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Getting my custom instrument dial made

18K views 56 replies 18 participants last post by  newman 
#1 ·
I'm going to be moving back to Germany by the end of the year and will definitely take my car with me.
Therefore I will need to convert my instrument dial from mph to km/h.
I've been searching on here for a while and couldn't come up with any good ideas, and Lotus only sells the entire instrument but not the dial itself:shrug:

Two weeks back I contacted a company in Germany that makes custom dials for a lot of cars.
They did not have anything off the shelf for the Lotus, but they are willing to do a custom made dial for me.

I sent them a few pictures of my current dial, and this is what they came back with as a first proposal:

Text Auto part Measuring instrument Font Speedometer


I wanted to keep it as stock as possible because I like the looks of the current dial.

Now we are just figuring out the details on how the symbols are lit.
I assume that the symbols on the right (check engine, seatbelt etc.) are lit by LED's from the back.
The tank and coolant temp symbols look like they are either clear or even cut out of the dial and are just lit by the LCD display (can someone who has taken theirs apart confirm that?)
I will have them change the font color from blue to black, but it sound like they can make any custom color I want.

The entire dial including designing it is going to cost me 35 Euros plus 10.50 for shipping it to the US, which I think is a very good deal.

I just wanted to share this since I know that there are a few folks on here who have imported a car to Europe, and they all seem to run into the issue of getting a km/h dial...

The name of the company that is going to make this for me is Tacho-Cartuning (Tacho - Cartuning ~ Hochwertige Tachoscheiben für Ihr Auto im Exklusiv-Design)
Teh web site is all in German, but I'm sure they speak english as well...
 
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#5 ·
Very interested, will need the same thing when I move back next year to the Netherlands. I will contact these guys, and refer to this design.
Looks good!
Thx for effort!
 
#12 ·
I have no idea what materials / process they are using, however, I've had good luck getting custom work done inexpensively. There are 'inkjet' printers now that allow you to print to any surface. Unlike silk-screening there is no mask to be made, and since it's digitally mastered, setup costs are essentially non-existent. I developed a system that was to be installed in a Volvo long-haul truck. To make it as seamless as possible we took a blank Volvo piece of plastic, drilled the necessary holes and had the logo / other info printed directly to the plastic. It turned out extremely well and looked as good as the OEM parts. I think they did the first one for free. It took the guy all of 5 minutes to make it. In quantities it was around $5 each for the printing.

It may be that they are using a similar technique to simply print to an opaque sheet. Who knows, I could be completely wrong. Looking forward to seeing the final version as well.

Here's a lousy picture of it installed. It's the bottom device that says 'AssistWare' and 'Lane Departure Warning System'. It looks 1000x better in person.
Electronics Technology Car Vehicle Electronic device
 
#8 ·
I've wondered that too. My brain wanders when I'm cruising 90mpg.

I've also wondered why it seemed you were about to take one exit, then zoomed back past me to take the following one instead. Damn TroubleMaker.

xtn
 
#13 ·
How is this project going? Did you receive the part from Germany yet? Did it work out?

I went to get through inspection today and at the last minute they said the "KPH" sticker I placed over the "MPH" on the speedometer dial would not be acceptable, and that they'll use a pace car to verify accuracy.

So if your option works, I think I'll go that route. Otherwise I'll need to pay EUR 500+ for a whole new gauge unit.
 
#14 ·
i could probably convert your cluster for the needle to report in KPH (decals upto you), but shipping it back and forth to the usa might be costly.

if you leave the mph decal in, your car is going to be pretty slow ;)

I suppose i could do an ecu program that reported a massaged KPH that when its converted to MPH is actually KPH, but you'd still have to ship me your ecu. (or to the UK, cluster would have to go to me)
 
#15 ·
Have you done this before? Yeah, the shipping might be expensive. Is there any way to get it done only in the UK? Then I can avoid import duty charges since the item will remain in the EU the entire time.

The Lotus dealer here quoted 530 EUR for a new instrument pack, and said they aren't able to just install the new speedometer overlay (but maybe I can find someone else to do it.. assuming it's possible).

I guess another option is to find a wrecked Federal Elise that has both kph/mph on the dial and buy the instrument pack. I believe that is model year 2006 and beyond?
 
#23 ·
the only way i could setup it to do it in the uk would be by doing the ecu mod, not the cluster.

the cluster is relatively easy to take apart, the glue is a light tack style, just be careful removing the needles, and make sure you align them before you put it back together :)

The simplest way is just to do the dial with the converted kph decal though.
 
#31 ·
Good point. I haven't even thought about that.
We'll see how accurate the km/h dial will be.
They might have just used the out of whack mph one and converted it...:shrug:

I'll definitely keep you updated.
 
#44 ·
I did the installation yesterday along with a friend who works at a garage (he designs and installs custom bodywork for cars).

It took us about 2 hours total to get it done. I had some diagrams for how to remove the cowling, but it must be for a different year of Elise, as there were different screws in different places. The top of the cowling is held on at the rear with velcro, and then it mounts with clips to the dash (no screws involved).

So the majority of time was figuring that part out -- how to disassemble it without breaking it.

The gauge face is OK. It required some minor trimming to fit in. It doesn't include the red shift light "hole", but that light is bright enough to shine through quite well anyway. The warning indicator lights are all correct (some with slightly different icons) except where mine used to have the "low tire pressure" light (not sure if it even works), it has instead the "traction control" symbol. Mine is a 2005 so I think it doesn't have that option anyway.

The problem I'm facing now is the needles are a bit off. When I turn the car on, they sit a bit below the 0 mark, and it means my readings are off. For example, if the car is idling (which I believe should be around 1,000 rpm), the needle sits on 500 rpm.

We tried a few different things, like repositioning the needle, even while the car was on, but it still wants to be off by a bit. I'm not sure if it means the 0-mark on the new face is a bit off from the old face or not, or something else.

I think it will still be good enough to pass inspection, as they won't look too closely I hope. I didn't have enough time once we finished last night (at 11:50pm) to test it out more closely, as I had to get it home (my temporary insurance expired at midnight). In particular I want to see if the shift light is accurate in terms of when it comes on. As we were testing, it came on around 5k (the engine was cold) but maybe that's normal with a cold engine (I don't really rev up my car when the engine is cold, which is why I don't know the normal behaviour).

The question is what I should do in the long-term. I don't mind having my speed be inaccurate (I use my TomTom most of the time so that has my speed), but I do want the RPM to be accurate. I will take a closer look at the original face to see if the issue is that the 0-mark starts at a slightly lower level. If so, I guess I could get a new face manufactured, or just put in the old MPH version.

Please let me know how your installation goes. I do have a few photos, but they were taken with my friend's camera so I'll need to wait for him to download them and send them to me.
 
#46 ·
It doesn't include the red shift light "hole", but that light is bright enough to shine through quite well anyway.
That is strange because the sketch I posted on page one had it included...:shrug:

The warning indicator lights are all correct (some with slightly different icons) except where mine used to have the "low tire pressure" light (not sure if it even works), it has instead the "traction control" symbol. Mine is a 2005 so I think it doesn't have that option anyway.
My car has traction control. That's why I had them place the symbols the same way I have them on my original dial.
What surprises me is that your '05 car has a tire pressure warning light :huh:
I was under the impression that these weren't implemented on US spec cars until 2008, and the 2008 cluster is completely different...

The problem I'm facing now is the needles are a bit off. When I turn the car on, they sit a bit below the 0 mark, and it means my readings are off. For example, if the car is idling (which I believe should be around 1,000 rpm), the needle sits on 500 rpm.
I compared the two images I have from the original and the new dial, and to me it looks like the rpm marks are in the same spot on both.
I'll check when I install mine....
 
#45 ·
sounds like either the needles are off physically or the gauge is, you ought to be able to move them to the new zero position by removing the needles and repositioning them, also you could try the door open cluster reset thing in the manual, but i doubt that'll work.

idle ought to be around 880-900 rpm
 
#47 ·
We tried the repositioning option twice and no avail. We even did it while the car was on and set it, but then after restarting the car, they found a new 0 position.

It could be we didn't do it quite correctly -- it was late in the evening and we were tired.

I'll wait for Mr. C's report on if he has the same issue (in which case it may be the faces). If he doesn't then I'll embark again on tearing out the cluster and trying the needle repositioning again.
 
#51 ·
I wonder how open they are to making the speedo marks custom for each order. Because this could be a very easy way to fix the variations in all our speedometers. I have heard of some people that while am driving at 70 mph their speedo says 79 or so. I think $100 would be a very reasonable price to pay for an overlay that had markings that accurately represented the actual speed.
 
#53 ·
I'm not sure if this works, but during the installation of the needles I had the idea that it might be possible to just reorient them a little bit to correct that deviation.
But this would only work if the deviation is constant and not a percentage of the speed...
 
#52 ·
I finally found some time to install my new dial last night.
Getting the binnacle off was the most difficult part since I was a little worried that it might break. Those clips that hold it to the dash structure require quite some force to get them out...
Overall it took me about two hours to do the installation.

The new dial required some trimming, but some good scissors did the trick.

As mentioned before the new dial doesn't have a cut-out for the shift light.
But that LED is bright enough to shine thru nicely.

Here is a picture of the dial installed:

Vehicle Gauge Car Speedometer Auto part


I haven't had a chance to drive the car yet, so I don't know how accurate the new dial is. It's 32 degrees and raining here at the moment...

Overall I'm very happy with the result :up:
 
#54 ·
Ah great. I was waiting to see what happened with this... Looks very nice indeed. :)

Still got some of those black anodized brackets left? Brought em over to Germany, did you? Sign me up for one.

I'm just due north, residing in Oslo. :)
 
#55 ·
Ha, yes, it took me a while to finally find the time and do the install...

I will pack whatever brackets are left in my container and ship them over to Europe. Unfortunately radar detectors are illegal in Germany, so I will have to find a way to cover mine up a bit so it's not too obvious...;)
 
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