Anyone ever seen this? The gauges on my 997S are developing bubbles. Definitely worse when the weather warms up, but don't ever really go away. Is it possible to replace only the gauge faces? $2500 for a new cluster is overkill; everything works fine (no dead pixels, no scratches, just bubbles). Suggestions?

 

Are the bubbles on the outside or on the inside of gauge face? If they are on the outside they might be caused by overspray of a detail product used on your dash. I had a similar problem with my car from the previous owner who must have used a product that attacked the plastic gauge faces. I found a detail guy who was able to fix the gauge faces.

Good luck!

 

FVD has a variety of gauge faces in various colors.
http://www.fvd.us/us/en/Porsche-0/99...uge_Faces.html

 

GEO356, the white gauge faces actually appear to be a decal that is placed right on the gauge face. So I guess in answer to your question, the bubbles are on the actual gauge faces themselves under the decals, not on the glass (plastic) that sits over each gauge.

 

Warranty? that would drive me crazy.
$2500 bucks? I would spend more time looking out the windshield.

 

No warranty. And yes, I've tried to ignore it for a while now, but it is driving me nuts. But not $2500 worth. Must be a cheaper solution.

 

maybe just pop the bubble with a needle and flatten it out =)

 

You could DIY it but there is risk of either damaging the needles or upsetting the needle calibrations in the process. I had my cluster mostly apart to see about painting the volcano grey top piece. Replacing the gauge faces is doable for the adventurous. Me, I gave up for fear if making a mistake that would be too costly to fix.

Go with FVD. Here's an opportunity to change colors if you want. Or ask if they have leftover OEM ones from other customers that did a color change. Either way the process is fairly easy - pull your cluster, ship to them, swap/upgrade performed, ship back, reinstall. You shouldn't be down for more than a few days.

 

"Driving me nuts."
Were all crazy. Needed to put a new sticker on my plate. Took me an hour. Screws stripped and broke the black plastic plate. Re Drill, plug and glue the silly plate holder.And of course clean under the plate, clean the plate, wax the inside of the plate cover.
Did you know there is a tow hook screw access hole in there?

 

+1... have FVD swap the faces for you. Or DIY using the FVD gauges. They make really nice gauges. I have a set of FVD guards red instrumentation gauges which I still need to install. FWIW, here's a DIY and pics of the chrono face gauge that I installed with their deviated guards red chrono face. https://rennlist.com/forums/997-foru...ace-gauge.html BTW, those bubbled sticker cluster gauges look like the type offered on ebay when I was looking for some gauge faces last year... the characters are rough in appearance. They were fairly inexpensive but I'm glad I ponied up for the FVD gauges instead. No issues so far with my FVD chrono gauge.

 

Mine didn't bubble like that, but I had the Carrera white gauges and the numbers became blurred. Looks like some of your numbers are doing the same. I just replaced the complete instrument cluster with a used one from ebay, which was half the price of having FVD replace them.

 

PhilD - did your mileage change with the cluster swap? Backup/swap/restore with PIWIS or Durametric Pro? I had considered a cluster swap at one point and never found an answer to the mileage question.

 

Mileage changed to the new cluster mileage as it is stored in the cluster. I documented it and took photos of original and replacement clusters. I programmed the new cluster with Durametric Pro. The backup/restore feature does not work correctly with Durametric, so I just screen grabbed all the original settings and programmed them to the new cluster.

 

Are you sure this isn't just protective film that was never taken off after manufacture?

 

Wow. Really interesting. If I magnify the picture, it looks like the background is cross-hatched silver with black letters and numbers, and then a white layer placed (poorly) over the top. Over many of the numbers, the white does not line up well with the numbers revealing the silver background and odd looking numbers. For example zoom in on the 2 or the 4 of the attached picture. Also looks like the white "mask" forms the turn signals, etc. anyone know what's going on here? I think I've seen silver faces instead of white on later models. Anyone else have white faces, or are they all silver and as 997_rich suggests, mine just has the factory film still applied?