MTM

Last week the odometer on my S2 stopped working again for the 10 million-bajillionth time, so I had to take the gauge cluster out once again to fix it. As usual, I took it all apart and nothing was wrong. I spun the gears manually just to make sure nothing had seized up. Then I put it back together, reinstalled it, and it magically works again now. Go figure.

But while I had everything apart, I decided it would be a good time to properly follow the tutorial on Clark's Garage explaining how to fix up the reflective surfaces for the 3 lights. Previously I had just sprayed some grayish (not really silver) paint on top of the old factory paint that had been flaking off, and I was not impressed with the results. The lights did not seem any brighter than before. For the record, here’s how it looked with the factory paint:


And here’s how it looked with my gray paint:


So, following the tutorial, I used some non-acetone solvent to remove all the paint. Once this was done, I decided to plug it in the car just to see if any light would get through to the gauge faces at all. To my surprise, it looked exactly the same with nothing at all as it did with my gray paint!

In order to verify this discovery, I took two pictures with my camera, using the same settings for each shot (F8.0, 15 sec, ISO 50). This first picture was taken with no reflective surfaces at all:


And this one was taken with aluminum foil taped over the 3 plastic pieces:


If you save the 2 images to your hard drive and flip back & forth between them in an image-viewing program, it’s quite apparent that the gauges are exactly the same brightness.

Later, I replaced the aluminum foil with some actual tape that’s made out of aluminum, as seen here:


I didn’t take a picture of the lit gauges with this setup, but I’m pretty sure it is no brighter than the others.

From this, I have come to the conclusion that the three plastic pieces are actually designed to reflect most of the light internally, sort of like how fiber-optic cables work. But if this is the case, why would the factory go to the trouble of painting them silver in the first place?

On a side note, I have also learned that starting the engine without having the gauge cluster fully connected breaks the airbag system. Now the airbag & seatbelt warning lights are always on, and apparently I have to to take it to the dealer just to get it reset.

TRWright

I just saw an ebay auction that sells a blue or red LED kit to convert the 944/968 cluster over. I am skeptical, but want to try it. It was over $100 though, and I have a hard time seeing how it is worth that.

MichelleJD

Is that the guy in the UK? Do a search on him. There are a couple of writeups about it.

hosrom_951

You can get some 3w LED bulbs that drop in the stock bulb sockets, they come in red, blue, green, white and yellow(?).

apierce918

i have seen other before and after pics though and there was a significant difference. is the shiny side facing the right way to reflect? (may sound dumb but you never know)

streckfu's

I used heavy duty aluminum foil shiny side in and it was a huge difference. I tried using a paint the first time and it didn't work at all.

Cyrus951

I too have learned this the hard way. Resetting it via the molex connector under the passenger side dash does not work. Does anyone know exactly what causes these lights to stay on permanently?

BeerBurner

Ditto, except I just used regular aluminum foil. At the risk of getting pummelled for the obvious pun, the difference was night and day!

BB.

IceShark

As far as I can tell it is cutting power improperly. Leave your key in the ignition switch turned on and pull the battery cables off and on goes the warning light. I'm sure there are other ways to set it off.

The Molex 3 pin connector reset trick should work. I believe it is only the 968s that need the hammer tool to reset the airbag light.

Reset with the 944 can be frustrating. You need a very good ground, I use the battery post, and better have the 5 second timing down exact. Remember these crazy Germans designed it and 4 or 6 second intervals won't cut it. You need to be spot on.

As far as the LED dash kits the guy that was doing them was flamingeye in the UK. You can find him here http://www.porscheclubgbforum.com/tt.asp?forumid=15 though you will have to sign up to even view the fourms. Who knows what his kit costs now as the pound has been pretty strong against the USD. But it has been reported that it is pretty first class.

Perry951 was also doing the LED dash light upgrade for people but I think he gave up on it for good.

Another trick is to glue a potato chip foil bag in as a reflective surface. It is a pretty darn good reflector and cheap.

Jfrahm

1991 cars also need the hammer tool to reset the airbag light, but an 89 should be OK with the procedure. Make sure you are doing it correctly, timing is important and your ground must be good.
It took me a couple of tries.

You might also have a bad clockspring connection in the column or some other wiring issue... but don't those cause a blink code? I have an airbag module if it turns out yours is bad.

-Joel.

Cyrus951

It does give me a blink code when I try and reset it.
Believe me, I've resetted this thing in the past, this procedure will not get rid of it.
I must have tried at least twenty times, with two people, and a stopwatch, but it won't reset. It does give me a blink code, though. Know anywhere I can decode it?

MTM

Well my aluminum foil looks shiny on both sides. Neither side looks like a perfect mirror though. I also have some silver mylar sheet that I was thinking about trying, because that stuff gives a perfect reflection. But after these results, I'm thinking it'll just be a waste of time.

gilwong

I used the aluminum foil and it worked great. As two of the posters mentioned, the shiny side of the foil should face inwards (i.e. you should only see the flat non shiny side when the foil is attached). Looks like you may have that reversed.

MTM

I do have a set of those, which I had been using for several months. The LEDs are really nice and bright, and they produce almost zero heat. The only downside is that they are much more focused than the lightbulbs, so it's not easy to get a nice spread that covers all of the gauges. Right now I'm using some Silvania #194 bulbs (3.78 watt), which are a huge improvement over the stock 2 watt bulbs. I'd say they are almost as bright as the LEDs, but it is hard to compare because the light is much more spread out and it is not exactly the same color.

IceShark

Matt, keep close watch on those 3.78 watt bulbs. Some people have tried 5 watt and melted the plastic surrounds. And since you have my headlight kit you have pretty good voltage in the car so those babies are probably going to burn hotter than the run of the mill 944.

LEDs have a very narrow beam angle. Some are a little wider than others but the narrow beam is why LEDs don't work very well when trying to retrofit them into filament designed lenses. You can see them fine when directly inline but get off to the side a bit and you may not even know they are on. When the American lawyers get wind of this the retrofit LED bulb sellers are going to get their pants sued off on accidents.