family coming over and my folks said no car work while there here

[Freyspath]

I think I found my problem...

I was looking at the wiring diagrams on the NissanHelp Forum, and it looks like the 04 and the 03 use different colors to work the 4x4 system.

Also the illumination didn't work because on the 03 there is a wire (wire # 65) that runs into wire #64, and on the 2004 diagram, wire #65 goes in directly to the cluster, without being connected to #64...

If someone is good at reading these wiring diagrams, let me know, ill post them up and get your opinions on it.

[alexf20c]

you paid $140 for that scratched up gauge cluster?

[fueler]

i think the plastic covers should be interchangeable but ya if those are scratches then DAMN

[N2mesnob]

Can't you jus buff them out with that plastic polish stuff with the powerball you put on a drill???

[N2mesnob]

I was thinking of upgrading the one in my rig if i can ever find the one I'm looking for. After seeing this lookis like i got a lot of work to do before hand when i do.

[Pwnin O'Brien]

you paid $140 for that scratched up gauge cluster?

My guess is that it is dog hair stuck to the clear cover by static cling.

Here's your dilemma, as I expected the illumination didn't work since it is a completely different type of light source. In the standard Pathfinder cluster, the lighting is driven by a standard switched power source. In the "Fine Vision" cluster, it is driven by the cluster processor. I am assuming a switched source (pin 64) goes into the processor to tell the cluster that the lights are on and the processor turns the light on. If you look at the "Fine Vision" diagram, you can see that the processor has an extra 12v source (pin 31) which the standard Pathfinder cluster does not. This may be the power source for the cluster illumination. My guess is that pin 64 still turns the illumination on, it just doesn't actually use pin 64 for voltage to light up the bulb.

As for the VDC and the TPMS indicators, they are lit simply because you do not have those systems. You just need to remove the bulbs and keep the sockets on the cluster so it can keep the dust out.

Looking at the electrical diagram differences between the Pathfinder cluster and the "Fine Vision" cluster, the gear indicators are wired exactly the same on one side of the cluster processor. This tells me that the issue is on the other side of the cluster processor. The difference in terminals on the right side of the cluster (in the wiring diagram) you can see that the standard Pathfinder cluster has a pin 43 where the "Fine Vision" cluster does not. If you look at the "Fine Vision" diagram, you can see that it has pins 23 and 49, where the standard cluster does not.

The biggest problem is that the wiring diagrams do not tell you where all of the terminals of the cluster processor lead to, so it may be extremely difficult to find out what each of those terminals does in the cluster processor.

[Freyspath]

The cluster isnt scratched at all... What happened is now that its getting cold, we have to keep the two dogs, that normally sleep outside, inside the garage at night and one of them sheds like mad! So when I cleaned the cluster with some windex the micro fiber cloth got all that hair stuck on it.

Pwnin O'Brien, thanks for the help! I am not really good at reading these wiring diagrams, so thanks a lot for helping me with that! I will need to look at how im going to do this task... Depending on how hard it is, I might just sell this thing to whoever gives me a good offer, and move on to another mod...

[Pwnin O'Brien]

Depending on how hard it is, I might just sell this thing to whoever gives me a good offer, and move on to another mod...

To be honest, I think that's your best bet. It may require a lot of wiring modifications to get the basics working. It's good to know that they aren't backwards compatible for future reference.

[Raysfinder]

did u ever get the Cluster Gauge to work out? Because i wanted to do the same thing, up until i saw that you came across the 4X4, Mileage, and illuminating problems.

[Buzzman]

My '02 Pathfinder is a Canadian Chilkoot edition, and I don't have the P R N D 2 1 indicator strip in between the tach and speedo dials. I've always wondered why. It would be nice.I have to look down at the centre console to see what gear I'm in. Is the 2000-2003 LE console different in any other ways?If your old console will plug and play in my '02, I might be interested in buying it if you ever get the '04 working.

[Freyspath]

Hey guys! Sorry for not replying sooner with a final conclusion.

I got it to work to some extent. If you remember Pwnin Obrien mentioned that there were some cables that didn't have a place to go on the 2004 cluster. So I took wire #65 and connected it to a fuse tap and I got half the display to light up! The right side and the 4x4 lighting still was dark. So I tried it with another of the "extra" wires, and then ended up blowing the fuse. So I tried like three more wires, and didn't get anywhere.

So yes, it is compatible, BUT you would really need to go indepth into it and find out what wires light up the florescent lighting

[rydebynite]

Was excited to intall new little mod come to realize this s*** dont even fit. the odometer needle hole is completely off and then the gas and temp holes are in the wrong spots!

[03R50]

I know it's been awile since anyone posted anything... But did you figure a way to make it work. I would like to do the cluster swap as well.