HOW-TO-> fix 03-04 SVT Cobra Gauge lights

[caveeagle]

I have been dealing with non-working gauge ligts (intermittently) on my cobra for the last 6-8 months. Sometimes they would work for a few hours or days and sometimes they would not work at all. I even left the car with the local ford dealer for a few days, thinking that surely they would know how to fix them. No luck and a lot of frustration..

The fused were all good and the light switch proved to be working fine. A few threads on here suggested that the 'inverter' might be the problem. I was reluctant to beleive this since the issue was intermittent and thought it was more likely to be a 'ground' issue. I went through the wiring as much as possible and did not find any bas grounds or connections. A fellow poster here, helped out with the part# inverters he has used from Speedhut.

So last weekend I swapped out the aftermarket inverter and my lights are working great!! They seem to be just as bright and look as close to stock as I would expect. I thought I would post some pics of the process, since I had a difficult time finding a good source for a gauge tear-down last weekend.

 

[caveeagle]

04 Gauge cluster tear town

First of all.... Many thanks to 03sm3341 (Jason) for the help on this job!!

The removal of the guage cluster it pretty straight foreward. You need the torx bit or driver and thats about it.

With big hands, I had a little trouble removing the two electrical plugs and the blower gauge feed tube, but was able to work it out in the end

 

[caveeagle]

Hereis the back of the gauge cluster
http://i118.photobucket.com/albums/o107/caveeagle/04gaugecluster1.jpg

With the torx srews removed, the back cover plate comes off.

You then unplug the odo connector (carefully) and the inverter plug. That allows the circuit board to be removed by gently pulling upwards.

That leaves you with the backs of the guages and the inverter exposed.

Unplug the two connectors and remove the two screwa and the stock inverter comes right out.

 

[caveeagle]

Here is the stock inverter. Notice the two connectors that I cut off and will re-use ont he Speedhut inverter.

Here is the Speedhut inverter. It comes with the jumpers to power several gauges. This just gets cliped off and spliced into the factory plug.

I soldered and shrinked the connections. Sometimes wire-to-wire connections can be tricky to solder.
>to power the inverter, connect black to black, and splice the blue&green wires to connect with the white.
>For the inverter-to cluster wires, the black & black/white wire connect to either white wire. (They are reversable)

I used an old hotel club card to fab a braket to hold the speedhit inverter in place. I started to just velcro into place, but decided that might not hold forever.

This inverter is about a 1/16" deeper than stock, but it fits ok and does not prevent the cluster from going back together.

It all went back together fine and is now working well. This was much easier than I was anticipating.

I hope this help somebody else down the road. Much, Much better than spending $200-$350 on a replacement gauge cluster!!!

 

[ColorMatched]

Great writeup and should help a lot of people out. Nice work!

 

[04cobra88]

not to hi-jack your thread but im aving a issue with my dome light staying on when i shut my doors? i have no clue where to start...

 

[caveeagle]

My guess, is its either a problem with your dome light switch or one of the door jam switches. I would trouble shoot those three items using a multimeter first.

 

[08mojo]

Thanks for the follow up and pics. I embedded photos for you (I had to remove the quotes in order for the pictures to show up full size):

Hereis the back of the gauge cluster

With the torx srews removed, the back cover plate comes off.

You then unplug the odo connector (carefully) and the inverter plug. That allows the circuit board to be removed by gently pulling upwards.

That leaves you with the backs of the guages and the inverter exposed.

Unplug the two connectors and remove the two screwa and the stock inverter comes right out.

Here is the stock inverter. Notice the two connectors that I cut off and will re-use ont he Speedhut inverter.

Here is the Speedhut inverter. It comes with the jumpers to power several gauges. This just gets cliped off and spliced into the factory plug.

I soldered and shrinked the connections. Sometimes wire-to-wire connections can be tricky to solder.
>to power the inverter, connect black to black, and splice the blue&green wires to connect with the white.
>For the inverter-to cluster wires, the black & black/white wire connect to either white wire. (They are reversable)

I used an old hotel club card to fab a braket to hold the speedhit inverter in place. I started to just velcro into place, but decided that might not hold forever.

This inverter is about a 1/16" deeper than stock, but it fits ok and does not prevent the cluster from going back together.

It all went back together fine and is now working well. This was much easier than I was anticipating.

I hope this help somebody else down the road. Much, Much better than spending $200-$350 on a replacement gauge cluster!!!

 

[702lightning]

Great write up I'll be doing mine next week after I replace the clutch ! Thank you

 

[Jimmysidecarr]

I changed the tags on the photos so they would show without clicking them, changed the thread title, and copied the thread to the HOW-TO forum so there would be a copy there too.

Great job!!:rockon::beer:

 

[03sm3341]

Hey thats a familiar sight. Glad it worked out for you.

 

[caveeagle]

Here is a picture of the gauges lit up with the new inverter. To me they seem just as bright as original. Maybe even a tad brighter. The best comfort level for be is to have them set at about 85% brightness.

This pic makes them look very 'white' when lit. But they actually look blue/green. Pretty close to original, although as side-by-side is not really possible.

 

[SVTDice]

Hey man, Nice work. You seem to know your way around these things pretty well! Let me ask you though, how much work would it be to change the color's with this stuff...To say Red or something of the sort.

http://www.svtperformance.com/forum...cobra-cluster-lights-up-interesting-read.html

Electroluminescent (EL) Panel - 10cm x 10cm Blue ID: 624 - $13.95 : Adafruit Industries, Unique & fun DIY electronics and kits

 

[T0RCH3D]

Hey man, Nice work. You seem to know your way around these things pretty well! Let me ask you though, how much work would it be to change the color's with this stuff...To say Red or something of the sort.

http://www.svtperformance.com/forum...cobra-cluster-lights-up-interesting-read.html

Electroluminescent (EL) Panel - 10cm x 10cm Blue ID: 624 - $13.95 : Adafruit Industries, Unique & fun DIY electronics and kits

Interested in this as well! Will stay tuned

 

[03sm3341]

Hey man, Nice work. You seem to know your way around these things pretty well! Let me ask you though, how much work would it be to change the color's with this stuff...To say Red or something of the sort.

http://www.svtperformance.com/forum...cobra-cluster-lights-up-interesting-read.html

Electroluminescent (EL) Panel - 10cm x 10cm Blue ID: 624 - $13.95 : Adafruit Industries, Unique & fun DIY electronics and kits

Interested in this as well! Will stay tuned

To answer your question. Im not sure. I dont think too hard. Thats from my thread your refering too. I have a junk 03 cluster i've been playing with. Im gonna try and make its lights go red.

 

[shb5007]

Not to hi-jack the thread...but is there a write-up on fixing the a/c knob lights?

 

[SVTDice]

To answer your question. Im not sure. I dont think too hard. Thats from my thread your refering too. I have a junk 03 cluster i've been playing with. Im gonna try and make its lights go red.

Goodluck man! Hopefully you can make it work, That would be awesome. :rockon:

 

[caveeagle]

JMO, but I don't think a red backlighting would look good. You already have the SVT logos and gauge needles in red.

If anyone needs it, here is the information on the speedhut inverter that I used. Poster 03sm3341 is using one of the other models, so this is not the only option. Its just the one I used that i knew would fit inside the cluster.

Part #A-INVERT-04
Price-$10.65

Lighting Gauge Accessory by SpeedHut

 

[RED2003COBRA]

Help. I've got a question. I purchased the inverter and followed the directions outlined above and my lights still don't work. I also noticed a "hot" smell coming from the dash which made me worry that I made a mistake some where. Taking the cluster apart again I noticed the inverter itself was quite hot. My question involves the wiring going from the inverter to the cluster. You mention connecting the black and black/white to either white wire. Does that mean one white wire isn't connected? That's how I took it. I'm going to try again and use the opposite white wire. Thanks.

 

[RED2003COBRA]

Ok, I re-read the instructions and realized I'm probably the village idiot. I connected both white wires on the next attempt. One to the Black and the other to the Black with White letters. Reassembled everything and it still doesn't work. I'm wondering if I didn't ruin the inverter. I'll probably order one more and try again connecting both white wires. Any suggestions? Thanks.