I create this post to document my failed journey on changing the stock gauges so that my fellow C5 owners that are constantly trying to one-up the factory engineers for any number of reasons. Let my failure be a lesson. You always see folks on here showing their successes...today is a story of when things don't quire work out and you've only got yourself to blame for the mess you've created. LOL


I first started down this path by adding the silver gauge bezels. I had to replace a couple of the A/C vents anyways, so while the dash was out, the gauge cluster was easy enough to do.

These were the kind held on by double-stick tape, not glue. They didn't have the exact arch/diameter of the gauges in the dash, so I made it work by lightly putting pressure to make the arch wider. Everything looked fine when I went to put the cluster back in the car.


Fast forward a few months, and the tach bezel has begun to creep into the needle sweep. Luckily it was above 6500 rpm, so it didn't pose any functionality issues. It just looked silly... Secondly, the "purple space dash" effect (shown below) was also an annoying and was an unexpected side effect. But, everything was still together and functioning and I could deal with it for the time being.


When I finally got tired of the gauge bezel hanging down into the tach area, I took it all back out of the car and decided to remove the tape off the back of the tach ring and super glue it down. Here is where everything started going off the rails. Instead of taking the black trim hood off of the front of the gauges, I attempted to put it on while still attached. I managed to get some of the double stick tape residue on the gauge face, then compounded the issue by getting a little bit of super glue on the tach face as well...yeah. Go me! The super glue wouldn't hold so I used some 3M emblem double-stick tape and cut it into strips and got the tach bezel back on pretty straight. Still kinda bummed out about the residue on the tach.

I got the car back together for now so I could get the car to the dyno for its final tune session and not worry about the needle potentially hitting the bezel while the tune was working on it.


With the tune locked in, I started going through all the different threads about gauge faces on C5's. With few of the links actually working anymore and confidence that I gained from already having the cluster apart multiple times already, I got on our favorite auction site and ordered a set of the black faced gauges that looked stock-ish and supposedly had the numbers light up white (not blue, or green or any other color...more on that later).

When those came in, looking over the "detailed instructions" it told me to remove the dash, put the faces on, and wire for power. Super-detailed, right? Either way, I figured out what I needed to do, so I got to work. The replacement faces, I believe, were meant to be overlays, and did not require the removal of the original faces. I should have only done that....

The stock gauges have indexing cutouts that line up with bumps on the backing plate to ensure they are lined up correctly. The bumps did not protrude enough to catch on the new EL faces, so I did the most regrettable mistake of this entire writeup....I removed the needles and peeled off the stock gauge faces. Whatever you do, don't do this!!! You'll never get the needles back on exactly right again...or at least I wasn't able to. They're close, but my speedometer is off a good 5mph high and my tach is also about 300 rpm high. Oil pressure doesn't go all the way to zero, nor does the temp. Another thing you have to do is figure out how to get the wires for each gauge outside of the gauge cluster to hook up to the transformer and color modulator. This required making slots in the gauge cluster where the black hood clips onto the white base. No bother, a dremel tool and a cutoff wheel made quick work of that.


Here's the weird purple spaceship glow from the oem blacklight on the bezel rings with the new gauges. The new gauge faces have a red line on the inner part of the ring. It's okay,


The unexpected side effect of removing the stock faces, other than the perils of the needle removal, is the fact that the stock gauges have the colored filters on the back of them for the warning lights, and MPH/KPH indicators. Everything is now "incandescent white". Brake warning, CHECK GAUGES, everything. Secondly, the gauges are selectable from blue to green Pictured below is the blue selection. I wasn't very happy that it was blue or green and not white like advertised in the ad.

With the assembly back together, it was time for test fitting. I left the clear lens off for the testing in case I had to manually manipulate the needles to get them back into place. That took some time and I thought I got them close enough...but I didn't. Dejected, I put everything back together and started thinking about my options.



That thinking led to an instrument cluster from a Z06 is in the mail and I will absolutely leave it along once I get the DIC board swapped over. My new redline is 6600 rpm after the heads and cam, and I like the checkered pattern and italics font on the Z06 gauges. The car also has basically everything from a Z06 except the transmission (243 heads, front screens, rear brake ducts, springs, sway bars, wheels) so it's essentially a targa-top Z06 anyways.

Long story short...I have failed. I have essentially ruined a perfectly good set of gauges and if it wasn't for the fact that this is a 20 year old car with a lot of good salvage resources available, I would have been stuck with my mistake for a long time.


Learn from my mistakes kids.


PS. If anyone wants this gauge cluster for any reason, shoot me a PM. You're more than welcome to see if you can pick up where I left off and make it better. I'm just at the end of my rope with this little test.

 

Please tell me you didnt spend the like almost $500 for the white face gages on ebay.

 

Thankfully, the faces were only $30. The only “big ticket” item in this project other than time spent is the Z06 gauge cluster at around $200. The bezel rings were only $40-$50 if I remember correctly. So it’s pretty much a $300 lesson give or take.

 

Wow.. I actually bought a set of the EL gauges from Ebay at around $30 a few months ago. I was planning to put them in in a few days, but your post scares me now. LOL

Are you saying there's no way to slip these new overlays past the needles and on top of the OEM overlay ? That' show I did it on my 99 Camaro a while back and it worked out great.

 

Sorry for the confusion. Yes, you can absolutely get these around the needle and lay them on top of the existing gauge faces. The reason I took the original gauge faces off was because the little bumps that help to index the original faces doesn't extend far enough to "catch' the new gauges. Looking back, I would have left the original faces on, used some of the super-thin scotch double-stick tape, and put the new gauges over the old ones, lining them up with the bumps and then put the black hood back over it to keep everything in place.

Putting them on as an overlay to the stock gauges will keep the color filters for the warning lights, etc.

 

Okay. Well then maybe I can still attempt it. I would just have to be super careful to align them perfectly.