Non-Mycolor gauge options?

08blueskunk

New Member
May 8, 2008
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Maine
Does anyone know if there is a way to keep the white back lit gauges color instead of turning green, when you turn the lights on. I think the white color is more exotic than the standard Ford green gauges. Since i don't have the mycolor option.
 
I was thinking the same thing i like the white look way better than green, there are two ways to do it cut the wire that powers the green leds when u turn your headlights either going into the cluster or coming from the the headlight switch (i guess trial and error can find which one does it. Or you can take apart your cluster and remove the green leds, there is also a write up out there on replacing those green leds with the color of your choice just need some soldering skills im still debating on looking further into this "mod" because i hate taking instruement clusters apart its time consuming. Hope this helps:nice:
 
if you get one of those power test things looks like an ice pic that has a wire coming out the end that you clamp to steel. if you stick it in the wire itll light up if there is power going to that wire, which in turn if it lights up after you turn the drive lights on and its the power cable for the green leds it will light up and going off his idea then you would know before cutting any wires
 
that "thingy with the ice pick and clamp" i would use my multimeter instead.

Scenarios:
But if you simply cut the wire at the switch your headlights wont turn on and neither would the rest of your interior lighting (i.e. radio, heater, window switches etc)

...you would need to cut the wire that sends the signal to the cluster at the cluster.

Removing the Green LEDS wouldn't help because then it would just be dark. You would have to replace them with another color. And that is way beyond the effort for what i was trying to simply do...-OP just keep the white ones on

I bet there is an easier way. I will report back i need to make a call or 2.[/QUOTE]
 
Looking at the wiring diagrams (the sucky one that I have from the Haynes manual and the online FSM, which sucks because you can't save the PDFs to a file, and you can't print, rotate, or zoom) it looks like there is a red/yel wire going into the cluster that is labeled A/B LED. This wire is hot in RUN and START, so this is probably the feed for the LEDS. The problem is that from what I can see on all of the lighting diagrams, it looks like the actual switching of the LED color that occurs when you turn the lights on (presumably from the PARK light circuit) is communicated to the cluster through the CAN bus. It looks as if the park light signal is converted to CAN data in the low current board inside the smart junction box, and that signal is decoded within the cluster. If this is the case, then disabling the green LEDS would be very difficult without dissasembly and reverse engineering of the cluster itself.

Also, IMHO, I wouldn't go poking aroung the cluster wiring with a test light or a meter too much.....if you feed 12V or a ground directly into the CAN bus wires you'll be buying a new cluster and/orsmart junction box or ECU.