In my never ending quest to add something new and exciting to my egg, my main focus this year is the little details that help to individualize my xA and set it apart from the others. The latest item is the AC Autotechnic S7 gauge overlays to help accent the blue colorscheme of my interior lighting.

This little how to will give you a good idea at what is involved in installing the overlay into your insturment cluster. While my instructions are slated more toward the Scion xA theses same techniques can be used for the Scion xB crew. :D

Lets get started.....

WARNING: Keep one thing in mind, you are doing these mods on your own free will. This is written as a guide to assist you in doing this mod yourself. If you muck something up, it's your own fault, not mine. So no finger pointing.

Tools Required
- #2 Philips head Screw Driver (two needed, one small and one medium length)
- Wire strippers
- Dinner fork ( dont give me any funny looks, I'll explain later )
- Crimp-on wire taps ( two will be sufficiant )
- Small precicion screwdriver
- Needle nose pliers
- A clear work surface

Modification Time: Approx. 1-2 hours, depending on your work speed.


Once you have gathered all of your nessecary tools, inventory the parts to your S7 gauge overlays. Once you have verified all of your parts are present and in-tact, begin by removing the insturment cluster from your vehicle.



The insturment cluster in the xA is quite easy to remove. The trim ring is held in with two plastic screw clips on the underside of the trim ring. remove the clips and carefully pull the trim ring free to expose the insturment cluster. The cluster is held in with three phillips head screws. Remove them and set them aside. Pull the insturment cluster out of the dash and unplug the two harness clips and you are done!





The xB crew can find instructions for removing your cluster here: xB Cluster Removal

The next step is disassembling the cluster. Make sure your cluster is warm when you take it apart. This gives you less chances of breaking anything. The clear plastic cover is held in with a few clips on the edge of the cluster. Pop them free and set the cover aside. Next, the outer black trim ring comes off the same way, remove that and set it aside. Now that your needles are exposed be cautious of your handling on the cluster.





The next step is to remove the odometer pin. Remove the white back plate on the cluster and set that aside. You will notice the control mechanism on the back of the circuit board for the odometer. The pin is held into place by a very tiny metal clip. Use your Needle nose pliers to slip this clip off and remove the odometer pin. Put the pin and the clip in a safe place. You are now ready to install the overlays.







The needles for the cluster are quite an interesting design. They are basically just the needle which is held on to a frame. This frame is then connected to the drives for the needles. The best thing is the needle itself pops off leaving the frame attached to the pin. This saves a TON of time and frustration of removing the entire needle and frame from the drives and the recalibrating them. You can pop the actual needle off by using the precision screwdriver. Also AC Autotechnic made the overlays to the hole in the middle is larger so you can slip the overlay over the needle. So you don't have to remove the needles to do this mod. Pretty cool!

Remove the protective plastic from each overlay.



Locate the appropriate adhesive strip for you tach overlay and separate only ONE side of the tape backing and adhear it to the stock gauge face.



Slide your gauge face into place. If you have left your needles on bend the overlay slightly so you can slide it under the needle and and drop it down into place. This is more of a feel exercise if you haven't removed the needles. Once you are satisfied with the placement and fit remove the other side of the tape and put your tach overlay in place and make sure it gets proper adhesion.





Next test fit your S7 number plate. Your tach needle may not clear the plate do to the thickness of it. Time for the special tool. The fork!! The fork assists in lifting the need off the drive mechanism.


Slide the fork under the needle. Put your finger on the center of the needle and apply some pressure. Use the fork as a lever to pop the needle free from the friction fit on the drive mechanism. The needle is still attached to the drives but you can now adjust it's height to allow for clearance of the plates. You will need to do this for all the needles.





Remove the adhesive backing from the number plate. Looking at the overlay you will notice two half moons. These are there to assist you in lining the plate up with the overlay. Carefully line the plate up to the "moons" and make sure they everything is even and press the plate into place. You will really only get one chance at lining the plates up correctly so take your time.





You have now completed the Tachometer Overlay!

Use these same techniques to do the speedometer. Keep in mind that you need to put the aluminum finish piece in first before you put the overlay into place on the speedometer.



You will need to trim your adhesive tape for fitment as well.







Once you have everything installed, check for needle clearances and adjust accordingly. Next thing I did was to use a hair dryer on low speed to warm up the overlays. This activated the adhesives in the tapes and made them stick without any issues. This is an extra step but it will help in the long run.

Re-assemble your gauge cluster in the same manner you took it apart and don't forget the odometer pin. You may need to trim some of the matierial on the black plastic of the cluster so the wires on the overlay fit properly when assembled.


The final step is wiring the inverter into the car. I used a wire tap and tapped the red wire from the inverter into the solid green wire of my HVAC harness. This is a switched ( comes on with the lights ) non dimmable 12V source. For the black ground wire I removed one of the dashboard frame nuts, stripped off about an inch of insulation, and wrapped the wire around the bolt and re-installed the nut. You may need to find another grounding point if you are installing into an xB.





Find a suitable place to locate the included control pad. On non traction-controlled xA's there is a blank plate on the dashboard to the right and under the steering wheel. I attached my control pad there. Re-install your insturment cluster and make sure you plug the overlay(s) into your inverter harness. Finish up by replacing any removed panels and by cleaning up your mess.

The end result is a nice, clean looking install and is quite modern in appearance during the day time.



At night this overlay really pays off. Now its a work of art. My camera is in night mode with an automatic over exposure so they are not this intense in brightness. The control pad you installed has two buttons. One to adjust color settings, and the other to adjust the brightness.




And finally, my current interior with blue accent lighting, blue HVAC controls, and blue "oven" lights. The rear defroster light has been changed to red and the A/C light is bright blue.



My only complaint on the S7 overlays is that the exposed indicators in the tach section look a little wierd but they grow on you after only a few minutes and you will not be bothered by them. The fitment and precisicion of the markings is excellent and assembly was quite easy.

Thanks for reading. If you have any questions or comments, don't heistate to say something.

 

This post totally kicks a$$. Excellent instructions and the results speak for themselves - awesome. I know I could do a search, but I'll ask you directly: where did you purchase the gauges? Thanks in advance.

dd sends...

 

Nice write up

-THE DON

 

Ver y nice!!!

 

I purchased my overlays from Ebay. The seller has an Ebay store, search for Performance-R. I picked these up for 77.00 shipped!


Thanks for the comments guys. :D

 

Your post and picturs kick major ___! Great job! I am all over this like white on rice!


John

 

That night pic is awesome. It reminds me of carnival lighting. I love all of the different colors. They look very bright and very sharp. Nice mod.

 

and thanks for the info! i'm jumping on eBay right now!

 

anyone remember the links to changing the odometer light color?

 

Check out the FAQ forum, there are a bunch of threads in there that explain the process of changing the colors of just about every interiror component.

 

Very nice write-up. Will make use of information at a later date. Thanks

 

x 1 billion


You have no idea howlong I've been waiting for someone to do a write up I've had my gauges for sooooo long with no clue as to where to begin bless your soul man! A thousand thank yous I'm going to give it a shot.

-Daniel

 

Nice write up, I sent a msg to the Super-mods to add to the tech section.

 

I'm not seeing it in either the FAQs or the tech section, do you have a direct link?

I also don't know exactly what it is called, perhaps i could find it in a search better, but i'm not seeing the "ODO light mod"?! ;)

 

Here are a few you can read through:

Gauge/Dash LED Color Change

Gauge Lighting Color Change

 

I read both of those, i don't see the xA ODO on there them though :?

 

The odometer is essentially illuminated in the same manner that all of the Scion instrument clusters are, by the use of very small LED's. Ther are three or four LED's that would need to be changed out on the PC boards in order to correctly change the color of the odometer.

The two articles I posted show different ways of changing the cluster illumination. While the applications may be different, the parts and procedures for changing out the LED's are the same.

 

When you had the cluster out, did you have a good look at the PCB?! I was wondering if the SMD's can be accessed directly from the PCB shown in the picture above. It would be even better if the clock LED's were accessible from there as well...

Anywho, do you remember seeing LED's on the PCB?!
-- gg

 

The PCB was surrounded by the white plastic frame. Since I didn't remove the needles and disassemble the cluster I persinally did not see the LED's on the PDB but I know they are there.

 

I agree! TECH!

one minor thing i'd like to add is that when removing the needles, all that is needed is consistent, steady pressure. I did it with my fingers quite sucessfully.