Dash lighting

General information about the first-generation Nissan Maxima in the US. What was the Datsun 810 became the luxury leader Maxima in the US in 1981.

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rlaggren
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Dash lighting

#1

Post by rlaggren »

kassim503 wrote:With the lights on, is the needle lighting up? The needles light up using a series of clear plastic pieces that go from bulbs right next to the needle.
Ah. Don't understand the configuration you describe but no, the needles most certainly don't light up. If there's something that makes that happen, then there's the fix. But it may be a while b4 I try to dismantle the dash; usually that takes lots of time and patience.

Thanks.

Rufus
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kassim503
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Location: Stony Brook, NY

#2

Post by kassim503 »

I dont have my digital camera with me, and I wont be able to get at it until dec the 18th- I do have a disposable kind, but I need to keep that around until my car rolls 200k over (these things aint cheap, so they arent really expendable for me).

Have you driven any GM cars from the 80's? The needles dont light up, they just have backlighting from a bulb, if I remember correctly.

Lighted needle

[2nd URL deleted by Admin: pls recheck your URL. This one was dangerous.]

It lights the needles using a form of ??optical wires?? I have a blank right now, but its like those toys from disneyland, its got little plastic wires and it transmits light from one end to the other, except instead of little plastic wires, it uses a brick of plexiglass.
'83 maxima sedan, l24e, a/t, black

227K SOLD 6/7/2012
rlaggren
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Location: San Francisco

#3

Post by rlaggren »

Well, the link showed a nice visible needle - not the way mine looks at all. So you are saying that the maximas' gauge needles light up like that (when they're working)?

If so, it looks like I need to get into the gauge and replace, connect or otherwise activate the light on the needles. Neither the gas, coolant temp nor the speedo are visible at night and it's a bit of a bother.

Rufus
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asavage
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#4

Post by asavage »

Not a very good picture (my $200 camera is limited in what it will do automatically), but I posted a pic of some of my instrument cluster at night in this posting. The pic shows green on the needles which is not visible to the eye, only to the camera. However, they are well-lit. The odometer digits is an exception: they are hard to read at night.
Regards,
Al S.

1982 Maxima diesel wagon, 2nd & 4th owner, 165k miles, rusty & burgundy/grey. Purchased 1996, SOLD 16Feb10
1983 Maxima diesel wagon, 199k miles, rusty, light yellow/light brown. SOLD 14Jul07
1981 720 SD22 (scrapped 04Sep07)
1983 Sentra CD17, 255k, bought 06Jul08, gave it away 22Jun10.
rlaggren
Posts: 541
Joined: 17 years ago
Location: San Francisco

#5

Post by rlaggren »

From your pic I'd have to disagree about the needes being well lit. I'd call that real poor. The odometers are definitely in the dark, but that's something that I've seen other places and can live with until I get really totally anal. Maybe I have low vision in the red spectrum, but those needles in my car are essentially invisible to me and I think from the pic that they are pretty much like yours. I can only see them in the magnified large picture and really can't see them at all in the inline pic - which pretty much is what I see (not) on my dash.

At some point I'll open the dash and see what lighting it has and maybe paint the end of the needles white or dayglow orange or something. It'd be worth the work to see the gauges at a glance at night.

Rufus
82 Maxima wagon
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kassim503
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#6

Post by kassim503 »

I think my needles are lit up decently, definitley nothing like the first link shown, but al's pic shows the needles a bit darker than usual, from my point of view.

How was the 2nd link dangerous? I dont think my computer spazzed out, but I cant really tell, vista seems to be always spazzing out.
'83 maxima sedan, l24e, a/t, black

227K SOLD 6/7/2012
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asavage
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#7

Post by asavage »

kassim503 wrote:How was the 2nd link dangerous?
If you went to the link, the picture it showed was not to do with gauges or illumination. It was a scary fake Windoze error msg JPEG. It's probably intended to prevent or discourage doing what you did: use some other site's image.
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kassim503
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#8

Post by kassim503 »

mhm yea, I should of tested the links before putting it out. Anyways, it was the blown up version of the first pic on this site. I tested it first!

Non-Lighted needles

Also, it is a great writeup on how to make select G or B body gauges a bit brighter, which may be helpful if you have one around, even though I think the lighting is perfectly adequate
'83 maxima sedan, l24e, a/t, black

227K SOLD 6/7/2012
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asavage
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#9

Post by asavage »

I paid attention tonight, and I suppose that the lighting of the needles could be considered lacking. Thing is, it's only lacking by modern standards. Yeah, new stuff has fluorescent needles, but old stuff doesn't (at least, I don't recall anything I've driven that's 25-yrs-old with glow-in-the-dark style fluorescence on the needles).

New pic, same cluster:

Image


Dark needles. But I seem to see them fine when driving.
Regards,
Al S.

1982 Maxima diesel wagon, 2nd & 4th owner, 165k miles, rusty & burgundy/grey. Purchased 1996, SOLD 16Feb10
1983 Maxima diesel wagon, 199k miles, rusty, light yellow/light brown. SOLD 14Jul07
1981 720 SD22 (scrapped 04Sep07)
1983 Sentra CD17, 255k, bought 06Jul08, gave it away 22Jun10.
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kassim503
Posts: 1027
Joined: 18 years ago
Location: Stony Brook, NY

#10

Post by kassim503 »

I think they are fine, but yes, compared to modern standards, its not up to par.

Well, really new modern standards, mabye like the newer VW's and other cars with bright needles

Al, is the pic really how your needles are lighted, mine are significantly brighter than that.
'83 maxima sedan, l24e, a/t, black

227K SOLD 6/7/2012
rlaggren
Posts: 541
Joined: 17 years ago
Location: San Francisco

#11

Post by rlaggren »

Guess it's my eyes...

Anyway, when time lies heavy I'll go for an upgrade. Anybody have suggestions on possible type of paint to add to the needles? I'm sure there's some stuff out there that really reflects a lot. Maybe with some UV light... <g>

Rufus
82 Maxima wagon
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