I am guessing that the gauge faces are after market and applied over the stock faces. What is the red light on the cluster wall, between the 1 and 2? Radar detector indicator, maybe?

 

IT looks like someone was inside your cluster. Am assuming you are not the first owner?

Perhaps an aftermarket device installer was asked to change the gauge face color to white and didn't do a stellar job aligning and flattening out the decal.

I've never seen anything like that on my Carrera S with the factory white gauge faces.

 

No, not the first owner, but it is a genuine Carrera S which came with white gauge faces, I think. Can someone out there confirm that a 2005 997.1S comes standard with white (not silver) gauge faces? At one point, I bought a replacement cluster on eBay from a 2006 Carrera S. Gauge faces were actually silver, not white (I returned the cluster because it had some dead pixels). If its as simple as peeling off some aftermarket overlay to reveal the stock gauge face, then that's an option, I guess.

And yes, the red light is the radar detector indicator, so cluster has been modified at least once.

 

Looks like the decal wasn't squeegeed well during application so the air bubble will expand with heat.
You don't necessarily have to replace them.
Although it involves removal, you may just have to "*****" with a pin and squeeze out the air.
Worth a try and cheaper than replacing the faces.

 

Silver was standard on the S I believe, although I am not sure on the 2005 as it was the first year of the 997 and they did a few things differently on 05s.

I had white faces, the vehicle came with them, option XFJ - Instrument dials in Carrera White. Mine definitely did not have a protective coating/film on them and no stickers/decals/overlays were used, but the digits and marks became blurred and looked like crap.

 

The standard gauge faces were silver. White was an option, but you had to pay for it. Looks like someone went the cheap route and just applied a decal to the OEM silver gauges.

 

Just for reference, this is what happened to mine.

 

I have a similar issue, I wanted to buy a used cluster online and install it maybe a red or yellow, and the dealer told me they could NOT do it. That the cluster is married to the ECM. I found that strange...

The only want me to buy new. Imagine that!

 

PhilD, your letters and numbers look exactly like mine: blurred and/or displaced. Also, looks like you have a small bubble by the 100 (90 mph hash mark) on the speedo. What year was your car? Makes me think that this is how the Porsche factory offered white gauges, and is not the result of a poor aftermarket installation. Amazing what little attention (i.e., they cheaped out) Porsche paid to "cosmetics" like speedometers and sound systems, even in a car that stickers for almost $100k. I too have been looking for a replacement cluster on eBay but just haven't found one yet. There's one out there now, but the speedo is in kph. Frankly I never look at the analog speedo and rely solely on the digital readout which I understand is selectable between mph and kph. Maybe I'll opt for the Euro look . . .

 

Yes, I never noticed it until I took the photo.

2005

Could well be. I can't tell from your photos but my gauge faces are a matte finish. Yours kind of look gloss, but that could be from the clear lens over them.

They seem to come along quite often, just wait until you see one at the right price. There is also someone selling the dial faces for $150.00

http://www.ebay.com/itm/Porsche-911-...dd9bc6&vxp=mtr

 

Just had a quick search on ebay and found this black cluster;

http://www.ebay.com/itm/05-Carrera-9...390368&vxp=mtr

 

Yep, any number of faces out there ranging in price from $139 to almost $800. Installation is the trick, although FVD advertises installation for $300 (http://www.fvd.us/us/en/Porsche-0/99...uge_Faces.html). Anyone out there know anything about these gauge faces: http://www.ebay.com/itm/Porsche-997-...1912646&rt=nc? Seem like a bargain (compared to almost $800 from FVD), and that makes me wonder.

 

I've seen a website selling those somewhere also. Clearly aftermarket and the HEIZ logo on them would put me off, but you do get a choice of colors. I agree that $800 from FVD is crazy.

 

I have optional white gauges on my 2012 GTS. I have had the car for 3 years now and my gauges look perfect, just as they did when new. I do not think my white gauges are a decal type. I went out and looked at mine very closely and I see no signs of any defects in mine at all. I know Porsche charges crazy prices for options, but I don't think they would charge about $800 for optional gauges if all they did was place a decal over the standard ones. Who knows, maybe Porsche did use a decal on early models and had problems and went to a different method in later years like mine.

If that was the way Porsche had the gauges built, why wouldn't they just put a decal on a "blank" gauge, to give whatever color they wanted?

 

The Suncoast VIN decoder service (http://www.suncoastparts.com/product...newproductpage) can provide you with the detailed build sheet for your car. I'm pretty sure it includes which gauge face color the car came with. It is only $10.

That was show I discovered my car had Silver gauge faces rather than the white I had assumed they were.